7) The Battle Scenes Look Astoundingly Visceral
It’s not just pretty framing that Lubezki appears to excelling at with his Revenant photography – it would seem as though he’s going all-out in the action stakes, too. The story of Hugh Glass’ cross-country trek doesn’t exactly scream “action-packed” (bear mauling aside), but The Revenant appears to be also exploring Glass’ life previous to the attack. And these, as you can see from the trailer, involved lots of battling with local Indian tribes.
Apparently utilizing Lubezki’s penchant for extended tracking shots, the action set-pieces glimpsed in the Revenant trailers are disarmingly visceral. The human settlements feel lived-in, while the natural environments are gorgeously alive, and they offer a perfect background for the muddy, gore-filled fights glimpsed in preview footage.
You can practically feel the arrows whistling past your head, and smell the gun powder of rifles desperately trying to hold back the attacking horde.