When I first saw the trailer for Scott Cooper's Hostiles, an old-fashioned Western with an existential twist, it felt self-serious almost to the point of parody. In my mind, no amount of gorgeous imagery or thematic potency can overcome Rosamund Pike rattling off lines like "Sometimes I envy the finality of death," and I was concerned that the whole thing would feel that egregiously grim. Hostiles is the rare movie that went all-out on the festival circuit before practically evaporating into thin air, failing to ignite much critical praise or awards momentum. It was picked up by Byron Allen's rapidly developing Entertainment Studios, and while its box office numbers are actually quite good so far, the film is out of the awards race and playing almost like a typical January release. Some prominent figures in the film community have come to its defense in recent weeks, but it may be too little too late.
After seeing the film, it's not hard to understand why Cooper's fourth feature was passed over by most festival-goers and awards voters. It's not entirely without merit- it's a vicious, starkly beautiful example of the Western genre with quite a bit on its mind. But I cannot undersell the brutality of this experience, nor can I overstate the fact that Hostiles is an utterly exhausting endurance test. There's nothing wrong with a film taking itself very seriously, but this examination of the American spirit of violence is so consistently intense that it becomes oppressive. And when you couple that relentlessly somber sensibility with the languid pacing and grueling runtime, Hostiles grows tiresome quickly. A film comprised of so many ambitious ideas that none of them really stick, Cooper's latest is ultimately an admirable, yet thoroughly misguided de-construction of Western tropes.
Hostiles begins with a scene that has already generated the most online discussion out of anything else in the film, mostly because of how shocking it is. Rosalie Quaid (Rosamund Pike) is quietly teaching her daughters a grammar lesson, while her husband (Scott Shepard) chops up wood outside. But a tribe of Comanches come along to steal the family's horses, killing everyone except Rosalie, even shooting her young newborn out of her arms. From there, we're introduced to Captain Joe Blocker (Christian Bale), an old soldier who is reaching the end of his run in the military. It's 1892 in New Mexico, and along with his old friends and war buddies, Tommy (Rory Cochrane) and Henry (Jonathan Majors), Joe spends time reminiscing about the good ol' days. Except those stories no longer feel heroic or boastful- they're the haunted memories of drunken old men.
But before he can retire to a life of solitude, Joe is given one more mission- he's tasked with escorting the dying Chief Yellow Hawk (Wes Studi) and his family to their home in Montana. Since Yellow Hawk was responsible for killing so many of his friends over the years, Joe is initially defiant, refusing to carry out the mission. But when Corporal Biggs (Stephen Lang) threatens his pension, Joe is left with no choice but to take Yellow Hawk home. Along with his close friends and a few additional soldiers (Jesse Plemons, Timothée Chalamet), Joe begins the long march to Montana. Unfortunately, nothing will be quite as simple as it seems. With the Comanches threatening them at every moment (this is where that opening scene comes in) and a sense of dread developing among the soldiers, Joe will be faced with his own personal crisis, forced to confront his own violent past and find a way to move forward.
In theory, everything in Hostiles should be really compelling and dynamic, carrying the movie through its slowest moments. It tackles America's violent past with unflinching clarity, taking a sober look at the inhumane treatment of Native Americans by the U.S. Army. It's about soldiers haunted by what they've done with their lives, proud souls cracking under the weight of guilt. It's a chilling look at the winners and losers of war and the ambiguity of consequences, a spiritual meditation on how the real punishment comes later. And eventually, it evolves into a portrait of enemies who realize the futility of their conflict. So much rich material, but Hostiles quickly becomes a case of diminishing returns. Sparked by the grisly and invigorating opening, Cooper is able to establish his characters and narrative with initially stellar results. The Stagecoach-inspired narrative feels like the proper vehicle for what Cooper is trying to say, and everything is moving swimmingly for a while.
But Cooper can't sustain that sense of propulsive momentum, and the film slips into sluggish monotony without ever really recovering. As the bodies quickly pile up, it's hard to find a reason to care about any of this carnage. I get that the pointlessness kind of is the point, but the repetition of having characters walk through the desert before a sudden burst of violence grows tedious. It doesn't help that Cooper poses a new philosophical question at the start of practically each scene, making the movie feel like less of a precise psychological analysis and more of a shotgun blast of ideas. After a while, all of these character decisions and thematic propositions begin to contradict one another. It's terrific and necessary to examine white racism towards Native Americans, but what does it say about your movie that the main villains are still Native Americans portrayed as savages? Cooper is intent on looking at conflict and violence with sadness, which makes it feel profoundly strange that the Comanches are such one-dimensional antagonists, even described by Yellow Hawk as deranged individuals. I don't doubt the noble intentions of anyone involved, but Hostiles is trying to do too much.
It doesn't help that everyone looks extraordinarily miserable the whole time. I get that this is a serious film about serious things, but would just a little bit of levity be that much of a bad thing? Christian Bale is one of my favorite actors, but all of his po-faced mugging here gets tiresome fast, and I don't think his big emotional moments land as hard as they could. In some ways, Rosamund Pike's performance as a heartbroken and grieving mother is the core of the film, but her character arc is both sloppy and inconsistent, never coming together the way it should. And while I had heard great things about Wes Studi going into this film, I was surprised to find that he has so little to do. There's one great scene between him and Bale towards the end, but the film is so full of left turns and subplots that we're deprived of the touching two-hander that this could have been.
