One picture still riding the crest of a wave of goodwill in the wake of last week’s Golden Globes ceremony is Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s The Revenant, which emerged as the big winner on the night after nabbing Best Director, Best Motion Picture and Best Performance By an Actor in a Motion Picture gong for Leonardo DiCaprio.
Much has been made about the prolonged and gruelling journey that resulted in the finished piece, though there’s no question that Iñárritu’s brutal, at-times-relentless survival tale is one for the ages for those stunning environmental shots alone.
And so, as New Regency and 20th Century Fox are beginning to turn their collective attention to next month’s Oscars ceremony, with today bringing forth a string of new videos for The Revenant that take you behind the scenes of the film’s stark rendition of the American frontier. From makeup to production design, the videos leave no stone unturned as they chronicle the story behind one Hugh Glass, and it’s a fascinating peek into a troubled, yet triumphant production.
From an interview conducted late last month, here’s what Alejandro G. Iñárritu has to say about how both he and cinematographer Emmanuel “Chivo” Lubezki captured the raw beauty of the frontier.
Yeah, I’m very proud of it. There’s absolutely nothing that I kept in my pockets — that’s all that I’ve got to give. It almost killed me, too.
I think it’s a very ambitious film. It was always conceived with high standards, and it was maybe a very crazy, irresponsible idea to have made. And I never expected it to be as challenging as it was in reality. But having survived it, maybe having died and been reborn many times during the shooting, I feel extraordinarily proud.
The Revenant is in theaters nationwide now, and remains one of the frontrunners going into next month’s Academy Awards.