Gone are the days of the John Ford epics that portrayed the white man as all good and the Native Americans as savages in the old west. We understand better now that there were two sides and sometimes Hollywood has glossed over the darker facts. Director Scott Cooper doesn’t have too many films under his belt, with Crazy Heart (2009) and, to a lesser degree, Black Mass (2015), being the highlights so far. However, with Hostiles, he’s crafted a special western in a time when most studios shy away from the often tired genre.
Most of us can agree that the government and early settlers of this great country were brutal in their attempts to seize land for the more “civilized” away from the “savages” who were clearly here first. It’s a less than stellar chapter in this great country of ours. A few films over the years have been honest with these facts but Hostiles has to be one of the more genuine attempts to tell both sides. There are no black and white lines drawn here with neither white man nor Native American being exclusively good or bad. A more realistic approach is told as both sides have good and evil representations.
Christian Bale (The Dark Knight) heads the cast as Captain Joseph Blocker, a career Army officer who did his duty for God and country in pursuing, capturing and killing the enemy. It’s 1892 and the Indian Wars are coming to an end as more sympathetic eyes begin to look upon our previous actions with a desire to move forward. Blocker sees Native Americans as savage and wants nothing more than to see them rot inside a prison cell…or worse. However, he is ordered to take Cheyenne Chief Yellow Hawk (Wes Studi, Dances with Wolves, Last of the Mohicans) and his family to his ancestral lands far north. Facing a court martial if he refuses, Blocker begins the journey with a small band of officers that include Hollywood’s newest face Timothee Chalamet (Call Me By Your Name, Ladybird), who has very little to do here and, spoiler alert, doesn’t last long. His longtime friend Master Sergeant Thomas Metz (Rory Cochrane) is scarred by years of conflict and ready to leave the Army life behind.
Early on their mission, Blocker finds Rosalie Quaid (Rosamund Pike, Gone Girl), a widow who witnessed her entire family murdered by a Comanche war tribe. He brings her along on their quest with plans to drop her off once they reach a fort in Colorado. It’s at this point that we begin to see Blocker looking at his actions and the hardened shell in which he has surrounded himself begins to crack. A series of obstacles are placed in their path, from the Comanche to fur traders to a murderous soldier on his way to hang for war crimes. Even Scott Wilson (Hershel from The Walking Dead) shows up before the end credits as a farmer hell bent on keeping his land free of savages. Through every step, Blocker is drawn closer to Rosalie and develops more respect for Yellow Hawk, a man he once hated but he now sees very much as an equal who just happened to be on the other side of a war in which both men lost so much.
Hostiles is a beautiful film, rich with stunning landscapes from cinematographer Masanobu Takayanagi (The Grey) and presented with music by Max Richter (Shutter Island) that both lightens and intensifies what can be a very dark but compelling story. These elements help us wade through some meandering moments.
Throughout, I found the characters believable with one minor exception. Rosalie’s quick recovery from the death of her family to where she is by the end of the film seemed too old school saccharine Hollywood in what is an otherwise gritty and realistic tale. While a happy ending was probably needed, it does seem out-of-place from the rest of the story.
Whatever minor flaws are present did not deter me from enjoying Hostiles, a film which I highly recommend. We may not get as many westerns as we once did but we are getting smarter stories and Hostiles has set the bar a little higher.
