The Revenant.

How much can one man take? Hugh Glass was a frontiersman, a mountain man who made his living as a fur trapper and trader. His main claim to fame, if the legend is to be believed, is that when on a fur-trading venture in 1823 he was attacked by a grizzly bear and so badly mauled he was expected to die. It was agreed that two trappers would be left behind to bury Glass when he passed away. Once the other hunters had left the two remaining men stole the unconscious mans weapons and other belongings and took off being feart of an Indian attack leaving him alone to die. Despite his extensive injuries that included festering wounds, a broken leg, and deep cuts that exposed his ribs he regained consciousness and found himself wrapped only in a bear hide that was meant to act as his shroud. After setting his own leg and allowing maggots to eat his dead and rotting flesh to stop the spread of gangrene he set out on a two hundred mile journey back to the nearest settlement. Living off the land, eating raw bison meat left after the beast was killed by wolves and with a wee bit of help from some friendly Indian's he was able to continue on this almost impossible journey.

Hugh Glass's story has been told in book form on many occasions and a feature film had been previously made entitled Man in the Wilderness in 1971 and starring Irish actor Richard Harris. This latest cinematic version of this story The Revenant (2015) is loosely based on a fictional retelling of the story in a 2002 novel by Michael Punke and directed by Mexican film director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu. Inarritu previous body of work has include such movie gems as Amores Perros (2000), 21 Grams (2003), Babel (2006), Biutiful (2010) and 2014's Birdman all of which have been well received by both critics and the viewing public.

 

Hugh Glass.

The 19th century period drama stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Glass, Tom Hardy as John Fitzgerald and Will Poulter as Jim Bridger the two men that abandoned Glass to die a lonely and painful death. Domhnall Gleason, who you may have previously seen in Shadow Dancer (2012) and Calvary (2014), stars as Andrew Henry part owner of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company and leader of the expedition that included Hugh Glass.

 

The beginning of the legend. 

There is no doubt that this movie is a very absorbing but brutal and at times disturbing watch. Emmanuel Lubezki's cinematography is superb as is the acting from all the cast with DiCaprio especially deserving his first Academy Award for Best Actor after three previous nominations, his performance brings the term 'suffering for your art' to a new level. The movie was nominated for twelve Academy Awards, as well as best actor it also won Best Director and Best Cinematography for Lubezki who had previously worked with the director on Birdman. I did read that some critiques said that the film was to long, but I did not find this to be the case instead I found it to be a very rewarding watch but certainly not for the faint hearted.

Legend.

Films like Performance (1968), The Long Good Friday (1980) owe a lot to the most famous of Britain’s home-grown criminals as does Legend (2015) which is based on the book The Profession of Violence: The Rise and Fall of the Kray Twins by John Pearson adapted for the big screen by its director American Brian Helgeland, best known as script writer on such films as L.A. Confidential (1997), Mystic River (2003), Green Zone (2010) and Robin Hood (2010).

 

Reggie and Ronnie Kray enjoying a 'nice cup of tea'.

This latest outing, as you may of guessed, is about Ronnie and Reggie Kray identical twin brothers that run organised crime in the East End of London during the 1950’s and 60’s. Unlike Peter Medak’s The Krays (1990) it does not take as its central theme Violent the twins mother but Reggie’s wife Frances’s who also narrates the film. The twins who called themselves The Firm were responsible for armed robberies, arson and protection rackets amongst other criminal activities. The movie not only demonstrates the violence involved with the Kray Empire but also how they became owners of West End nightclubs, which attracted celebrities and entertainers also allowing them to mix with prominent politicians alleged to include both Tom Driberg and Lord Boothby. Because of their connections they became celebrities themselves even being photographed by fashion photographer David Bailey. 

 

Reggie's marriage to Frances.

The rather slick and polished overview of London’s criminal world in the 1960’s is a triumph for British actor Tom Hardy who convincingly plays both of the brothers and whose performance stays in your mind long after the film is over. Emily Browning is Frances Kray, the wife of Reggie; Christopher Eccleston is Detective Superintendent ‘Nipper’ Reed the nemesis of the Kray twins. The Kray’s business manager is played by David Threwis and Peaky Blinders star Paul Anderson is convincing as Albert Donoghue Reggie’s minder as is Tara Fitzgerald who dressed in black to show her displeasure at her daughter marrying Reggie Kray.

 

Ronnie and friend with Lord Boothby.

Beneath the razzle dazzle and glamour of the Kray’s life style is the violence that betrayed people’s admiration of these charismatic criminals. This brutal era and the mid sixties detail is enthusiastically drawn out in this movie both by cinematographer Dick Pope who worked with Mike Leigh on many of his films and designer Tom Conroy. From the Bethnal Green terraces to the bright lights of London’s West End we are treated to the working class boys who ‘made good’ - and bad.  To a certain extent Helgeland’s feature film is a British gangster movie that stands out head and shoulders above other movies in this genre because of the acting talent of its lead star.  

