The Revenant: The Reliable Survivor Vs. The Selfish Coward.

*Spoiler Alert*

Don't read if you haven't watched the film yet . It has spoilers all over . 

At the start when Glass (Dicaprio) takes the shot, Fitzgerald (Hardy) starts to fear for his life which shows his selfish feeling of being stuck with the people who he thinks doesn't know how to survive the indians, As everything is cool and steady suddenly the film starts to pick up the heat as we see an Unexpected Arrow hitting straight into the neck of a trapper indicating the attack by the indians which forces everyone's heart to beat faster than ever, fear starts to pump through the vains and the background score makes it even worse to breath, forces us to stay glued to our seats and we all start thinking this is going to be interesting, I'd say its one hell of a way to start a film with a story like this, perfect camera work  I am a fan of the way Alejandro G. Innaritu works with the camera angles, amazing action sequence, and on the top of that undescribable cinematography. 

Coming to the thing between Hugh Glass (Leonardo Dicaprio) and John Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy) 

The Reliable Survivor Vs. The Selfish Coward. 

Glass, his son, and his remaining companions, are going back to the nearest outpost. A near fatal bear attack, happens to Glass. Glass's weak condition, forced some men from the team, to be his caretakers. One of the caretakers, John Fitzgerald, chooses to betray Glass, by killing his son and leaving him for dead making an unforgivable decision. Relying on his insurmountable anger, a powerful motivation for his family, and also his passion to live, Hugh survives. In this comeback adventure, Glass goes along the wintry terrain, across the wilderness, and uses his survival skills to go back to the outpost. Glass attemps to find John Fitzgerald, and make him pay for his terrible decision.

Although by true events (Hugh Glass was in fact attacked by a bear and left for dead by two of his fellow trappers), the movie takes many huge liberties with its depiction of these events. The two biggest and most crucial departures from reality may be the main characters motivation (since in reality the trappers never killed his son) and the ending (since the real Hugh Glass never took his revenge, but instead forgave the trappers who left him for dead).

Leonardo DiCaprio 

He had to devour a raw slab of bison's liver, even though he is vegetarian. He also had to learn to shoot a musket, build a fire, speak two Native American languages (Pawnee and Arikara), and study with a doctor who specializes in ancient healing techniques. DiCaprio calls it the hardest performance of his career.

If someone who deserves to get the oscar  this time , it is for sure Leonardo Dicaprio.

Tom Hardy

He watched Tom Berenger in Platoon (1986) for inspiration.

Hardy was concerned about the safety of some of the stunts he had to do, which caused friction between him and director Alejandro González Iñárritu before Iñarritu allowed Hardy to choke him in return. Later, the image of Hardy strangling Iñarritu was immortalized in a T-shirt gifted by Hardy to all members of the crew, at the end of the shoot. 

Well the most heart breaking part of the movie was the 'Bear Attack' . 

To watch that you need to have big heart I'm saying this because the weak heartened people might not take it very easily. Well the amazing thing is that this guy actually survived this brutal suffering. 

When Glass (Dicaprio) battles with the bear he initially injures it with a gunshot wound to it's left side until finally defeating it with multiple stab wounds. This is mirrored in the final showdown with Fitzgerald (Hardy) in which Glass shoots him in his left shoulder but ultimately defeats him with a knife.

The film has been nominated for 12 Oscar  Nominations including The Best Film and The Best Actor in the Lead Role, The Best Actor In Supporting Role, The Best Director, 

The Film has already won Golden Globe Award for The Best Actor In Lead Role, The Best Director and The Best Film.

My Rating for the Movie is 9.0/10 . 

Manto : The Man who Lived with Fire .

Manto, excellent piece on almost all of the afsanas by Saadat Hassan Manto , one of the brilliant biopics I've ever watched , I'd say this has been one of the best movies Pakistan has ever produced, Absolutely brilliant acting done by Sarmad Khoosat, I believe he is the only brilliant actor in Pakistan's Film Industry. 

Directing and Acting are two different and hard things to do, and doing both of them  together is even Harder, Hats off to Sarmad Khoosat for handling acting and directing brilliantly ! 

All of the actors did good ! And I loved the role of Faisal Qureshi even though it was for a short while but it was amazing, 

Its a film on a man who lived his life with the fire which he thought he could control but he never knew it was slowly taking him over and that fire was his addiction, with that fire he created realistic characters which nobody ever wanted to accept, characters which became the major part of his life, and in the end they haunted him for being different and unique, 

This is how struggling life Manto had lived , This life was his destiny. 

My rating for this movie is 8.5/10.

Christopher Nolan: An Inspiring Journey of a 7 years old, with a Camera.

Christopher Nolan on the set of Interstellar (2014)

At 7 years old, Nolan began making short movies with his father’s Super-8 camera.

While studying English Literature at University College London, he shot 16-millimetre films at U.C.L.’s film society, where he learned the guerrilla techniques he would later use to make his first feature,

Following (1998),

on a budget of around $6,000. The noir thriller was recognized at a number of international film festivals prior to its theatrical release, and gained Nolan enough credibility that he was able to gather substantial financing for his next film.

“And when it stopped being random, that’s when it started to go wrong”

Memento (2000)

There comes Nolan’s second which he directed from his own screenplay based on a short story by his brother Jonathan. Starring Guy Pearce, 

An absolutely brilliant piece of work , playing with your mind, starting from the end and ending up at the beginning, a beautiful experience watching a short term memory loss patient struggling through life finding the man who killed his wife and in the end finding out that he was the killer himself.

