MovieChat Forums > The Edge (1997) Discussion > Better than The Revenant

Better than The Revenant

posted 9 years ago by DarlesChickens
21 replies | jump to latest

The Edge may not have aged gracefully:the final moments of the film with Hopkins and Baldwin going at each other don’t have quite the same brutal impact as when DiCaprio and Hardy beat the hell out of each other near the conclusion of The Revenant, and the cinematography of the film has a certain late 1990’s dullness to it at times. From a visual standpoint, The Revenant is definitely the superior film — there’s no question. Yet nothing in all the gorgeous-but-dull 156 minutes of that film holds a candle to the thrill packed into the 117 minutes of The Edge. Leonardo DiCaprio can shove all the raw liver into his mouth he wants — it’ll never compare to the cheap yet genuine thrill of Anthony Hopkins waving around a big, sharp stick: http://www.cutprintfilm.com/features/the-revenant-the-edge/

[–] Southport 9 years ago

As survivalist films go, I agree. Although It would fall under the same sub-genre (man vs nature vs man) mythos.

The Grey > The Revenant > The Edge.

[–] haynese_98 9 years ago

How about Jeremiah Johnson?

Shall we play a game?

[–] thinkmcfly16 9 years ago

JJ is a good movie; however, the stylistic elements of the era didn't hold up well, in particular the signing fillers, and the anti-war dialog.

[–] Jeorj Euler 8 years ago

The Grey > The Revenant > The Edge.

I lean toward thinking all these films are of tied quality.

[–] cybercrash 8 years ago

nah the revenant is better

~ TAKE the ticket!

[–] lynnrnsd 8 years ago

Have you ever seen "Man in the Wilderness"? "The Revenant" was a remake. John Huston and Richard Harris are in it. It's great.
I love Jeremiah Johnson too.

[–] kaze (349) 6 years ago

The Revenant was actually awful. The only reason it was thought to be good is because masses of dumb people are easily manipulated into being told what is good by their media and because their favorite actor is in it.

[–] bigbadwolf666 (4707) 6 years ago

I dont think it was awful but I agree with the other part and the edge is way better than the Revenant. It has Hopkins, vs Dicaprio enough said. Plus a real live awesome bear.

[–] Starman (412) 6 years ago

The Edge may have dullness, but that dullness is what makes it feel more real. Revenant feels too manipulative visually by putting attention to its itself instead of keeping the camera as invisible as possible. And I haven't even watched The Revenant all the way, only about 5 minutes, because visual manipulation pulled me from this right away. When you watch The Edge, you feel like you're there, but the more you shake the camera and move it around too much with thousands of angles it loses the human element, because human eye gets to see one event only from very few angles, we don't have eyes everywhere. This is one of the main reasons why usually films where the camera is in places no human would be at the time makes the film less real. The Edge very often keeps the visuals at the ground level, very minimalistic.

[–] Killermueck (170) 3 years ago

I don't get to see what should be dull about the movie. I like the calm shots of the big outdoors plus the movie is very well paced. And a real bear vs a cgi bear is something else.

[–] Foster1486 (494) 6 months ago

Well, I disagree ---- The Edge was the better film --- To Me

[–] Melton (4435) 6 months ago

The Edge flattens Revenant on every level, it’s a stone cold classic. Revenant is moderately entertaining experimental artsy guff with a big fake CGI bear. The bear in The Edge is 100% real, it’s terrifying.

Also top-tier Anthony Hopkins vs teenybopper DiCaprio? No contest.

[–] Killermueck (170) 4 months ago

Agree 100%

[–] Tam87 (1173) 4 months ago

That's probably because this movie doesn't have the king of overactors himself - Leo DiCaprio, a mediocre performer who wouldn't have an acting career if it wasn't for teenage girls.

This movie is built on Hopkins and Baldwin, two actors who are on top form.

There are problems, namely having the token guy being chewed up by the bear which didn't help with the whiners, but overall it's a good film.

[–] Melton (4435) 4 months ago

These days it’s refreshing to see the token black get munched.

Even back then I was quite surprised that Steve became bearfood because he’s a well drawn character played by a very likeable actor.

[–] Tam87 (1173) 4 months ago

It was distracting because there was zero tension with that character - you knew he was getting chomped the moment he appeared on screen. Sometimes you guess "I wonder if this character will survive?" in a movie, but not needed in this case.

[–] Stratego (30494) 4 months ago

Agreed.

[–] Melton (4435) 4 months ago

I was surprised at his death at the time, and now I’m happy to see the token get munched given how rare it has become.

[–] Tam87 (1173) 4 months ago

I was surprised at his death at the time

Seriously!? The guy may as well have had a giant bullseye imprinted on his head.

The guy got absolutely torn to pieces as well. It's one of the most graphic kills by a creature in a film.

[–] Melton (4435) 4 months ago

1997 was well past guaranteed black guy death era, plus he was a well drawn character, he could easily have been played by a white guy, he was called ‘Steve’ 🤣

His death is grizzly (no pun) but it’s not very explicit, there’s one shot of a one-legged dummy being tossed around but that’s about it. The screams do most of the work.

[–] Tam87 (1173) 4 months ago

I think maybe it's the fact that it's him along with the two other main characters (the ones featured on the front cover of the movie) so you kinda know with the three of them that one will get it.

Get a load of these topics on it from the old imdb forum. It's got liberals frothing at the mouth. Good thing it never came out today in the woke era, baldwin would've gone to the slammer for real:

https://filmboards.com/t/The-Edge/Very-disturbing-elitist/racist-sub-text-1365974/

https://filmboards.com/t/The-Edge/Typical-Hollywood-racism-SPOILERS!-1365961/

https://filmboards.com/t/The-Edge/Knew-the-black-guy-was-going-to-die-first.-1365983/