Emmanuel Lubezki is, without a doubt, one of the most prominent cinematographer working in the industry today, having won ‘Best Cinematography’ 3 consecutive times for his work in ‘Gravity’, ‘ Birdman’ and ‘The Revenant’. One of many examples demonstrating the brilliance of Lubezki and his craft is this particular scene in the movie ‘The Revenant’, where the group of trappers, guided by Hugh Glass, are attacked by the Arikara tribe.

The movie tells the survival journey of a man in the wilderness, therefore, they opted to use only natural light source (except for one scene where they use light bulbs to create a cushion of light around a campfire at night due to windy condition). As if this wasn’t challenging enough, the film was shot almost entirely at dawn and dusk, in freezing conditions in various locations to create a much more immersive and visceral experience for the viewers. To achieve the clean imagery as desired with no noise or grain, Emmanuel chose to shot digitally using an Arri Alexa 65, with some modification. Lubezki has long been famous for his excellent use of natural light source, typically through his collaborations with Terrence Malick. In this particular scene, the light source is very soft as it is an overcast winter day with a lot of lights bouncing back from the snow surface. As the scene progresses, we can suddenly see the sun flares (the lens flare effect I have talked about in the reflection). This certainly adds a much more dramatic tone to the action sequence. Another trademark technique that Lubezki used in the movie is the use of long takes with smooth, fluid camera movement. Like in the movie ‘Birdman’, the camera motion seamlessly changes , guiding the audience perspective to make the action feels immersive and immediate. The usage of wide lenses (ranging from 12 to 21mm) is another interesting element. Normally these wide lenses are used for landscape scenes for a great depth of field. However, Emmanuel used them for almost the entire movie so that even when it is a close up shot into the character’s face, the viewer can still have an overview of the nature in the background. Also, these wide lenses produce a slight distortion of the image, which make the close-up of actor’s face much more dramatic, conveying much more intense emotions. In addition, the framing and composition in the scene is also brilliant, as audience can see a clear separation of the main character (Hugh Glass) in the foreground to the tribe in the background. The true gift of Emmanuel Lubezki is the ability to allow the imagery to guide the audience rather than narrative dialogue, and it clearly shows in this movie.