What movie did Leonardo get attacked by a bear?

As long as Leonardo DiCaprio keeps not winning an Oscar, he'll presumably keep making the kinds of films that tend to win Oscars. That's good for us.

I am going to copy and paste 20th Century Fox's official synopsis at the bottom so I don't have to relate the plot in my own words and thus waste precious time. But yeah, this looks like a rather exciting adventure movie and it's just the kind of thing that will not only make a major play for the Oscars but offer general moviegoers outside of New York and LA something to look forward to in January. The film opens in limited release on December 25th but goes wide on January 8th, where it will be basically the first big movie of 2016. What's been impressive about Leonardo DiCaprio over the last few years is that he has been using his star power to turn a wide variety of movies big and small into hits.

Sure Inception would have been a big hit anyway back in 2010, but DiCaprio's participation turned it into more of an event than (for example) Interstellar. And Martin Scorcese has been on an astounding box office hitting streak that would have been unthinkable back in the days when he was working with Robert De Niro and would be thrilled when a movie like Goodfellas would crack $50m domestic. There has been a lot of talk here and elsewhere about the concept of the old-school "face on the poster" movie star (although Merrill Barr's suggest of "face on the trailer" is probably more accurate these days). Will Smith used to be just that, while on a smaller scale comic stars like Melissa McCarthy, Kevin Hart, and Will Ferrell can still pull it off. But in terms of dramas and action pictures, it's basically down to (with a few misses here and there) Leonardo DiCaprio, Meryl Streep, Mark Wahlberg, Denzel Washington, Brad Pitt, and Channing Tatum.

We'll see if Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt can turn Passengers into a hit on their star power alone, and I'd wager if Charlize Theron got more chances she could prove clout at this point, but that's for another day. Point being, a Leonardo DiCaprio film has become something of an event over the last five years, and thus his participation in The Revenant turns it into an event this Christmas. And of course the reason for the season is Oscar season. Despite a handful of Oscar nominations, Mr. DiCaprio is currently empty-handed. And he certainly wants a trophy at this point, but perhaps his continuous losses is good news for we moviegoers.

As long as DiCaprio, who used his working relationship with Scorcese to get himself out of a post-Titanic funk, keeps not winning Oscars, he'll keep lending his name and his bankability to the kind of movies hat tend to win Oscars, and thus said movies will get made and released not just in arthouses (or on Netflix, but I digress) but at a theater near you. Anyway, The Revenant looks pretty terrific, I'm still firmly on "Team Birdman," and at least it potentially promises the kind of man vs. bear fight that was teased but denied in Liam Neeson's The Grey back in early 2012. Honestly, I just wanted to write this because I want to at least try to write about trailers for movies that aren't just franchise films. I can't cover everything, but as long as I can wring 450-650 words out of it and I'm not otherwise occupied, well, I'm doing my part.

Official Synopsis:

Inspired by true events, THE REVENANT is an immersive and visceral cinematic experience capturing one man’s epic adventure of survival and the extraordinary power of the human spirit. In an expedition of the uncharted American wilderness, legendary explorer Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio) is brutally attacked by a bear and left for dead by members of his own hunting team. In a quest to survive, Glass endures unimaginable grief as well as the betrayal of his confidant John Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy). Guided by sheer will and the love of his family, Glass must navigate a vicious winter in a relentless pursuit to live and find redemption. THE REVENANT is directed and co-written by renowned filmmaker, Academy Award® winner Alejandro G. Iñárritu (Birdman, Babel).

It won last weekend at the box office, but Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s The Revenant is a brutal, punishing movie to watch. The action follows man who is mauled by a giant grizzly bear and is ultimately left for dead. This happens early in the movie, and is an impressive feat, but according to one stuntman involved in the process, bringing this moment to life was a total nightmare.

The bear attack is a grueling, visceral moment that feels grounded and real. But it wasn’t, the bear was actually a stuntman named Glenn Ennis. To accomplish this feat, he wore a big blue costume and walked, talked, and generally acted like a bear in the woods. And apparently it sucked. Talking to Global News, he said:

Alejandro shot the scene chronologically, from its beginning to its end, two minutes in total. It was very difficult if you look at the geography where the attack takes place. Leo is thrown against a tree, turned over, rolled over, tossed, batted and then he crawls … he had three wires attached to him the entire time. Those got tangled in my feet, around his legs, around his head. Everything had to be choreographed in order to unwrap the wire so we could make the next move. After you do a two-minute session like that, you’re exhausted and your thighs are burning. You’ve got to put it all back together and start again.

If you’ve seen The Revenant, or really any of Inarritu’s other movies, you know that that he’s fond of long, elaborate takes where there’s lots of camera movement and intricate staging and choreography. The epic bear attack is no different, and you have to imagine that with the director’s eye for detail and precision, this was a scene that required a great many takes. With the physicality required of Ennis, it’s easy to imagine how quickly doing this repeatedly would take a toll on your body. And this is a guy who was entirely engulfed in flames for a scene in Jason Vs. Freddy, among other things, so you know it must have been rough going. (I can’t help but be curious about his take on the "bear rape" rumors.)

This is another in a long line of anecdotes about how difficult it was to shoot The Revenant. They filmed outdoors in the frozen wilderness of Canada, and later Argentina, recreating the brutal wintery conditions, and a number of behind the scenes personnel left the production over safety concerns. Star Leonardo DiCaprio, who many believe is the frontrunner for the Best Actor Oscar this year, did all kinds of crazy stuff, like swimming through frozen rivers and eating raw bison liver. Shit got pretty real.

After all is said and done, one thing is clear, The Revenant was one hell of a harrowing production on just about every level. It’s in theaters now, and we’ll see if these extremes paid off in February as it is nominated for a number of Academy Awards.

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