Movie Review: “Hostiles” Is A Proper Western That’s Entertaining, Brutal, And Historically Aware

In 1892, a legendary Army captain reluctantly agrees to escort a Cheyenne chief and his family through dangerous territory.

The Western continues to be a meditative space to examine the United States’ bloody past and forces us to reckon with manifest destiny being a sugar-coated word for stolen land and systematic genocide. “Hostiles” is set in 1892 well after the United States was recuperating from the Civil War and the only frontier left to conquer and control was the West. Not too long before 1892, the Native tribes were being dealt massive calamities one after the other. The Dawes Act was enacted by the Government as a ploy to break up the native community’s tribal structure, and the monumental Massacre at Wounded Knee changed the future generations of hopeful Natives. Many Westerns take different approaches to the classic rugged genre. John Ford liked to capture the adventurous nature of the West and helped bring together the tropes of various characters in the film “Stagecoach.” Over the years I find myself more drawn to contemplative contemporary outings. Movies like “The Assassination of Jesse James,” “The Proposition,” and others that resonate with the legendary poetic cynic Cormac Mccarthy. While many films over the years used Natives’ struggles as a prop to help the white character’s experience, “Hostiles” thankfully takes an honest look at the cultural circumstance.

The movie opens with a Comanche War Party galloping towards and slaughtering a family of white settlers. The next scene is immediately and cleverly juxtaposed by a cavalry troop of Union soldiers led by Captain Joseph Blocker while they are rounding up an Apache family to be imprisoned at their military outpost. Captain Blocker at first showing apathy, played by the always revelatory Christian Bale, is casually eating a piece of fruit while they are locking them up. In order to secure his pension, Blocker is told by his superiors, played by Stephen Lang and the almost omnipresent Bill Camp, that they are emancipating a legendary Cheyenne war chief with papers signed by US President Harrison. Blocker is reluctant due to his sordid past with Yellow Hawk and they have seen each other in combat or at the least the aftermath of each other’s savagery. It is also worth noting that both Bale and his costar Wes Studi impressively learned Cheyenne fluently for their respective roles.

The ensemble is fantastic all around with standouts from Rosamund Pike, Ben Foster, and the chameleonic Rory Cochrane. Cochrane, who plays Thomas, originally enlisted with the grey confederates at the young age of 14 and now he’s a Sergeant of their troop and Captain Blocker’s most trusted soldier. They both recount their war stories with the battled weariness one can only fathom due to their various and long military campaigns. Thomas knows it’s a soldier’s duty to entangle in the pitiless nature of battle and he tells one character he’s “killed anything that’s walked or crawled.” Without giving much away, the traveling party comes across the massacred family and Rosamund Pike joins them on their journey to Montana. The film is full of harrowing moments and in one scene a black Corporal is ordered by his white Captain to put chains on the Native men. It illuminates how minorities were made to oppress each other by their white superiors.

Scott Cooper’s camerawork, with wide panning shots showcasing the natural beauty of its locations, during the action it’s sharply vivid and clear what’s happening. Like the oil on linen paintings, capturing journeys out West, the wonderful cinematography in the always talented hands of maestro Masanobu Takayanagi captures the splendid colors of New Mexico and Montana. The scenes fade effortlessly like an ink blot as they did in Cooper’s previous films “Out of the Furnace” and “Black Mass.” He also once again applies great tracking shots taking you in and out gorgeous ancient rock laden chasms, charred burned down homes all lingering on both the beauty and despair. The score composed by Max Richter is lovely and haunting, whose past work on “Arrival” and “The Leftovers” was some of the most beautiful contemporary baroque inspired music I’ve ever heard. Make sure you see it in theaters, ideally on its robust 35mm print.

In theaters Friday, January 5th