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
@trinaboice
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