Review of Hostiles (2017) by Maureen M — 18 Aug 2018

Remember the days when women characters were just wimpering, wailing, helpless victims with no real purpose other than to move the plot forward by getting raped and beaten? It should be easy, because its 2018 and that shit is still getting written! And the writer isn't even a first year film student right out of high school. But I'm not just disappointed in him, I'm also disappointed in the people who funded this film without forcing the female characters to be rewritten. I mean, Rosamund Pike plays a pioneer woman who, rather than defend her family from an attack or run her children to safety, stands there screaming while her entire family is killed.

Now, I would have stopped watching then, but I wanted this to be the beginning of Rosalee's hero's journey. Nope. After 5 minutes of women crying, we get a dialogue scene in which 2 men say more in 1 minute than the women said in the first 5. When we finally see Rosalee again, she's gone crazy! There's a chance to drop Rosalee off in a town, but we really need to keep her around so she can be raped and beaten (of fucking course!) and later, provide emotional support to the lead character. I still haven't figured out why I give a shit about Christian Bale's character. Is it time to start redeeming white men for their transgression? Yeah, somehow I'm just not there yet.

It gets 2 stars for beautiful cinematography.