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The Revenant is one of those films where the story of the movie eclipses the plot. A spate of stories in recent months focused on how it was the most grueling shoot star Leonardo DiCaprio had ever endured (true) or that it involved a bear rape (false), or that it was director Alejandro Iñárritu’s very ambitious follow-up to Birdman (also, obviously, true). But, unless you have an abiding interest in ursine sex crimes, you likely learned very little about the movie itself—or anything else that could you decide whether to see it.

Let's cut through the clutter, shall we?

The Revenant is an undeniably long (156 minutes) examination of the darkest corners of the human condition, a visceral picture made all the more visceral by masterful technical filmmaking—cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki used only natural light. It's an intense cinematic experience—even if it’s one that may not find its way onto your Can't Wait to Watch Again list.

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DiCaprio plays Hugh Glass, one of a group of fur-trappers in the 1820s who find themselves attacked by the Arikara tribe (called the “Ree”) while returning to camp. After a bear brutally attacks Glass, he's left for dead by fellow trappers John Fitzgerald (a fantastically wild-eyed Tom Hardy) and Jim Bridger (Will Poulter). Hugh eventually recovers from his injuries and goes on the inevitable man-vs-wild/man-vs-man revenge quest we all expect him to.

That journey is a thing to behold. If Iñárritu does one thing well here (and, really, he does many things well) it’s making you feel the gruesomeness of Glass’s circumstances. Even holding popcorn in a theater you’ll feel the dehydration and starvation he’s experiencing. The bitter cold, too. Every shot pulls us deeper into just how undeniably raw, how unrelenting, the American wilderness was in the early 19th century. The setting becomes the antagonist, which makes The Revenant engrossing despite the fact that not much actually happens.

Some reviews have noted that the wild Western effect of The Revenant comes off as 'ridiculous' or even 'silly.' That’s half true. While there are more than a few moments that scream, 'Look at all the acting I’m doing!'—often involving DiCaprio choking down seemingly inedible sustenance—it’s never too over-the-top. (And Star Wars fans will appreciate a certain animal-corpse-as-sleeping-bag scene.) Iñárritu builds his film slowly, and while some of it might seem unnecessary, the slog does lead to a wilderness-sized payoff.

The Revenant crosses from movie to experience; Iñárritu's aim is to contrast the starkness and cruelty of nature (both physical and human) with the immense beauty of the world it exists in. Like life, the film is meant to be survived as much as it is enjoyed. And luckily, in the hands of Iñárritu, DiCaprio, Hardy, and a more-savage-than-usual Domhnall Gleeson as fur-trapping expedition leader Andrew Henry, it stays safely on the side of Just Bleak Enough. Viewers will endure, and be better for it.

To paraphrase Dudley Moore's Volvo ad in Crazy People, The Revenant is hellish, but it's good. And much of what makes it good is exactly why you've heard so much about the moviemaking rather than the movie. Like Boyhood, which took 12 years to make, much of Iñárritu's magic took place off-camera. *Boyhood'*s story was as simple as 'child grows up' and *The Revenant'*s is largely a revenge tale, but both stories are told in unimaginably thorough ways. Would it be as harrowing if you knew DiCaprio's blue, chapped lips were makeup and every lingering breath was CGI? Likely not. But in 20 years, when there aren't headlines about the shoot and no one is asking Iñárritu about bear rape, that answer becomes hazier.

As for DiCaprio's long-elusive Oscar hopes, The Revenant is clearly the most brutal movie-making experience of 2015 (and probably many years before that), but the nature of the film gives him little to act against, beyond simply enduring misery. DiCaprio has never gone more all-in than he does here, but it may not be enough. Of course, we know by now that if there’s one thing we can count on from Leo, it’s his ability to survive.