Two frontier survival tales — “The Revenant” and “The Martian” — led a bleep-filled Golden Globes where the star power of Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon and Jennifer Lawrence was challenged only by the relentless mocking of the show’s beer-wielding host, Ricky Gervais.
In an upset, Alejandro Innaritu’s bloody 1820s thriller “The Revenant” won best film drama, as well as best director for Inarritu and best actor for Leonardo DiCaprio. Though Inarritu had a similar run at the Academy Awards last year with the best-picture winning “Birdman,” he won only a share of best screenplay at last year’s Globes.
“Pain is temporary,” said Inarritu, referring to the film’s arduous shoot in the Canadian Rockies. “A film is forever.”
In an awards season that has lacked definition, two of the top critical picks — the journalism procedural “Spotlight” and Todd Haynes’ lesbian romance “Carol” — went home empty-handed. Instead, it was “The Revenant” — made with the same seamless cinematography of “Birdman” — that emerged triumphant on the same weekend it nearly toppled the box-office juggernaut “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” with a $38 million opening.