STACK May 2016 Issue 139

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In the harsh frozen wilderness
of the Rocky Mountains, fur
trapper Hugh Glass (Leonardo
DiCaprio) is viciously mauled by
a bear and left in the company
of his half-Pawnee son and a
surly mountain man, Fitzgerald
(Tom Hardy). When Fitzgerald
murders Glass’s son and leaves
the wounded man for dead,
Glass’s survival instincts kick in. He’s harder to kill
than Jason Vorhees, and begins an endurance-testing
journey across a forbidding landscape to seek revenge
– a dish that is best served cold, after all. Alejandro
G. Iñárritu’s bleak and beautiful frontier survival story
is far removed from his theatre-set Oscar-winner
Birdman and the fractured narratives of his Mexican
productions, but no less technically astounding. In
moving to Hollywood, the director hasn’t sold out
to the mainstream; filming in long unbroken takes
and using only natural light and remote locations, he
achieves the sense of verisimilitude that has been his
forte since Amores Perros. Moreover, Oscar-winner
DiCaprio, whose performance is limited to grunts,
gestures and vengeful stares, makes us feel every
chilly moment of this primal homage to old school
wilderness adventures. SH • See page 30
Man in the wilderness.
THE REVENANT
It’s not surprising that Spotlight
received the Best Picture Oscar
at this year’s Academy Awards.
Tom McCarthy’s riveting account
of The Boston Globe ’s Pulitzer-
winning exposé on child abuse
within the Catholic Church in
Massachusetts is, to use a cliché,
a story ripped from today’s
headlines. As the Spotlight team
(comprising Michael Keaton,
Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams
and Brian d’Arcy James) doggedly
pursue leads, the sheer extent
of the abuse and cover-up becomes apparent, and they
realise they’ve uncovered a monster. From interviews
with victims and the legality of accessing confidential
files, to the potentially explosive repercussions
their story will have, Spotlight turns the minutiae of
investigative journalism procedure into compelling
viewing. The film doesn’t sensationalise the findings; it
simply reports them as methodically and thoroughly as
its players. In the tradition of great newsroom dramas
like All the President’s Men and Zodiac, Spotlight is a
must-see. SH • See page 28
Break the story. Break the silence.
SPOTLIGHT
BD ONLY
Documentary: A World Unseen
Image Gallery
Everest
EXTRAS
FURTHER VIEWING
Release Date: 18/05/16
Format:
All the President’s Men
EXTRAS
FURTHER VIEWING
Release Date: 04/05/16
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40 MAY 2016
DVD&BD
Although the movie never
mentions it (even in the follow-
up text prior to the closing
credits), the Boston Globe
won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize in
Public Service for the Spotlight
reporting team’s articles on the
church sex abuse cover-up.
The real Walter Robinson said
about Michael Keaton, who
plays him in the film, “It is like
watching yourself in a mirror,
yet having no control of the
mirror image.”
DID YOU KNOW...
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DVD & BD
Uncovering The Truth: A
Spotlight Team Roundtable
A Look Inside
The State of Journalism
Alejandro González Iñárritu’s
temperamental nature,
along with the high-pressure
schedule and unpleasant
filming conditions, made it
a very difficult shoot and
caused several crew members
to leave the project, or were
fired. Iñárritu explained, “As
a director, if I identify a violin
that is out of tune, I have to
take that from the orchestra.”
The origin of the title is rooted
in the French verb “revenir,”
which means “to return.”
Revenant in French also
means (reverting to) “spirit” or
“ghost.”
DID YOU KNOW...
Format: