Review of Hostiles (2017) by Martin D G — 27 Jan 2018

Cormac McCarthy's western epic Blood Meridian or the Evening Redness in the West is an obtuse and nearly insurmountable story to commit to screen, and I have my doubts that if it ever is produced that it will properly encapsulate the themes and poetic depth of that novel. But I can appreciate when a movie scratches the surface, and Hostiles is definitely one of those films. In it, Christian Bale is a U.S. Cavalry officer tasked with escorting a Cheyenne war chief back to his tribal home in Montana before the chief succumbs to cancer. To make things worse, the two of them had been at Wounded Knee, and there is a deep-seated hatred stemming from decades of violence that colors the ill-fated expedition and makes survival difficult when they are beset on all sides by murderous Apaches, fur traders, criminals, and landowners. On the way, their party encounters a widow played by Rosamund Pike whose children and husband were murdered days earlier, and there is much weeping and gnashing of teeth.

It's hard to dredge up sympathy for people who have committed atrocities in war, and many of these characters know deep down they have gone past the point of redemption some time ago. Learning to live with themselves and do right by their country or god versus relishing the barbarian power of their actions is never quite clearly rectified, and that takes an emotional toll on everyone involved. Bale especially delivers a performance as sympathetic as it is reprehensible, but his and many of the other players characterizations are made a bit too easy thanks to mostly monosemous dialogue. The major themes and internal struggles are clearly stated, leaving little to dissect and ruminate on between the bouts of action and violence that drive the plot.

What it may lack in depth, it more than makes up for with atmosphere. Masanobu Takayanagi's cinematography is quite beautiful in parts and effectively captures the scope and complexity of the western landscape. This is only accentuated by Max Richter's haunting score, centered on a one of a kind acoustic contraption from Turkey called a Yabahar. Its forlorn reverberations, zaps, and squeaks bring to mind a cross between the waterphone, the digeridoo, and a synthesizer, giving the film an eerie, otherworldly quality.

For fans of the western genre, there's nothing to see here that hasn't been done before. It has a few problems, but what it does it does well. It's certainly no There Will Be Blood or Unforgiven, but Hostiles easily stands out amidst other lesser known modern western staples like Bone Tomahawk, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, and The Salvation.