Review of Hostiles (2017) by Clarisesamuels — 28 Sep 2018

The film’s title is a conundrum. Who are the true hostiles, the Native Americans or the American settlers? A seasoned army captain is asked to escort an aging and sick Cheyenne chief (Wes Studi) and his family back to their homeland in Montana, after having endured seven years of prison for war crimes. Captain Joseph Blocker, played by Christian Bale, balks to the point where he is threatened with court-martial, prison, and a loss of his pension if he does not obey the orders that come directly from U.S. President Benjamin Harrison in the year 1892.

But things have changed since the Battle of Wounded Knee, in which Blocker had fought. Back East, influential citizens have begun what would evolve into the long and slow process of the United States government paying reparations and making official apologies to indigenous peoples. The popular advocacy on behalf of Native Americans was in its infant stages. The Indians were wronged by the white settlers; they were dispossessed; their lands were stolen from them; they suffered indignity and they died in droves from white man’s diseases. Laws were passed prohibiting their spiritual practices. It was just a handful of voices, but President Harrison was being harassed by prominent citizens. Under political pressure, the President ordered Chief Yellow Hawk and his family to be released from prison and escorted home.

Blocker had seen slaughters conducted by Indians in his long career as a U.S. soldier. He mistrusts Yellow Hawk, but the military commander is forced to accept orders, and the journey of a thousand miles begins. Against all odds, Yellow Hawk becomes an unexpected source of wisdom and support. Early on the travelers meet a victim of the Comanche Indians, a young widow, Rosalee Quaid (Rosalind Pike), out of her mind with grief because her cabin in the middle of an empty plain had been burnt down, her husband and three children murdered as she miraculously escaped. The trek on horseback to Chief Yellow Hawk’s sacred homeland, where he is eventually buried, is disturbed by Comanche attacks, deserters, and abduction. When the group finally arrives in Montana, we receive a brief tutorial on the history of gun violence in the United States. There is a shootout on the sacred Indian land which is privately owned by a crazy, gun-toting, white senior who threatens to kill the entire party if they don’t get off his land. (Americans are suffering the legacy of this mentality to this day in Texas, where ambiguous legislation allows gun owners to take the law into their own hands.).

The movie has all the elements for greatness in the genre of Westerns and nearly achieves it. Christian Bale is a force of nature; Rosalind Pike is a pillar of feminist strength. With their wordless romance, fate decrees that Rosalee is compensated for her losses. But there are historical inaccuracies and questions to deal with. Conflicts with Comanches ended in the 1870’s when the last Comanche bands surrendered to the U.S. Army. The character of Rosalee is educated and no stranger to fashion; it’s not clear why she and her husband built a log cabin exposed in the middle of isolated and dangerous territory. And there were trains and stagecoaches they could have taken for their journey to Montana; civilization was right around the corner in 1892. The fictional plot is a bit of an anachronism. Nevertheless the broader story of racism, misappropriated land, and the destruction of Native American culture is historically accurate, and these issues still have implications in the present.