FILM REVIEW: Hostiles (2017)

Directed by Scott Cooper

***1/2

The characters in Hostiles seem to exist in a perpetual state of shock, as if having just bore witness to some great cataclysm. Their eyes are devoid of liveliness, their voices are worn and raspy. When somebody sings, it’s less to have fun and pass the time than to comfort themselves. The world around them, once a promising frontier of opportunity, has become an unforgiving wilderness that has swallowed them whole - the result of their own prejudice, violent actions, and other such human follies.

Hostiles is a terrific new western. Revising the Cowboys & Indians formula, the result is a film that is ponderous and poignant, but also hardened and audacious.

The very mood of Hostiles is embodied in Christian Bale’s performance as Joe Blocker, a captain in the Army just short of retirement. This is not new or groundbreaking territory for Bale as an actor – as a matter of fact, it’s pretty much typical Bale. While not necessarily a bad thing, it’s a role that builds on his capabilities. In Hostiles, the notes are hit flawlessly.

He is summoned for a mission: escort the incarcerated Native Chief Yellow Hawk (Wes Studi) and his family to their homeland – this is an order directly from the President of the United States. Blocker doesn’t like savages. Not one bit, and he is not afraid to show it. He is especially contemptuous and wary for Yellow Hawk, but not without his reasons. Almost as if he is pleading for relief from this mission, Blocker explicitly recalls Chief Yellow Hawk’s gruesome atrocities.

The commanding officer threatens Blocker with a court martial if he doesn’t comply. Blocker takes the job, but it appears he would rather be court martialed. Blocker assembles a team to assist in the escort. They mount their horses and begin their arduous trek. The moment opportunity permits, Blocker has the natives shackled.

Along the way, they come across Rosalie Quaid (Rosamund Pike) hunkered inside the burnt remains of her home. In the opening scene, her husband and three young children – including a newborn infant – are shot dead by a group of natives. She is traumatized by the experience. Blocker offers his hospitality, which she accepts. When she sees the natives travelling with them, she cannot contain her hysteria.

Of course, the ravage from the natives is not entirely unjustified. After all, their land was suddenly taken from them without apparent reason from the white race. Rosalie finds herself in the same shoes. As far as we know, she has done no harm to these people. All she wanted was to live in harmony with her family in this new land. And then it’s all taken from her, once again without apparent reason.

What makes Hostiles so effective is also what makes it so difficult to discuss. It is completely unapologetic – there is blood on everybody’s hands, and the film is not afraid to show it. The natives have every right to fight back for their land, yet how could one possibly justify the gun murder of an infant? After Rosalie’s ordeal, she repeatedly and monstrously shoots a dead native with a revolver (even after the gun has emptied) after a gunfight, almost as if she is possessed.

The past is the past, though. Sometimes, all that matters is now is now. Our characters realize this; early in their trek, Chief Yellow Hawk notifies Captain Blocker that they are passing through Commanche territory, who kill indiscriminately. He requests that they be unlocked from their shackles. As hesitant as he is, he lets them free.

I dare not say where the story goes from here, though you can probably figure the rest for yourself. Perhaps a bad sign, but Hostiles rarely comes off as heavy-handed in its message of prejudice and redemption (though this may differ from viewer to viewer). It is a journey worth taking, made all the more compelling by Masanobu Takayanagi’s cinematography. I cannot recall, in recent years anyway, the last time I saw the American landscape itself captured so beautifully – I am a sucker for photogenic landscapes, though, so do mind my bias. Regardless, though, I have no doubt your eyes will be pleased.

Alongside Bale, our other key player is Rosamund Pike in a spine-tingling portrayal of a woman completely broken. When she is first seen, she sits on the bedside in her burnt house, dead newborn in hand, the rest of the dead family on the bed. There is an urgency and desperation in the way she cradles and rocks her baby, as if her own innocence (now obliterated) is right there in her arms. Maybe not subtle, but heart-wrenching nonetheless.

And now here she is, traversing the frontier alongside not only the natives who frighten her so deeply, but Captain Blocker, a jaded man who was maybe broken in a way similar to Pike’s Rosalie. I think there is supposed to be a sort of dynamic in this vein, but this results in the film’s weaknesses. I greatly admire the reserved ponderousness of Hostiles, but there tends to be an over-reliance on silence to say everything. This tends to make certain elements, characters especially, feel underdeveloped.

Hostiles is far from the masterpiece it could have been. Alongside the issues above, dialogue tends to leave something to be desired, feeling generic half the time. In spite of this, it was never enough to take away from the film’s potency, making for a moving experience that is hopeful in the face of divided times. I hope other westerns are taking note of Hostiles – the genre has needed a film like this for quite some time.