Lately it seems Oscar-winning filmmakers Alejandro González Iñárritu (“Birdman”) and Alfonso Cuarón (“Gravity”) — each with the aid of cinematographer Emmanuel “Chivo” Lubezki — have been in a leapfrog contest over the new cinema of total immersion into detailed physical spaces. With “The Revenant,” a revenge saga starring Leonardo DiCaprio as real-life 19th century American frontiersman Hugh Glass, Iñárritu has brought that kind of intensive focus to the uncharted wilderness, and the payoff is a nerve-wracking marvel.
A long, gripping journey through an unforgiving landscape of exploration and brutal survival, “The Revenant” is all the more incredible for not needing 3D glasses or a virtual reality helmet to let moviegoers feel fully dropped into the beautiful, cold, bloody thick of it.