By Jessica Izurieta
At the recent Golden Globes, the film The Revenant, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, won several awards. However, unbeknownst to many, there is a powerful backstory to the movie.
 |
Alejandro González Iñárritu has swept the 2016 Golden Globes yet again with his barbarous follow-up to award-winning Birdman, with Hollywood contender Leonardo DiCaprio leading the tale of Hugh Glass in The Revenant.
A large portion of 2015’s acclaimed films are adaptations of “true story” novels and best sellers, with examples like The Big Short, Room, and The Danish Girl as fellow 2016 Golden Globe nominees.
The Revenant owes its powerful story to a deputy United States trade representative and ambassador to the World Trade Organization—a man named Michael Punke. If these formal bureaucratic titles seem antithetical to an author’s line of work, you have located the reason why you have not heard a peep from the inspiration of 2015’s biggest film.
According to an article in Adweek.com, Punke is unable to comment publicly on his literary work The Revenant: A Novel of Revenge, published in 2002. As a result of his professional status in the federal government, to endorse his novel would conflict with the Federal Ethics Rules, and any promotion of his book is an act “that might enrich him and potentially abuse his high-ranking office in the process,” as stated by The Washington Post.
Punke was unable to be present at the Hollywood premier of the film, which took place on December 16, 2015. Fortunately, as a graduate from Cornell School of Law, Punke continues to work in a powerful position of international relations and exercises a great deal of influence on American trade.
Unfortunately, he was prohibited from celebrating the cinematic success of his publication and subsequently was unable to party with the winners of the Golden Globe for Best Dramatic Motion Picture. At least DiCaprio finally shaved his beard!