kosmasp
When you see the horrible opening sequence of the movie and you see the hate going around, you can't help wondering about the circle of violence. It creates new hate, new action and new fights amongst each other. It doesn't seem to stop. It's anything but black and white (no pun intended to any skin colors) but has quite some grey areas.You can see and you will be able to correctly guess the journey of Christian Bales story. His path, his way and how he perceives things. There is tension, which is obvious and from that tension a lot of interesting situation arise. Being able to do your duty, but also seeing a change in behavior. The movie has quite some brutal, explicit violence in it, but it also does a lot of things that may give you pause to think. It is not an easy movie to watch, not just because of that, but also because it is generally slow paced. This will not be everyones cup of tea ... actually with its raw and down and dirty nature it is anything but a cup of tea ...
leonblackwood
Review:
I wasn't a big fan of this movie because I found it quite slow and it seemed to go on forever but the storyline was quite emotional and the cinematography was spot on. I'm also not a big fan of the over-rated Christian Bale but he was the perfect choice for his role, mainly because he's moody throughout and I didn't see him crack a smile from the beginning to the end. Anyway, the film is set in 1892, were a loving family is destroyed when a Comanche war group kill Rosalee Quaid's 3 little children and her husband. Rosalee manages to escape from the ruthless Comanche tribe, by hiding in a small rock in the forest, and when she knows it's safe, she returns to her burnt down house, whilst holding her dead baby in her hands. Meanwhile, in Fort Berringer, New Mexico, Capt. Joseph J. Blocker (Christian Bale) is called into Col. Abraham Biggs (Stephen Lang) office, and he is given his last orders before he retires from the army. Biggs explains to Blocker that he is to escort a dying Cheyenne war chief, Yellow Hawk (Wes Studi) back to the tribal lands in Montana, along with his family. As Yellow Hawk brutally murdered some of Blocker's war buddies, Blocker turns down the mission but when Biggs threatens to take away his pension and give him a court-martial, Blocker agree's to the mission. As the president has signed for the release of the prisoners, Blocker is forced to chaperone Yellow Hawk and his family with no mistakes but he is determined to make their journey as uncomfortable as possible. He puts together a unit to join their journey, who he orders to put chains on the 2 native men. Whilst on there journey, they come across Rosalee's burnt house, and they find her inside with her dead children. Blocker manages to convince her to join them on there journey, so they bury her children and then they head off to Montana. On their way, they are attacked by a Comanche tribe, which damages some of Blocker's unit. The rest of the film just follows them on their journey to Montana, where they come across more Comanches, and Blocker and Yellow Hawk finally gain each other's trust. When they finally get to Montana, Yellow Hawk dies of cancer, and while they are burying him, an American landowner threatens Blocker and the rest of his group, for burying an Indian on his land. After a severe gun battle, which results in most of Yellow Hawks family getting murdered, Blocker and Rosalee manage to survive, along with Little Bear, Yellow Hawks grandson. There are some touching moments which were quite emotional, and I like the root message about racism and class but I still found it a bit too long, and quite boring. It was good to see the different situations from both sides, and the concept is relevant to today, so from that point of view, it's worth a watch. With that aside, we have all been watching Cowboy & Indians movies since we were small, and although this has a deep message, it still seems the same as the black and white movies that were made decades ago, so don't expect an Oscar-winning film. Average!Round-Up:
This movie was written and directed by Scott Cooper, who also brought you the Oscar-winning Crazy Heart, Out Of The Furnace, which also starred Christian Bale, and Black Mass with Johnny Depp. He obviously has a versatile style of movies, which have all been successful at the box office but I wasn't that impressed with this film. After watching the bonus material, he made a point of making an authentic film, which stayed true to the period, which he successfully did but from an entertainment point of view, I won't be watching it again anytime soon. As for Christian Bale, his career has gone on a downhill slump since the Dark Knight but he's due to voice Bagheera in the new Mowgli movie which is due out in 2019, so his filmography will be getting a well-needed boost soon.Budget: $50million
Worldwide Gross: $40millionGenre: Adventure, Drama, Western
Cast: Christian Bale, Rosamund Pike, Scott Shepherd, David Midthunder, Rory Cochrane, Jonathan Majors, Scott Wilson, John Benjamin Hickey, Stephen Long, Wes Studi, Jesse Plemons, Adam Beach, Peter Mullan and Ben Foster. 5/10
chi_town_fed
This film is well written, exceptionally acted, yet somewhat boring. It is also a little gory BUT the gore is rooted in historical accuracy. It wasn't gore just for the sake of gore. It was gore for the sake of portraying true history versus glorifying it or glossing over it. I support Hollywood's attempts to portray natives of this land in a respectful and authentic manner, but I try not to allow that to influence my rating of the film itself. Additionally, I have never been a big fan of the female lead in this film as she always seems wooden and expressionless to me. She did better in this film than others but her facial expression still looks a bit frozen to me. This may sound like a joke but could it be Botox?The pace of this film is painfully and unnecessarily slow. I understand the concept of the painfully slow pace is to allow the scene you just witnessed or are witnessing to penetrate. It gets to the point where I grew impatient for the scene to finally end so I started fast-forwarding through some parts. This cadence replays itself through most of the film.Some reviewers attempt to compare Hostiles to Dances With Wolves for some strange reason. Other than having a Union Soldier and Native Americans share the same screen, these movies have absolutely nothing in common save the following: Dances With Wolves is 3 hours long. Hostiles feels 3 hours long (but it is actually 2 hours and 14 minutes.Hostiles is a fairly solid film mainly due to the actors. However it missed the mark. I think it is worth watching when you want to fill a gap in your schedule. Just be prepared to wait for some scenes to go by in what feels like slow motion. They also went over board with the guilt a particular soldier displays over the things he has done. Moreover, his apology scene seemed pretentious and inauthentic (not the acting, the scene). It was actually Hollywood trying to inject a 2017 apology to make some people today feel better about themselves and their false sense of guilt.As I stated in another review, if you choose to watch this film fast forward is your friend.
