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108.81.116.219
The essential American soul is hard, isolate, stoic, and a killer. It has never yet melted." - D. H. Lawrence/1923
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That's one of the first things you see and it is a projection of what the film is about. Bale plays first fiddle to this and is reluctant to take a savage chief (who he has seen carving up soldiers) back to his homeland to die. Along the way, his attitude changes but his dark, American soul resists and fights back till the bitter end.
The was a very low-key story that deloped on a very slow rolling pace once we get to Bale and his soldiers. The film opens up with Pike's family being slaughtered by the local Commanches and her distraught grief that carries on for quite a while. (Can this woman ever look bad?) She is rescued by Bales detail along the way to Montana where Chief Yellow Hawk (Studi) will be released with his immediate family.
Many things happen along the way that helps to soften Bale's soul but not completely heal it.
The film uses devices to beleaguer the mistreatment of Indians in the face of Bale's actual experiences "in the field". His life is a direct contradiction of the sympathy that seems to be an outpouring from most of the public.
Four out of five wonks.
Bale was very muted and soft-spoken, so much so I thought I was going to have to buy a hearing aid. The same with Rory Cochrane who was Bale's friend and comrade-in-arms. Pike put in a great performance with her overwhelming grief fading into a hardened frontier woman. And Wes Studi played the ever-stoic chief who becomes an ally out of necessity and human decency.
Not a feel-good film. But, it is compelling and you will be glued to it.
Follow Ups:
...even with its minor warts. The casting, acting, and scenery (New Mexico, mostly) are excellent, as is the story itself. I found it NOT too long or meandering. Rosamund Pike has never looked better.
Five stars from me.
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Tin-eared audiofool, lover of large-scale Classical and film music and movies, and amateur fotografer.
William Bruce Cameron: "...not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted."
Thanks! for sharing-
dating back to the Siskel & Ebert days, I always went to see the films those guys rated as 1 / 2 stars.
I'm going to second BW's 4/5 ranking and say the syndicated reviewer is off base.
Syndicated reviewer posted in my local newspaper gave it 1 1/2 stars. Long and boring was the main objection this person wrote.
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Tin-eared audiofool, lover of large-scale Classical and film music and movies, and amateur fotografer.
William Bruce Cameron: "...not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted."
Saw it yesterday. Excellent film and certainly not boring.
-Wendell
I dug out the review. He gave it just one star. Title of his rant is Hostiles' is the slowest movie in the west. Written by Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle
It worked for me. A substantial film.
-Wendell
I am just the messenger on this one. Your personal experiencing is just as valid. I will see it when it hits disc format.
Unlike the published reviewer, I have an attention span beyond action scenes. Perhaps the guy is somebodies relative who needed a job.
I thought it a solid western tale, with a good story, yet overlooking some details along the way. like a full old fashioned group campsite being carried on two pack horses. Not a perfectly thought out presentation, but the tail doesn't suffer, unless you look.
I looked at the cast and saw enough people who can pick from the best material , with a record of success , to make me curious about a move set against the largest transfer of wealth in our nations history.
A memorable passage from the book "Overland with Buffalo Bill" stuck with me. where he describes how he would sometimes take the time to straighten the darkies out but will shoot an indian on sight, if he had a conflict. This written by a man who toured a wild west show with american natives and made money with them
This movie puts that reality as a backdrop to another western story, I don't think the reviewer who panned the film got that. ,
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