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Hostiles is a good movie, with an unremarkable story, but accentuated by
great performances. The plot goes something like this: A well known
Indian fighter, a captain in the US Cavalry (Bale) is tasked with the
escort of his old enemy, an Indian chief (Studi), from New Mexico to
Montana. Along the way he picks up Widowed frontier woman (Pike). Many
dangers are encountered. Most everyone in the movie dies violently. It
is broadly, a movie about broken people on the frontier in 1892 coming
to peace with who they are, what they believe, and coming to terms with
what has been done to them and the people they love. As I said, the
story is nothing significant. It makes no revelations. Anything
high-minded comes off as caricature.
That said, I declare it a good movie primarily for the acting of Bale,
Pike, and supporting cast who bring serious dramatic subtleties and
nuance to their roles. In this regard, the movie is mostly an intense
character study with even throw-away supporting characters getting a
chance at being more than stand-ins. The relationship between the
captain and his corporal (played by Jonathan Majors) and the captain and
his sergeant (played by Rory Cochrane) feel genuine and heartfelt, if
not heartbreaking.
Disappointingly, the Indian cast is almost completely wasted. Studi has
nearly nothing to say throughout, and his son (played by the talented
Adam Beach) says almost as little too. I cannot recall now if the other
Indian actors even said a word.
On the John Ford Test, it scored a perfect passing grade. The
cinematography is gorgeous, letting the camera dwell on the vast epic
landscapes of the American West (filmed in Arizona, Colorado, and New
Mexico) when the sense of isolation is required, or frenetic shots of
tight spaces when claustrophobic tension is needed. Occasionally the
movie has moments of Western transcendence when the acting and the
cinematography are in perfect sync as when Bale's captain has a
breakdown with a storm raging behind him.
Being a modern western, it is of course revisionist with morally gray
characters and ample dialogue that sounds contextually like Presentism,
rather than the realities of 1890s frontier life, but regardless there
is much to be commended in the making of an "intelligent" western.
I recommend this movie.
-Brent
"It's not the load that breaks you down. It's the way you carry it". - C. S. Lewis
