Hostiles is about the journey of an American military captain and some of his crew, a woman who lost her entire family and some captive Native Americans. These people are on an escort mission to the Native American homes in Montana to safely bring back said band of Native Americans. Throughout their journey, they would have to brave through tough conditions as well as "savage" Indians that are on their tail.
This was a movie I would either like or really hate due to its themes, and rather than looking at the Native Americans in a bad light, the characters slowly open up to them. This is mostly a character driven western rather than an action filled one. Christian Bale plays an army captain who is notorious for killing several Indians as a soldier and is reluctant about the ones he's escorting. Rosamund Pike is the lone survivor of a family of five in an attack from an Indian army and has grown fearful of them as a result. The movie's main leads are both understandable and realistic characters who are being tested by the sight of them and that's the movie's biggest strong point.
This movie is mostly slow paced, which works mostly to help the audience sink in the dialogue. Christian Bale is really good in here. His character takes risks while his state of mind gets put to the test. Rosamund Pike may be even better as a broken soul. The opening scene where her home and loved ones get taken away from her is heartbreaking and helps to set up her character.
Despite the strong themes about prejudice and well-realized characters, the way the movie tells its story feels uneven and repetitive. The action scenes feel like they come and go within one to two minutes. While those scenes do get us somewhere new, I wanted to see some longer fights between the Indians and the travelers. The repetition comes with a repeated cycle of travelling during the daytime and camping during the night. I don't have a problem with that cycle, but it just repeats too often throughout the film and its hard not to notice it.
Either way you look at it, Hostiles is still an effective character driven experience that tests a group's ways of thinking.
7/10
This was a movie I would either like or really hate due to its themes, and rather than looking at the Native Americans in a bad light, the characters slowly open up to them. This is mostly a character driven western rather than an action filled one. Christian Bale plays an army captain who is notorious for killing several Indians as a soldier and is reluctant about the ones he's escorting. Rosamund Pike is the lone survivor of a family of five in an attack from an Indian army and has grown fearful of them as a result. The movie's main leads are both understandable and realistic characters who are being tested by the sight of them and that's the movie's biggest strong point.
This movie is mostly slow paced, which works mostly to help the audience sink in the dialogue. Christian Bale is really good in here. His character takes risks while his state of mind gets put to the test. Rosamund Pike may be even better as a broken soul. The opening scene where her home and loved ones get taken away from her is heartbreaking and helps to set up her character.
Despite the strong themes about prejudice and well-realized characters, the way the movie tells its story feels uneven and repetitive. The action scenes feel like they come and go within one to two minutes. While those scenes do get us somewhere new, I wanted to see some longer fights between the Indians and the travelers. The repetition comes with a repeated cycle of travelling during the daytime and camping during the night. I don't have a problem with that cycle, but it just repeats too often throughout the film and its hard not to notice it.
Either way you look at it, Hostiles is still an effective character driven experience that tests a group's ways of thinking.
7/10