Dress warmly when you see “The Revenant.”

As you probably know by now, this is the film in which Leonardo DiCaprio plays Hugh Glass, an 1820s trapper and trader mauled by a bear in the northern reaches of America’s Louisiana Purchase and left for dead by his cohorts.

By now you also probably know that Leonardo DiCaprio as Hugh Glass crawls his way through the snow and mud, battling sub-freezing temperatures, negotiating raging rapids, climbing mountain cliffs, and treking over hill and dale to finally reach his destination: an Oscar.

Talk about “Oscar so white.” “The Revenant” is one big snowy white landscape. It snows so much throughout the film, you may think snowflakes are falling in your popcorn.

It’s a tribute to the briliance of “The Revenant” director Alejandro González Iñárritu, who cowrote “The Revenant” screenplay with Mark L. Smith (screenplay, “Martyrs,” 2015; “The Hole,” 2009; “Vacancy,” 2007) from the novel (said to be based on a true story) by Michael Punke, that the two-hour and 36-minute movie not only holds your interest, but makes you feel the cold, the pain and the anguish.

“The Revenant” leads Oscar nominations with 12: Picture, Actor (Leonardo DiCaprio), Supporting Actor (Tom Hardy), Directing (Alejandro González Iñárritu), Cinematography (Emmanuel Lubezki), Editing (Stephen Mirrione), Costume Design (Jacqueline West), Makeup and Hairstyling, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, Visual Effects and Production Design.

The nominations are all well-deserved and, while the closest competition in picture and director is from “Mad Max: Fury Road” (10 Oscar nominations) and its director George Miller, it’s likely that with “The Revenant,” Iñárritu will repeat in Picture and Directing categories, for which he received Oscars for “Birdman” (2014).

“The Revenant” is, pun intended, polar opposite of “Birdman,” which, with the notable exceptions of Times Square and rooftop romps took place mostly in claustrophobic backstage quarters, hallways, dressing rooms and stage sets of a Broadway theater. “Birdman” also was noteworthy for its near-continuous, choreographed and seamless tracking shots.

“The Revenant” has lengthy scenes and amazing choreography of its actors and action, as well. Lubezki could well make it a three-peat, having received an Oscar for Cinematography for “Birdman” and “Gravity” (2013).

With “The Revenant,” Lubezki confirms his status as the greatest contemporary cinematographer and one of the all-time greats. For example, when the hunting party of Hugh Glass is attacked by Native Americans, arrows whiz by with a zing and thwack more intense than in “The Hunger Games” (2012) or “The Adventures of Robin Hood” (1938). One realizes arrows were the ICBMs of their day.

The attacks are filmed (in available light as was the entire film, reportedly) with a fierce realism that makes you jump out of your set, putting you in the midst of the melee, with bodies flailing this way and that, hatchets hitting their targets with resounding thuds, horses tromping through scenes, camps torn up, fires set to lean-tos and a sense of panic under attack that makes even some John Ford westerns look like a teddy bears’ picnic. “The Revenant” posits one of the most accurate and unapologetic depictions of frontier American ever. Scenes of frontiersmen and Native Americans gorging themselves on raw meat is enough to make anyone become a vegeterian.

Speaking of teddy bears, the attack by a black grizzly on Hugh Glass (DiCaprio) is gruesome and lengthy and just when you think it has stopped, it starts again. It’s almost too brutal to watch.

“The Revenant” will give you the shivers, gross you out and make you nervous. Why see it? It’s one of the most audacious pieces of film-making within memory. This is film-making of the highest order.

“The Revenant” is a film of astounding visual beauty. Scenes of extraordinary vistas, fields, clouds, gathering storms, the falling snow (it’s as though you can feel every snowflake) and several views upward through the forest give the movie-goer a sense of the vastness of the wilderness, and the brute force of nature.

The film has great swaths of scenes with no dialogue. Composer Ryuichi Sakamoto brings a breathtaking minimalism to the score.

The mountain men’s outfits (Hugh Glass is ironically wrapped inside a bearskin, looking himself at times like a gangly bear), the camps, the fort, the weaponry have an authenticity that goes beyond most previous films in this genre.

