I‘ve finally gotten round to watching the movie The Revenant by Alejandro G. Iñárritu, inspired by the life of frontiersman Hugh Glass, played by Leonardo Di Caprio. It is an epic exploration of humankind‘s relationship to nature in general and specifically in the context of the fur trade in North America in the 1820s.
Previously I was a bit scared to watch it because I knew it would be challenging and moving for me. And, indeed, it was.
In the film are some great breathing scenes: even before the title comes up, we hear Glass whispering in an American Indian language during a dream of his Pawnee wife and son and the destruction of their village by soldiers:
“It‘s ok, son.
I know you want this to be over.
I‘m right here.
I will be right here.
But, you don‘t give up.
You hear me?
As long as you can still grab a breath, you fight.
You breathe… keep breathing.”
Other examples of breathing scenes are the bear attack, where we hear the bear breathing (which I found out is actually a sound track from a horse breathing) whilst tearing Glass apart or when Di Caprio breathes directly onto the camera lens.
The film is about survival in its purest form and so it‘s fitting that breathing, next to the natural elements, takes centre stage.
At the end of the film Leonardo Di Caprio stares into the camera, and we don’t know where Glass is on the spectrum between life and death. The only sound we hear is the sound of his breathing.