There's a lot to like about Hostiles. The desolate, sun-baked photography from Masanobu Takayanagi is astounding to behold, and Cooper has a mastery of action that creates some engaging sequences. Like all ambitious disappointments, I just wish that Hostiles was able to execute its difficult ideas in a more engaging manner. Instead, this reflection on the American West gets bogged down in its own merciless, painful sense of misery and despair.
THE FINAL GRADE: C+ (6.2/10)
Images courtesy of Entertainment Studios
After seeing the film, it's not hard to understand why Cooper's fourth feature was passed over by most festival-goers and awards voters. It's not entirely without merit- it's a vicious, starkly beautiful example of the Western genre with quite a bit on its mind. But I cannot undersell the brutality of this experience, nor can I overstate the fact that Hostiles is an utterly exhausting endurance test. There's nothing wrong with a film taking itself very seriously, but this examination of the American spirit of violence is so consistently intense that it becomes oppressive. And when you couple that relentlessly somber sensibility with the languid pacing and grueling runtime, Hostiles grows tiresome quickly. A film comprised of so many ambitious ideas that none of them really stick, Cooper's latest is ultimately an admirable, yet thoroughly misguided de-construction of Western tropes.
Hostiles begins with a scene that has already generated the most online discussion out of anything else in the film, mostly because of how shocking it is. Rosalie Quaid (Rosamund Pike) is quietly teaching her daughters a grammar lesson, while her husband (Scott Shepard) chops up wood outside. But a tribe of Comanches come along to steal the family's horses, killing everyone except Rosalie, even shooting her young newborn out of her arms. From there, we're introduced to Captain Joe Blocker (Christian Bale), an old soldier who is reaching the end of his run in the military. It's 1892 in New Mexico, and along with his old friends and war buddies, Tommy (Rory Cochrane) and Henry (Jonathan Majors), Joe spends time reminiscing about the good ol' days. Except those stories no longer feel heroic or boastful- they're the haunted memories of drunken old men.
But before he can retire to a life of solitude, Joe is given one more mission- he's tasked with escorting the dying Chief Yellow Hawk (Wes Studi) and his family to their home in Montana. Since Yellow Hawk was responsible for killing so many of his friends over the years, Joe is initially defiant, refusing to carry out the mission. But when Corporal Biggs (Stephen Lang) threatens his pension, Joe is left with no choice but to take Yellow Hawk home. Along with his close friends and a few additional soldiers (Jesse Plemons, Timothée Chalamet), Joe begins the long march to Montana. Unfortunately, nothing will be quite as simple as it seems. With the Comanches threatening them at every moment (this is where that opening scene comes in) and a sense of dread developing among the soldiers, Joe will be faced with his own personal crisis, forced to confront his own violent past and find a way to move forward.
In theory, everything in Hostiles should be really compelling and dynamic, carrying the movie through its slowest moments. It tackles America's violent past with unflinching clarity, taking a sober look at the inhumane treatment of Native Americans by the U.S. Army. It's about soldiers haunted by what they've done with their lives, proud souls cracking under the weight of guilt. It's a chilling look at the winners and losers of war and the ambiguity of consequences, a spiritual meditation on how the real punishment comes later. And eventually, it evolves into a portrait of enemies who realize the futility of their conflict. So much rich material, but Hostiles quickly becomes a case of diminishing returns. Sparked by the grisly and invigorating opening, Cooper is able to establish his characters and narrative with initially stellar results. The Stagecoach-inspired narrative feels like the proper vehicle for what Cooper is trying to say, and everything is moving swimmingly for a while.
But Cooper can't sustain that sense of propulsive momentum, and the film slips into sluggish monotony without ever really recovering. As the bodies quickly pile up, it's hard to find a reason to care about any of this carnage. I get that the pointlessness kind of is the point, but the repetition of having characters walk through the desert before a sudden burst of violence grows tedious. It doesn't help that Cooper poses a new philosophical question at the start of practically each scene, making the movie feel like less of a precise psychological analysis and more of a shotgun blast of ideas. After a while, all of these character decisions and thematic propositions begin to contradict one another. It's terrific and necessary to examine white racism towards Native Americans, but what does it say about your movie that the main villains are still Native Americans portrayed as savages? Cooper is intent on looking at conflict and violence with sadness, which makes it feel profoundly strange that the Comanches are such one-dimensional antagonists, even described by Yellow Hawk as deranged individuals. I don't doubt the noble intentions of anyone involved, but Hostiles is trying to do too much.
It doesn't help that everyone looks extraordinarily miserable the whole time. I get that this is a serious film about serious things, but would just a little bit of levity be that much of a bad thing? Christian Bale is one of my favorite actors, but all of his po-faced mugging here gets tiresome fast, and I don't think his big emotional moments land as hard as they could. In some ways, Rosamund Pike's performance as a heartbroken and grieving mother is the core of the film, but her character arc is both sloppy and inconsistent, never coming together the way it should. And while I had heard great things about Wes Studi going into this film, I was surprised to find that he has so little to do. There's one great scene between him and Bale towards the end, but the film is so full of left turns and subplots that we're deprived of the touching two-hander that this could have been.
There's a lot to like about Hostiles. The desolate, sun-baked photography from Masanobu Takayanagi is astounding to behold, and Cooper has a mastery of action that creates some engaging sequences. Like all ambitious disappointments, I just wish that Hostiles was able to execute its difficult ideas in a more engaging manner. Instead, this reflection on the American West gets bogged down in its own merciless, painful sense of misery and despair.
THE FINAL GRADE: C+ (6.2/10)
Images courtesy of Entertainment Studios
Comments
Post a Comment