Hostiles
2017 · Directed by Scott Cooper
Original language: English
- drama
- western
- history
- adventure
The story
A legendary Native American-hating Army captain nearing retirement in 1892 is given one last assignment: to escort a Cheyenne chief and his family through dangerous territory back to his Montana reservation.
What it’s like
Wide, sun-bleached landscapes dominate this western: long, patient shots of dust, sagebrush and bare rock under hard high-desert light, with the camera holding on faces and empty plains rather than cutting quickly. The palette leans toward ochre, bruised blue skies and cold grey shadow, and the wilderness feels vast and indifferent, with wind and hoofbeats doing much of the sound work beside a sparse, mournful score. Its vibe is weathered, elegiac and heavy, a slow grief that builds toward sudden, ugly violence. The pacing is deliberate, with long stretches of travel and quiet talk between bouts of brutal gunfire, and the emotional register is sombre and reflective. The central arc follows a hardened, guilt-ridden officer gradually confronting his own cruelty and grief, with a widow and a chief forcing his reckoning. Intensity is high: frequent, graphic gunfights, bloody wounds and a massacre-scale killing, plus scenes of cruelty and mourning; it is not gentle. It suits viewers who want a serious, morally weighty western about racism, loss and redemption, watched late at night or on a focused afternoon rather than as background.
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