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Interrogating (neo)colonialism in the contemporary western: Alejandro González Iñárritu’s The revenant (2015)
This article analyses Alejandro González Iñárritu’s The Revenant (2015) as a contemporary western, exploring how it interrogates the overt coloniality and Anglocentrism associated with the western genre and the source story of nineteenth-century fur trapper Hugh Glass on which the film is based. Through narrative and textual analysis, the article suggests that the addition of active indigenous characters into Glass’ story, as well as the film’s focus on the genocidal violence inflicted on native peoples and self-conscious realist strategies, challenge the inherent colonialism of the western. It also points out, however, that the scope of these indigenous narratives is limited and made secondary to the narrative of the White fur trapper and how The Revenant falls back on some of the stereotypical representational norms of the generic western. The article argues that this duality, where the film both challenges and reifies the colonialist norms of the western, is a result of the film’s interstitial position in-between the industrial and genre norms of contemporary Hollywood filmmaking and Iñárritu’s specific auteurist, postcolonial and ideological vision.
History
Publication status
- Published
File Version
- Accepted version
Journal
Studies in Spanish and Latin American CinemasISSN
2050-4837Publisher
IntellectExternal DOI
Issue
1Volume
18Page range
89-104Pages
25.0Department affiliated with
- Media and Film Publications
Full text available
- Yes
Peer reviewed?
- Yes
Legacy Posted Date
2021-04-08First Open Access (FOA) Date
2021-04-08First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date
2021-04-07Usage metrics
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