While westerns have certainly made quite the resurgence in the past couple of decades, they haven't been as prolific as those made in the 1930's and 40's during the matinee idol period. One of the more recent quality westerns made have been "Unforgiven" '92 and more recently "The Revenant" '15. These being the quality they are, I had to believe that "Hostiles" would have that same quality and my beliefs were accurate.
Set in 1892, this tells the story of a legendary Army Captain, Joseph J. Blocker (Christian Bale), who, after stern resistance, reluctantly agrees to escort a dying Cheyenne war chief, Yellow Hawk (Wes Studi) and his family back to tribal lands, making the harrowing and perilous journey from Fort Berringer, an isolated Army outpost in New Mexico, to the grasslands of Montana, the former rivals encounters a young widow, Rosalie Quaid (Rosamund Pike), whose family was murdered on the plains. Together, they must join forces to overcome the punishing landscape, hostile Comanche and vicious outliers that they encounter along the way.
Others to round out the cast are Jesse Plemons as Lt. Rudy Kidder, Rory Cochrane as Master Sgt. Thomas Metz, Adam Beach as Black Hawk, Stephen Lang as Colonel Abraham Biggs, Ben Foster as Sgt. Charles Wills, Scott Wilson as Cyrus Lounde, Paul Anderson as Corp. Tommy Thomas, Timothee Chalamet as Pvt. Philippe DeJardin, Bill Camp as Jeremiah Wilks, O'orianka Kilcher as Elk Woman and Jonathan Majors as Corp. Henry Woodsen.
This was brilliantly and brutally directed by Scott Cooper ("Crazy Heart" '09, "Out of the Furnace" '13, "Black Mass" '15). Although this filmmaker's experience is limited, it is gritty, intense and has an abundance of quality. The realness of characters in which he manipulates is stunning in that it also seems that the audience is watching a documentary as opposed to a feature film. Bale apparently strove to be in this film, because he wanted to work with Scott again--"Out of the Furnace" being the last time they worked together. Brutal is his business, and if that is the type of film you are drawn to, his "Antlers" has been announced. It was also written for the screen by Scott ("For Sale by Owner" '09, "Crazy Heart" '09, "out of the Furnace" '13) based on the manuscript by Donald E. Stewart. There aren't typically any westerns out there that have a message attached to them, but in this, these two--Capt. Blocker and Yellow Hawk were similar in that they both hated each other's race, but by being thrusted together, they must confront their prejudices during this escort. We, as a society also have our own forms of hatred--more than we know, so as the audience watches this, it causes us to look at our own prejudices. As stated prior, we rarely see these kinds of messages in the genre of the western, but considering the popularity of westerns, it high time this happens. Other than a couple of places of slowness where the story sort of goes into a lull period, this script is extremely tight, gritty, intense and well thought out. Bales' cold, steely, flat-affected Capt. Blocker has got to be one of his better performances--a true tour de force.
If you're a western freak, this has got to one on your must see list, but even if you're not, the quality acting, writing and directing will certainly be enough to justify the price of admission. This was a bloody, grueling, intense film--one of the most violent westerns, but considering the intensity of that era in the west, this was the way society was--another message for us all.
Out of 4 Stars: 3.5 Rated: R 133mins.
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