Review of Hostiles (2017) by Dawdlingpoet — 22 Nov 2021

This is a sobering film - its quite atmospheric and features some good cinematography, to bring home how barren the landscape was/is while out in the literal open. Its set in the wild west and is a western, although its by no means choc full of fast paced action scenes. I liked that Rosamund Pikes character, Rosalee Quaid, is shown mulling things over, perhaps deciding how she should respond to things and view the Cheyennes who she is travelling alongside, given she experienced painful losses due to other native Americans. Rosamund Pike gives the best performance in this film I felt, followed by Christian Bale perhaps, although this is hardly difficult or challenging territory for him, it has to be said.

Its somewhat about understanding and acceptance but mostly its about loss, thematically speaking. Its a thoughtful watch and I felt fairly engrossed in it but I feel I couldn't help but feel uncomfortable regarding Christian Bales character, Captain Joseph J Blocker, his attitude to the natives at times. Having said that, I was surprised and pleased to see that the film does feature multiple instances of subtitles, due to the Cheyenne language being spoken by Captain Blocker, which seems a decent sign of respect made on his behalf, to try and be accepted by those he's effectively forced to take to safety, regardless of his own feelings towards them, which are made very clear at the start of the film (given this is all covered in the first, perhaps 10-15 minutes or so of the film, I don't regard that as a spoiler).

This is a sad watch but its a fairly powerful film, in terms of putting across a message about pulling together, about grieving and dealing with things how the characters could. Its probably a bit slow for some peoples personal taste but I thought it was, for the most part, a solid film - not perfect, but pretty good and so I'd recommend it on that basis.