The Revenant - Cast design and Individual Charaters
The Revenant,
by Alejandro González Iñárritu
Student 3 & 4: To critically assess the Cast Design and their individual was the character. cast designed well? Did all characters have a purpose? Were the individual characters well explored? Or lacked depth?
Hugh Glass - The Protagonist
Hugh Glass is the main character in the movie that presented by Leonardo DiCaprio. In the beginning of the movie, he is kind and has leadership. In the beginning, it was a dream about him telling to his son, Hawk, to keep fighting as long as still lives in native language. It is a scene that Glass stay together with his family, where his house is set on fire.
He is the most experienced hunter in a party of trappers under the command of Captain Andrew Henry hunt for pelts in the unsettled wildness of the Northern Louisiana Purchase. However, Glass shows up his leadership to lead the remainder of the group to safety, charting a new way to U.S. fort when they were attacked by Arikara Native Americans.
Unfortunately, he is soon mauled by a grizzly bear while hunting for her cub, and is horrible wounded that almost carried him close to death. He was left with three volunteers who are suppose to guard him till his last breath and buried him properly. John Fitzgerald, Jim Bridger and his son, Hawk stayed with him. However, John decided to kill Glass as Glass’s injuries will slow down their journey. The revenge of Glass started when his son,Hawk was killed by John Fitzgerald when trying to save him from being killed. Glass helplessly watched his son’s death in front of his own eyes because of his serious wounds.
With great anger and sadness, he decided to seek for revenge for his son. He crawled out from the grave he was buried by John and continued his journey to the fort so search for his enemy. He continued the journey himself with his pain. In his journey, I can see the Glass’s life is hard, through his meals. He eats corpse of animals to survive the winter. When Glass can’t walk yet, he just eat some dry grasses or food that people left; after he can walk, he tries to catch fresh fishes by himself with happiness on his face. And more other things happened that can reflect his life and determine on the journey.
At last, he reached the fort that Captain stayed. When Captain Andrew saw him, he quickly bring him to cure and asked the reasons that why he is alone and his son been killed. When Glass recovers, he quickly goes out to track John for revenge. However, he didn’t killed John, he believed the revenge is in God’s hand and left him killed by Indian. I think this cast is designed quite well and show us the feeling of losing the one we love and the determination to survive to revenge for their love ones.
John Fitzgerald - The Antagonist
John Fitzgerald, presented by Tom Hardy, is a bad and cruel character in the movie. He holds hatred towards Hawk who is a half native and he is not happy with the fact that Captain Henry trusted Glass so much. When Glass was badly injured, John argued to kill him for the speed of their journey. Captain Henry disagreed and asked three people to stay with Glass till his last breath and to make him a proper burial. John volunteered to stay but he actually plan to kill Glass. However, Hawk found out about it and stopped the John, it made John angry and killed him in front of Glass. John never regrets and told Jim Bridger that Hawk went missing and the Arikara Native are coming. He then ordered Bridger to leave Glass behind since his injuries will slow down their journey.
Meanwhile, he is also a liar that he lied to the Captain Andrew Henry about the conditions of Glass. He made a deal with captain that exchanges the currency with his messages of the journey. He also took the money that Jim Bridger doesn’t want to take because everything was fake.
When John heard they found the Glass, he started worried and broke into the Captain’s office to steal all the money when Captain was out for save Glass. He scared Captain will knew the truth and kill him soon, so he left the fort. But he was caught by Glass, and killed by Indians. John Fitzgerald is designed and explored well because show how inhumane one can be for their own survival.
MIRROR CHARACTERS
Hawk
Hawk is the son of Hugh Glass. He doesn’t explore that much in the movie. But he the trigger that starts the revenge of Glass. His death has brought a huge impact to protagonist causing him to have great determination to stay alive for revenge. We can see that he loves his family throughout his role in the movie. He insisted to stay with his father when his father was badly injured by the grizzly bear and protected his father when John want to kill him. He died protecting his father.
Captain Andrew Henry
Captain Andrew Henry is played by Domhnall Gleeson, he is a responsible captain that protect his people. He also trusts Glass Hugh very much as Glass is the most experienced hunter and is familiar with the land. When he knew Glass was injured, he was worried and tried to find Glass as soon as possible. At here can see that he appreciated Glass. He was very angry when he found out that John killed Hawk and buried Glass in a grave n left him behind. He wanted to kill the John. In the movie, can show his position clearly as a commander and how nervous he is to find Glass back.
Jim Bridger
Jim Bridger is played by Will Poulter, he is also one of the fur trappers under the Captain Andrew Henry. In the movie, he was designed as a timid and loyal character. When the Glass was left by John, Bridger doesn’t dare to make any response and just follow the order from John. But when John lied to Captain Henry that Glass has died of his serious wounds and Hawk went missing, Jim refuse to receive any reward from the captain. This character doesn’t explore that well because the expression not the strong enough.