“Can’t forget to remember you”

the film brought Nolan numerous honors, including Academy Award and Golden Globe Award nominations for Best Original Screenplay.

Insomnia (2002)

Coming on to Nolan’s third, the critically acclaimed psychological thriller, starring Al Pacino, Robin Williams and Hilary Swank.

Which I’d say was one of the best Al Pacino movie I ever watched. A Director’s main work is to make actors act perfectly according to their characters, it’s not that hard and it’s not that simple, there are different kind of personalities some get the work done like in a second and some take ages to understand a thing. It’s director’s work to walk up with everything according to the plan and sometimes taking it to the whole next level, Nolan couldn’t take Insomnia to the whole next level but it was brilliantly done by a starter to film making career.

“You’re a good man. I know that. Even if you’ve forgotten it.”

The turning point in Nolan’s career occurred when he was awarded the chance to revive the Batman franchise in 2005.

Well most of the batman fans found animated series to be the best batman story telling at that moment of time

Batman Begins (2005)

At number Four Nolan brought a level of gravitas back to the iconic hero, and his gritty, modern interpretation was greeted with praise from fans and critics alike.

I used to read comic books about batman I knew who batman was what really happened to him why he became The Dark Knight according to comics, and I found it kind of boring, But Batman Begins made me change my views about batman. It was quite slow but on point slightly different than Comics, I like it when stories go different than what they really are , Nolan made my wish come true made batman one of my favourite super hero character ever .

“It’s not who I am underneath, but what I do, that defines me.”

The Prestige (2006)

At number Five Nolan directed, co-wrote and produced the mystery thriller, starring Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman as magicians whose obsessive rivalry leads to tragedy and murder.

What should I say I have no words like my words worth nothing to a movie like this. Every concept of Rivalry, every concept of Magic tricks, every concept of making a fool out of the audience in front of their eyes without letting them know about it, has been shown in it perfectly. How far would you go to let your opposition down? . How far would you go to be one step ahead ? . It was literally perfect.

“Are you watching Closely?”

The Dark Knight (2008)

In 2008, Nolan directed, co-wrote, and produced his sixth, which went on to gross more than a billion dollars at the world-wide box office.

A totally new era in Batman History, a totally new, different, more of chaotic and sarcastic kind of Joker brilliantly acted by Heath Ledger (R.I.P) . Totally unpredictable, amazingly non-comic, more realistic and inspiringly directed movie ever made. 

I could watch it more than a thousand times without any kind of hesitation.

“Madness is like gravity all it needs is a little push”

For The Dark Knight, Nolan was nominated for a Directors Guild of America (D.G.A.) Award, Writers Guild of America (W.G.A.) Award and Producers Guild of America (P.G.A.) Award, and the film also received eight Academy Award nominations.

Inception (2010)

In his 7th, Nolan captivated audiences with sci-fi thriller, which he directed and produced from his own original screenplay.

You might have been aware of many crime scenes all over the world, on streets, in banks, in residential areas, etc, but have you ever been aware of the crime in a human mind ?, one of the best fantasy you’d love to go inside of, It was it is and it will be my All time Favorite Movie. 

“I can access your mind through your dreams, one simple idea can change everything, that’s why, I
have to steal it”

The thought-provoking drama was a world-wide blockbuster, earning more than $800,000,000 dollars and becoming one of the most discussed and debated films of the year. Among its many honors, Inception received four Academy Awards and eight nominations, including Best Picture and Best Screenplay. Nolan was recognized by his peers with D.G.A. and P.G.A. Award nominations, as well as a W.G.A. Award win for his work on the film.

The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

At number 8 and third to his Batman trilogy. One of the best-reviewed and highest-grossing movies of 2012,

This was a view changer to many Bane critics, as I wrote earlier amazingly non-comic and brilliantly connected story ever, as in comics, Bane is guy who gained all those muscles by some chemical doses, making no sense at all, but giving him a totally different and sensible image was all Nolan’s incredible thinking. Bane became the badass + best antagonist to ever happen to me.

“The shadows betray you because they belong to me”

Christopher Nolan on the set of The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

Due to his success rebooting the Batman character, Warner Bros. enlisted Nolan to produce their revamped Superman movie Man of Steel (2013), which opened in the Summer of 2013.

Interstellar (2014)

At number 9 Nolan takes us to the outer world experience, a pure sci-fi.

For me it was the best of 2014, spinning my mind all over the solar system, making me think from every corner of my mind.

If you go deeper inside the interstellar, the whole movie is a theory that you can never imagine , this movie is by far an outstanding way of describing “we’re dying and there’s a world outside our world where we might survive but oh no we can’t, wait , we’ll find a way we always have” that’s reality this world is telling us from a million ways that we aren’t gonna survive but we still are trying we still are finding new ways aren’t we ?

“Mankind was born on earth, but it was never meant to die here”

Christopher Nolan & Mathew McConaughey on the set of Interstellar (2014)

Having an amazing way of thinking, everything starting and ending on reality, never disappointing, calculating and figuring out all the facts and putting them out with amazingly attached fictious stories . And ending up inspiring a lot of minds by giving them a lot of things to think but never actually getting the main point, giving them reasons to go for it again and again and in the end blowing their minds with simple but brilliant idea. 

This is an incredible wonder done by a person who had a big dream at the age of 7 holding a camera, who knows what exactly he was thinking at that moment, literally inspired millions .