Hostiles offers an intriguing, yet seen before take, on the story of enemies who must band together tale. It however does present a truer glimpse of what the west was truly like as opposed to those tales of glory and last stands that you have heard so much about.
Hostiles was an incredibly intriguing film to watch. There were some good parts, and some that weren’t that hot. It falls short of some of the heights that a film with this magnitude of cast should have reached which is a shame because the story is a promising idea and is for the most part well executed, but this same factor also bogs down some impressive performances. The movie revolves around Captain Joseph Blocker, a decorated veteran of the wars against the Native Americans, and his task to escort Chief Yellow Hawk, a sickly Native leader who has fought against Captain Blocker on multiple occasions, to his home lands. The two have been adversaries in one of the most brutal wars fought in the history of the country. Needless to say, they don’t care for one another to much. The initial conflict here is that Captain Blocker simply doesn’t want to do the task assigned to him. However, he is close to retirement and is threatened with court martial if he refuses the order so relents and handpicks a group of men to help him escort the Chief. Many of them he has served with before with a few new bloods to help him out. The former serves mostly as death fodder to help progress the story. Also, along with the Chief is his family, his son, daughter, daughter in law, and grandson. One of the first things they come across on their trail is Rosalee Quaid on her burned-out farm with her dead family occupying it with her. They were victims to a comanche raid. They include her in their group, but shortly after this they are also attacked by Comanche and due to injuries to their group must stop at a nearby fort. Here they pick up disgraced Army SGT. Charles Wills, who is sentenced to die. Blocker and his group are given the side quest of escorting Wills to his place of execution. Needless to say, this causes some issue with in the group. It all comes to ahead in some questionable ways while trying to tell the story of enemies becoming friends and sharing common ground.
This story is well enough, but the side stories involving Rosalee and Sgt. Wills bog it down a bit. There are a lot of large characters that are competing to have their voices heard and it might have been better off if they had streamlined it a bit and focused solely of Yellow Hawk and Captain Blocker. These reviews try to keep spoilers out of them, but it should be warned that the ending is odd, and just didn’t seem to fit with the theme. It comes out of nowhere but not in an effective way.
Despite the large cast of characters, the acting was extremely satisfying. Christian Bale nails the role of Captain Blocker, and Wes Studi is always solid, though the roll of Yellow Hawk isn’t as good as his prior roll of Magua from Last of The Mohicans. Rosamund Pike and Ben Foster despite their roles bloating the story as whole also perform extremely well. Foster shines in the time he is on the screen and after Hell or Highwater and this film, it might be mandatory for him to be in any major western. It will be exciting to seen what roles he procures for himself in the future.
On the topic of 4K we have a movie that puts it to some beneficial use. Movies with a lot of nature in them truly make this aspect stand out. There are some beautiful shots of the untamed west and it does help to enhance the film. Though, like has been said before on this site, 4K can’t overcome the faults of the movie, but it is a factor in make this movie better. Plus, who doesn’t like some Christian Bale at high resolution.
What we have here is a good film, but one that should have been better. This cast is just too good. Some of the subplots just feel like quest’s in a video game that you don’t want to deal with. If they could have just narrowed it down a bit, it could have been something special. With that said, this movie is still a recommended watch. You can’t really go wrong with it, but if you are dead set on watching a western there may be better ones out there for you to explore before getting to this one. With that said it’s a gorgeous movie that falls ever so short of where it could have been.
