Movie Title: Hostiles
Grade: B
Rating: R, 135 minutes
In a Nutshell: While this film fits in the Western niche, its narrative is still relevant to today.
Tips for parents:
- A man is shot and scalped within the first 3 minutes.
- F-bombs and other profanity
- Lots of brutal carnage and burials in the wild West.
- Subtitles when the Indians speak.
- Lots of brutal fighting.
- Dead body hung from a tree.
Uplifting theme:
- At the very beginning of the movie, you see the words, “The essential American soul is hard, isolate, stoic, and a killer. And it never yet melted.” = D. H. Lawrence
- Hope, faith
- Humanity
- Respect for others not like you
Things I liked:
- Rosemund Pike is always a pleasure to watch.
- Christian Bale gives a solid performance with impressive depth and seems right at home in 1892 frontier America. This is his second Western. His first was 3:10 To Yuma
.
- I thought it was interesting to learn that the film was shot in chronological order. That rarely happens. Most of the film was shot outdoors in New Mexico and Arizona, exposing the actors to the hostile elements. Q’orianka Kilcher suffered heat stroke during filming.
- I first noticed Stephen Lang in Avatar
. He’s the quintessential military man.
- Beautiful landscapes that make you realize that parts of America haven’t changed one bit in hundreds of years.
- Wes Studi plays a respectful Chief Yellow Hawk.
- Director/writer Scott Cooper has gotten a lot of attention for his solid work with this film.
- Satisfying character arcs for several characters.
Things I didn’t like:
- Sometimes it’s hard to understand what people are saying. With all those beards, you can’t even read their lips.
- Sometimes it’s hard to see what’s going on in the night time scenes when it’s dark.
- The Native Americans are fairly one-dimensional characters.
- It’s slow moving.
- The content is dark and grim.
- I sure am glad I didn’t have to live back then.
Interesting lines:
- “If I did not have faith, what would I have?” – Rosalie Quaid (Rosamund Pike).
- “Sometimes I envy the finality of death, the certainty, and I have to drive those thoughts away when I’m weak.” – Rosalie
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