Tom Hardy may be one of the most talented actors of his generation, with a string of acclaimed performances dating right back to his genuine breakout role in 2008’s biographical crime drama Bronson, but he’s only got a solitary Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor under his belt.
Even then, he was far from the biggest talking point coming out of The Revenant, even though the star delivered yet another powerhouse turn. More so than a box office haul of $533 million, rave reviews from critics and Oscar wins for Best Director and Best Cinematography, in the aftermath of the movie all anybody wanted to talk about was Leonardo DiCaprio finally getting his hands on that Best Actor trophy at the fifth time of asking.
One of the most uncompromising epics to come out of Hollywood in a long time, Alejandro González Iñárritu’s revisionist Western is unflinching in its brutality, with DiCaprio putting himself through the physical and emotional wringer to bring the story to astonishingly vivid life.
Hardy’s John Fitzgerald is ostensibly the villain of the piece, leaving Leo’s Hugh Glass for dead after murdering his son, setting our dogged protagonist on a quest for revenge. A masterclass in how to construct atmospheric character-driven drama on a blockbuster budget, The Revenant is putting in a strong showing on Netflix, having ascended as high as fifteenth position on FlixPatrol‘s most-watched list.