The Last Journey

Child 44.

A grand cast doesn’t always equate to a grand film and one such case in point is Daniel Espinosa’s Child 44 (2015). Espinosa you may remember was the director behind the best of the Easy Money trilogy Snabba Cash (2010) and two of the stars from the trilogy appear in this latest movie, Joel Kinnaman plays Vasili Nikitin a middle-ranking officer in the Ministry of State Security (MGB) and Fares Fares who plays Alexi Andreyev. The main star and the films narrative backbone is the popular British actor Tom Hardy who plays Leo Demidov. As a child Demidov was orphaned during the Holodomor[1] in the Ukrainian SSR that took place in the 1930’s but manages to escape from the orphanage and is taken in by some kindly Soviet soldiers eventually becoming a war hero. After the war Leo Demidov becomes a MGB agent and uncovers a series of child murders but the MGB leadership refuse to except the death as murders because Soviet doctrine states that murder only occurs in capitalist country’s “There can be no murder in paradise” One of the dead children is the son of Leo’s best friend Alexi Andreyer and even he does not believe that his son has been murdered! The female lead in our story, which incidentally is based on a novel of the same name published in 2008, is another favourite of Movie Ramble Noomi Repace who plays Leo’s wife Raisa. When Raisa is accused of being disloyal to the state Leo refused to denounce her, both are sent to the town of Volsk and given demeaning jobs.  Both suspect that Vasili Nikitin is behind their downfall. Other well known and respected actors the calibre of Gary Oldman, Vincent Cassell, Paddy Considine, Charles dance and Tara Fitzgerald all have prominent roles in the movie.

 

Even a cast this good can't rescue this movie. 

But as I said at the beginning of this ramble a well known and respected cast does not always mean that what we are about to see is going to be something to rejoice over and I must say that this is true in the case of this movie. On the face of it this should have been an exciting mystery thriller but I’m afraid it’s completely lacking any real excitement, Its far to long, the story is made too complicated when there is no need to bogged down with unnecessary subplots.  The heavy “Russian” accents of the various actors force you to put on the subtitles to help understand what’s being said. Perhaps someone could explain to me why the story was not centred on the murder mystery, why the film was not made with East European actors with undertitles and why everything had to be so dark? The Ministry of Culture had the good sense to block the screening in Russia, as did other Eastern Block countries - but it was made available on DVD in these same countries even Russia has a bargain bin!

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[1] A man-made famine in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1932 and 1933 that killed an estimated 2.5–7.5 million Ukrainians, with millions more counted in demographic estimates. It was part of the wider disaster, the Soviet famine of 1932–33, which affected the major grain-producing areas of the country.

The Drop.

My second American crime drama of late reinforces my theory that a film with a decent well-written story, that’s well told and has a cast of actors that can depict a believable scenario cannot fail to entertain the viewer, be it at the cinema or on its DVD release. The film under discussion is The Drop released in the UK at the end of 2014 and sadly has the distinction of being James Gandolfini’s final appearance in a feature film, an actor that will be fondly remembered for his role of Tony Soprano in the award winning HBO series The Sopranos.

 

The film starsTom Hardy.....

Denis Lehane not only wrote the short story, Animal Rescue, upon which the film is based, but also wrote the movies screenplay. Boston born Lehane has already had three other stories successfully adapted for the screen, the Clint Eastwood helmed Mystic River (2003), Gone Baby Gone (2007) with Ben Affleck directing his brother Casey in a Kenzie and Gennaro mystery thriller and in 2010 Martin Scorsese directed Leonardo DiCaprio in the psychological thriller Shutter Island.  Lehane writing is always solid with some great characterizations and The Drop is no exception. Directed by Belgian born Michael R Roskam, who had only directed one feature film prior to this one, the well regarded and Academy Nominated Bullhead (2011) and starring as well as Gandolfini British actor Tom Hardy, Swedish actress Noomi Repace and star of Roskams debut film Matthias Schoenaerts.

 

....Noomi Repace ....

This gripping and absorbing thriller centres on the autistic Bob Saginowski (very convincingly acted by Hardy who seems to get better in every movie) who works at his cousin Marv’s (Gandolfini) Brooklyn Bar. The bar is no longer owned by Marv but by some unsavoury Chechens who use it as a drop/collection point for the mobs money. Marv wants retribution for loosing his bar and plans to rob the bar of its rich pickings on Super Bowl night. Going home from work late one night Bob discovers a brutalised abandoned Pit Bull puppy in his neighbour Nadia’s (Repace) dustbin, when Bob rescues this dog he could not realise what the implications would be, some of which involve Eric Deeds (Schoenaerts), an ex con who claims responsibility for a ten year old unsolved murder, Deeds also claims he is the true owner of the dog!

 

....and the late great James Gandolfini.