Leonardo DiCaprio starring in a violent western revenge movie directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu? Why, it's the stuff of cinematic dreams! Following on from the immense success of his superhero deconstruction flick Birdman, a movie currently poised as a potential Best Picture winner come Oscar time, Alejandro González Iñárritu has tasked himself with a picture concerning the real life story of Hugh Glass, a frontiersman who was abandoned by his companions in the wilderness and left for dead. If you've seen the 1971 flick Man in the Wilderness with Richard Harris, then you've seen this story tackled before. The combined talents of Leonardo DiCaprio and Alejandro González Iñárritu pretty much ensure that this movie is going to be something special, but throw in the likes of Tom Hardy, Domhnall Gleeson and Will Poulter, who will presumably play the men who betray Glass, and cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, the genius behind Gravity and Children of Men, and you've got yourself potential certified freshness of the highest order. If this flick can't garner 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, then what hope is there for the rest?
Sam Hill is an ardent cinephile and has been writing about film professionally since 2008. He harbours a particular fondness for western and sci-fi movies.
