Director Scott Cooper (Out of the Furnace, Black Mass, Crazy Heart) doesn’t shy away from brutality, racism, and survival out on the American frontier. In Hostiles, he doesn’t hold anything back, the lawless land and the bloodshed that covers it speaks for itself. As harsh as it has to be, there’s beauty in the landscapes, grace in its mercy. What you’re witnessing is a powerful Western where no one is innocent and there’s great difficulty separating the good from the evil.
Christian Bale is stellar as Captain Joseph Blocker, a man bogged down by burden, but refuses to fall apart because of it. He’s watched fellow soldiers and friends be butchered by Native Americans. His hatred runs deep with his hands being just as dirty as the so-called savages he hunts down. He has a nasty reputation to say the least. One for the record books. Bale’s silence is ferocious, each look saying more than a thousand words ever could. A gift that very few actors are blessed with.
Blocker is beyond disgusted when he finds out he is being ordered by President Harrison to escort Yellow Hawk (a splendid Wes Studi), a Cheyenne Chief that’s dying, back to his home in Montana to live out the last of his days in peace with his family, portrayed by Adam Beach, Xavier Horsechief, Tanaya Beatty and Q’orianka Kilcher. Blocker and Yellow Hawk share a violent past, making them enemies for eternity. Nearly retired and needing his well-earned pension, Blocker unwillingly accepts the mission and, along with his men (Rory Cochrane, Jesse Plemon, Timothée Chalamet and Jonathan Majors), must deliver the chief safe and sound.
Along their way, they approach Rosalie Quaid (a remarkable Rosamund Pike) who is found trying to keep her children alive long after their blood has run cold. Her husband can be found in the front yard—dead and scalped from the Comanche’s atrocious assault. Her and Blocker form a relationship, both coming from a place of hurt and hate, and begin to find healing in the most unlikely of places and with the most unlikely people.
Cooper takes his sweet time making sure we all understand and feel his characters’ torment. It’s an endless cycle that has taken its toll on all people of all colors. The past is a pain in the ass, and once Blocker and his boys agree to escort former soldier now criminal Philip Wills (an always blistering Ben Foster) to justice, unspeakable things are spoken out loud. Things like that tend to make men remember.
Hostiles is a haunting journey on a path that brings nothing but pain and loss. Those are the two things everyone seems to have in common. Still, Cooper leaves traces of hope. A hope of finding peace somewhere where its been buried deep down. Hostiles may be rough and relentless, but it’s remarkable in proving individuals can change under the most excruciating circumstances with scars sharing their story.
Brandon Vick is a member of The Music City Film Critics’ Association and the Southeastern Film Critics Association, the resident film critic of the SoBros Network, and the star of The Vick’s Flicks Podcast. Follow him on Twitter @SirBrandonV and be sure to search #VicksFlicks for all of his latest movie reviews.
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