This year, the human spirit came out as the biggest winner at the Golden Globe Awards ceremony. The two films bagging top honours are both about man defying the odds in his bid for survival. ‘The Revenant’ and ‘The Martian’, set in locations literally worlds apart, focus on the same tenacity of spirit that sees humans overcoming the greatest obstacles.
Leonardo DiCaprio took home the best actor award for his gripping performance in ‘The Revenant’, an intense drama about an 1820’s trapper who, after surviving a bear attack, seeks vengeance upon men who left him for dead. The film also won the Best Director gong for Alejandro G. Inarittu, whose ‘Birdman’ won last year’s Oscar for best picture. The Golden Globe for best film in the drama category also went to ‘The Revenant’.
Director Ridley Scott’s saga about an astronaut who has been left behind on Mars after a failed space mission raised many eyebrows for being placed in the Comedy/Musical category, as hardly anyone agreed that it belonged there. But it did fetch Matt Damon the best actor award in that genre for his stunning turn as ‘The Martian’. It was also awarded best picture in that category, so the cast and crew’s not complaining. Ridley Scott has been lauded for his directorial skills in past cinematic triumphs like ‘Alien’, ‘Blade Runner’ and ‘Gladiator’, and The Martian is another feather in his cap.