I saw the film on Friday and wanted to digest for a few days - I have to admit the first thing I tell people is it's a brutal film. I wasn't entertained (and that's usually a requirement for me, but others can disagree). I felt mauled for 2.5 hours - which was exceedingly long for what really was a simple revenge plot/story we've seen a 1000 times (Still One, believe you mentioned this). The movie has a very sluggish pace due to lack of dialogue and was only brought together with the cinematography - which did the heavy lifting as did the director's choice of shooting in effectively the third person to feel "real." I had to turn away my head 4-5 times - and I love horror/scary movies. It's much more impactful/personal in this movie because its not in that genre. But ultimately I feel the critics fawn over the way the movie looked, and not the story.
It may win everything at the Awards and Leo deserves his win (I still think Spotlight is more in the Academy's traditional choice for a best picture win though), but I have zero interest in ever seeing it again. I didn't dislike the film - but I didn't particularly enjoy it. And isn't that what we go to the movies for?
I can't disagree about your comments about the length of the film as well as the paucity of dialog
The movie was filmed in natural light around the same 90 minutes of each day. I think the feeling of being mauled was contributed in great extent by the up close camera work that moved with the action in a very fast fashion sometimes giving you the feeling you were one of the horses fleeing the indians with their bows and arrows. This plus the sound coming from everywhere gave me the feeling that in those fight scenes I wasn't viewing the action but rather was part of the action so I agree about having to look away so many times.
It will be interesting with the Oscars as the Best Film was spllt between Golden Globes (The Reverent) and Critics Choice (Spotlight)