Posted on 02/03/2018 7:06:44 AM PST by Kaslin
The new Western Hostiles begins with an unshakably violent event. A small family is attacked and brutalized by a group of Native Americans. There’s no justification for the violence. Only bloodshed.
There’s no moral ambiguity in that sequence but as the film tells a larger story, moral ambivalence takes center stage as the story explores the omnipresence of violence in the Old West.
Set in 1896, the feature stars Oscar winner Christian Bale as Captain Joseph J. Blocker. Blocker is a weary warrior who has seen his share of violence and engaged in his share of battles. He’s seen friends die at the hands of Native Americans and believes he knows exactly what the enemy looks like. His latest assignment from the federal government puts him in a difficult position.
He’s tasked with escorting Chief Yellow Hawk (Wes Studi), a Native American warrior, and his family back home. The chief is dying and the President of the United States wants him to return back to Montana to die in peace. As the journey begins, Blocker finds no comfort or peace in his mission (the man he’s tasked with protecting looks like so many of the men he’s killed) but as their path from New Mexico continues, the American Captain begins to find understanding with the Native American chief.
Written by Scott Cooper and adapted from the manuscript by Donald E. Stewart, the plot places the two men close to one another as they face the dangerous world around them.
Bale, who was a perfect choice for the lead role, brings an emotional restraint to his character that subtly hints at his background. Blocker doesn’t speak often about his past and the brutality he’s faced or utilized but the audience can see his weariness and pain from his facial expressions and by the way he never flinches from violence.
The deep themes are explored richly with a supporting cast that emphasizes different perspectives. The physically-exhausted Yellow Hawk has seen many battles as well and shares many similarities with Blocker but doesn’t need to say them aloud. He also knows the weaknesses of Blocker’s bigotry and tells Blocker about the disparity between the different Native American tribes. He knows which tribes are simply fighting in defense and which ones need no justification for bloodshed.
There’s also a Master Sergeant (Rory Cohrane), who has grown accustomed to a lifestyle of fighting and even says he’s gotten used to murder. He tells a young lieutenant (Jesse Plemons) about how natural violence has become for him and the lieutenant says that he fears the idea of feeling the same way.
In two hours and fourteen minutes, Cooper — who also directed the feature — has time to reveal all of these different personalities. Each of them add to the murkiness of the debate of right versus wrong. The first scene is an obvious display of brutality but by the feature’s closing moments, Cooper has revealed layer upon layer of grey, showing both audiences and the characters how complicated the Old West truly could be.
Unlike other Westerns, this feature never shies away from the emotional pain that people suffered under such brutal conditions. Actress Rosamund Pike does incredible understated work as a widow who watches her family get slaughtered in front of her. Her heartbreak is not only obvious during the shooting but it’s also showcased in a painfully realistic sequence showing her digging graves for her loved ones.
There are a few characters (members of Little Hawk’s family come to mind) who aren’t given the opportunity to grow here unfortunately. The film is so great at revealing differing personalities and the moral ambiguities of the Old West so it’s disappointing that not all of the characters are given similar opportunities.
As a character study of a few main characters though, Hostiles is remarkably thoughtful and morally provocative.
If you want to see Christian Bale at his best then watch “The Machinist”. A tour de force performance in my book.
It’s your call to make.
You have just made the point that two people can see the movie, and have totally different opinions.
My ancestors homesteaded in Oklahoma in 1901, Kiowa county. They said that even then if you saw Indians traveling to Fort Sill you grabbed the guns and got your family to safety.
Just in case.
Today’s youth have no connection with the Frontier days. As a baby, I was held by my Great-grand-pappy who was born in 1868, when Custer raided the Oklahoma Indian camps, Eight when Custer died in Montana, bison on the plains, cattle drives heading north. He lived long enough to see the B-52 Bomber go into service.
Anyone interested in what the Military thought of the Indians back in 1863-1865 should read THE INDIAN WAR OF 1864 by Capt. Eugene Ware. (Bison Books). He lived it.
Godless may be some of the best cinema to be produced in a long time.
I have seen my death......
I binged watched after the first episode.
Is it as bad as the horrid SOLDIER BLUE from 1970? Worst Western movie I have ever seen. Second worst, but still fun to watch, is LITTLE BIG MAN.
After seeing these two I knew revisionism had hit, and destroyed, the history of the Old West.
Christian bale is great, the scenery is great, the supporting cast was good but the movie is not believable in its details from the beginning to the end. The people are strangers when the audience sees them in the beginning and remain strangers through the end.
“I don’t recall ever seeing a movie with Christian Bale.”
then you should see “American Psycho”. one of the most amazing movies ever made, and perhaps the best performance by an American actor EVER!
So you've never seen any of the Dark Knight Batman films, American Psycho, The Prestige, American Hustle, or when he was a child actor in Empire of the Sun? He's a reputed jerk in real life, but an outstanding actor and has been hard to avoid for the last thirty years.
Thank you!
Excellent!
Really?
Can you give me more info.
I thought I remembered that. I just looked it up to find that the Indian wars were not declared officialy over until 1924.
American Psycho is sadistic and beyond disturbing
I don’t recommend it.
( and I saw it on TV, and it was probably watered down)
That was the same year the Disney Company was founded.
History was not that long ago. :)
(which blows out of the water the anchor baby concept but that is an argument for another thread)
If you want to include the Posey War, you might as well include AIM's occupation of Alcatraz in 1969.
AIM was Wounded Knee in 1973.
In fact Wounded Knee was about a corrupt Tribal leader that they felt the BIA (Bossing Indians Around) was protecting.
Those were not considered part of the Indian Wars as they were not between the US military or US civilians and American Indians.
Take it up with the historians.
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