The storyline builds precipitously to a climax, with realistic protrayals by lead actors and supporting cast.

DiCaprio is riveting as Hugh Glass, having to use body gestures and facial expressions to convey a range of emotions. DiCaprio dug deep for this role. His other fine performances (“The Wolf Of Wall Street,” 2013; “Django Unchained,” 2012; “J. Edgar,” 2011; “The Aviator,” 2004; “Titanic,” 1997) pale in comparison.

Tom Hardy is amazing as Hugh Glass’s nemesis, John Fitzgerald. He commits one of the most reprehensible characters ever to the screen.

Outstanding is Domhnall Gleeson, as Captain Andrew Henry, in a role that brings some decency and moral certitude to the plot; Will Poulter, as Bridger, a young and impressionable trapper, and Forrest Goodluck, in his big-screen debut as Hawk, Hugh Glass’s son.

Few of the characters in “The Revenant” can be said to be heroes. The French fur trappers, especially, seem to be dastardly opportunists. “The Revenant” is a profound meditation on Manifest Destiny, which doesn’t appear very manifest nor particularly destined. The Wild West seems to have been pretty much of a wild mess.

Revenant is defined as someone who has returned, especially from the dead as a ghost, from the French, revenir. As with many great films, “The Revenant” has an enigmatic ending. It is a landmark epic. Don’t miss it.

“The Revenant,” MPAA Rated R (Restricted. Children Under 17 Require Accompanying Parent or Adult Guardian.) for strong frontier combat and violence including gory images, a sexual assault, language and brief nudity; Genre: Adventure, Drama, Thriller, Western: Run Time: 2 hrs., 36 mins.; Distributed by Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp.

Credit Readers Anonymous: “The Revenant” was filmed in Canada, Arizona, Mexico and Argentina.

Box Office, Feb, 12: “Deadpool” opened at No. 1 for the Valentine’s Day-Presidents’ Day weekend with a record $135 million for the biggest February opening ever, pushing “Kung Fu Panda 3” to No. 2 after two weeks in a row at No. 1 with $19.6 million, $93.9 million, three weeks, keeping “How to Be Single” opening at No. 3 with $18.7 million and “Zoolander 2” opening at No. 4 with $15.6 million;

5. “The Revenant” (12 Oscar nominations and five BAFTA awards, including actor for Leonardo DiCaprio), $6.9 million, $159.1 million, eight weeks; 6.“Hail, Caesar!,” $6.5 million, $21.3 million, two weeks; 7. “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” (five Oscar nominations), $6.1 million, $914.8 million, nine weeks; 8. “The Choice,” $5.2 million, $13.2 million, two weeks; 9. ”Ride Along 2,” $4.1 million, $82.6 million, five weeks; 10. “The Boy,” $2.9 million, $30.7 million, four weeks.

Unreel, Feb. 19:

“Risen,” PG-13: Kevin Reynolds directs Joseph Fiennes, Tom Felton, Peter Firth and Cliff Curtis in the drama about the Biblical story of the Resurrection, as told through the eyes of a non-believer. Clavius, a powerful Roman Military Tribune, and his aide Lucius, try to determine what happened to Jesus after the crucifixion to disprove the belief in a risen Messiah and prevent a Jerusalem rebellion.

“Race,” PG-13: Stephen Hopkins directs Stephan James, Jason Sudeikis, Eli Goree and Shanice Banton the biopic about Jesse Owens competing in the 1936 Olympics against a backdrop of Adolf Hitler’s philosophy of Aryan supremacy.

“The Witch,” R: Robert Eggers directs Anya Taylor-Joy, Ralph Ineson, Kate Dickie and Julian Richings in the horror film about a family circa 1630s New England battling the forces of witchcraft.

“Neerja,” No MPAA rating: Ram Madhvani directs Shabana Azmi, Sonam Kapoor, Shekhar Ravjiani and Yogendra Tikku in the biopic about Neerja Bhanot, who sacrificed her life to protecting the lives of 359 passengers on the Pan Am Flight 73 terrorist hijacking in 1986.

Four Popcorn Boxes out of Five Popcorn Boxes