I am not at all a fan of westerns, and I was initially very reluctant to see this film. The trailers depicted the typical "cowboys and Indians" scenario and that always turns me off from the genre, as it is so typical. However, I guess I shouldn't judge a book by its cover (or a movie by its trailer), because Hostiles is an engaging film full of beautiful cinematography and a decent story with great character development. While many of the performances are very bland, the interesting plot makes up for the lack of other elements.
Although this film has two of the biggest stars in Hollywood: Christian Bale and Rosamund Pike, their performances were nothing to write home about. The best parts of this film lie in the development of their characters throughout the story. Christian Bale plays Joseph Blocker, a Cavalry leader who is in charge of rounding up the Native Americans to keep as hostages. On the opposite side of the story is Rosalie Quaid, played by Rosamund Pike, whose entire family is killed by Native Americans and she vows to get revenge on any that comes into her sight. This causes problems, of course, when Blocker is assigned to escort a Native American family to their home in Montana, called the Valley of the Bears. Blocker and his crew come across Quaid in her burnt-down home and decide to rescue her and play the typical "hero" types, of course. The development in both of these characters were very interesting to see, as that was the most intriguing part of this film. Blocker and Quaid both began as "Indian-hating" Americans who would do anything to protect their "homeland" from the tribes. One thing I did not know about this film before watching it was that the director Scott Cooper was aiming to create a more liberal-friendly western film involving Native Americans. This was a pleasant surprise, and was obviously seen in the development of these two main characters. Over the course of the film, Blocker changed from the hardass military hero to a more compassionate and accepting man. Because of the trials he was put through throughout this film, he learned to love the Native Americans for who they really were, and realized that they were not savages, but rather misunderstood people simply looking to peacefully regain what was rightfully theirs. This development was also seen in Pike's character as well, as she transitioned from hating the Native Americans, to loving what they stand for, even sewing and cooking with them towards the end of the film. However, Pike and Bale did not necessarily deliver the most amazing performances of their careers. In fact, they were both quite stoic and generic the entire time, not giving much life to their characters. The only scene regarding performances that stood out to me was Bale's conversation with Thomas Metz, played by Rory Cochrane. As Metz lay on the hospital bed, Bale delivered a very emotional monologue about their friendship and careers that really caught my attention.
Smaller elements that stood out to me the most in this film were the cinematography and a few cameos. The camera work was gorgeous and the locations that they used were perfect for the tone of the movie. Even though the editing and pacing were very generic, I appreciated their use of spatial awareness and framing in many of the shots. Some great cameos that surprised me were Adam Beach, Jesse Plemons, and Timothée Chalamet. Adam Beach played the son, Black Hawk, and while he did not have many lines, he had a very strong presence that was captivating. Much better than his insignificant role as Slipknot in Suicide Squad, of course. Plemons and Chalamet played Rudy Kidder and Phillippe DeJardin, respectively. Their inclusions in the film were both surprises to me, and since they were my favorite characters, of course they had to be the first two to die in Blocker's crew. I have awful luck with connecting with doomed characters in movies.
While there were many great aspects of this film that I thought worked well for its tone and story, there were a few parts that did not come quite up to par. My main problem with this film was its lack of resolved plot points. Examples include the scene with Blocker scorning one of his crew mates for falling asleep on the job. From the writing, there seemed to be history between the two but none of that was ever flushed out. The other point was the very ending of the film with Blocker and Quaid arriving at a new location. They seemed to be starting a new life together, but that did not ever come up in the writing or in the dialogue at all. This also brings up my other issue with the film, which was the extremely generic, vanilla, romantic subplot. Even after Quaid's husband and three children were murdered, she was apparently ready enough within a few weeks to get attached to Blocker. This was very poor writing, and definitely did not do the main female character any justice. I feel that these many poorly-attempted subplots were due to the length of the film, clocking in at 2 hours and 14 minutes. This was far too long for the film, as it only paved the way for the main plot to diverge into several other confusing points. Besides the fact that the main plot was very predictable, there were also many time era errors. The use of the word "fuck" was very excessive, and I do not think that was typically said back in 1894, as well as the small talk in one scene about cancer. In this secluded town and areas of the Old West, I do not believe that there was much extensive knowledge about those kinds of topics. These small errors very much bugged me, and this was very lazy writing on their part. Don't get me started on the fact that they re-used the same set for three different locations throughout the film.
Hostiles is a good western film for as good as that genre can be. While the liberal undertones were a pleasant and innovative surprise to me, there was simply nothing else to this movie that really drew my attention. Multiple subplots were severely underdeveloped and the characters, while slightly more developed, were mostly one-sided. I would recommend this film only if you are a die-hard fan of the genre and merely want another Christian Bale-led dirt romp.
My Rating: ★★★
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