15. Hostiles; movie review

HOSTILES
Cert 15
133 mins
BBFC advice: Contains strong violence, language

Has there ever been a better opening week of a year at the movies than this?
Molly's Game seems like an eon ago and yet we watched it last Monday, soon followed by the superb Three Billboards, then the unusual Glory and Jupiter's Moon, the riveting All The Money In the World and now the magnetic Christian Bale in Hostiles.
This is the toughest of westerns but it has a depth to it which few have demonstrated.
And it is not a one-man show. True, Bale is mesmerising but he is given towering support from Rosamund Pike, Wes Studi and Ben Foster.
Hostiles begins with the murder of a husband and three children which has had a devastating effect on the surviving wife (Pike).
She is discovered in a state of acute grief by an army captain (Bale) who is very reluctantly escorting a cancer-stricken Native American chief (Studi) back to his reservation after seven years in captivity.
Bale's character has seen it and done it all. He is hardened in his views against the chief and his kin who he sees as butchers.
The pulse of the movie beats around how he copes with being in their presence for a trek during which there are myriad threats to him, his small band of soldiers and those he is escorting.
The task becomes even more complex when Pike's character becomes part of the caravan and then he is also asked to take a murdering prisoner (Foster).
Hostiles has plenty of action but a very gruesome scene during its opening sequences is the exception rather than the rule. Indeed, most of the really hard moments take place away from the camera and are cleverly left to the imagination.
And this deflection away from the violence is not the only unexpected path. Scott Cooper delves deep into the psyche of the characters whose hidden layers even seem to be a surprise to them.
Indeed, the interaction between the army captain and the chief is as intense and intriguing as the development of his very proper relationship with the grieving widow.
Meanwhile, the brutality and tenderness is played out to the bleak and beautiful landscapes of the mountain states of America's west.
Who were the real Hostiles? That is the question.
But whatever the answer, Cooper's film gripped both Mrs W and me from its opening to its smartly subtle last scene and it could well be one of the best films of 2018.

Reasons to watch: heady Western with intense performances and a smart script
Reasons to avoid: it does not let up from start to finish

Laughs: none
Jumps: three
Vomit: none
Nudity: none
Overall rating: 9.5/10

Director quote: Scott Cooper: "More than being a western, I wanted the picture to speak to the America we now find ourselves living in. I wanted to explore the racial and cultural divide and I wanted it to feel like it was 1892 but also 2018."

The big question: Why did Native American tribes scalp their enemies?

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