Parents' Guide to

The Revenant

By Jeffrey Anderson, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 18+

Heavy, punishing violence in DiCaprio's revenge Western.

Movie R 2015 156 minutes
The Revenant Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Community Reviews

age 16+

Based on 28 parent reviews

age 16+

Mature audiences

While this film is suspenseful and thrilling it isn't loaded with action, making it boring for younger teens to watch. Extremely violent in rough ways; Leo DiCaprio gets mauled and ripped to shreds by a bear and is shown foaming from the mouth and slowly suffering, dying, and being buried alive. Later in the movie he also gets in a hand to hand combat with brutal blood and gore (fingers, and chunks of skin cut off) A man is also scalped off screen and is heard screaming bloody murder. Language is not a problem. Couple uses of s**t, damn, hell etc. and f**k used in another language shown in dialogue on screen. A very disturbing scene shows a young woman being raped from behind pressed against a tree; man gropes her and is heard mumbling sexual dialogue and moaning noises. Man in the beginning is also shown fully naked with arrows stuck in his back.
1 person found this helpful.
age 18+

Amazing

Great! Would NOT recommend for under the ages of 18.

This title has:

Great messages
Great role models

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (28):
Kids say (76):

This revenge Western boasts a committed performance by DiCaprio and extraordinary cinematography by Emmanuel Lubezki. Lubezki -- who also shot The Tree of Life, Gravity, and Birdman -- gives THE REVENANT a fully immersive, dimensional look, with jaw-dropping long takes and strikingly physical realism. And for his part, DiCaprio does punishing work, truly putting himself through the ringer for his art.

For a while, it's easy to be carried away by all of this -- until we realize that Oscar-winning director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu doesn't quite have enough to say and that the movie, at 2 hours and 36 minutes, is an long attempt to add weight and profundity to a pulp Western. Some of the story turns are overly familiar, and the supporting characters are thin. Add to that a high level of sheer brutality, and The Revenant, while well made, certainly isn't for everyone.

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