Hostiles
starring Christian Bale, Rosamund Pike, Wes Studi, Jesse Plemons, Adam Beach, Rory Cochrane and Ben Foster
screenplay by Scott Cooper
directed by Scott Cooper
Rating: ♦♦♦♦◊
This is an American western that follows a U.S. Army cavalry officer, Captain Joseph Blocker (Christian Bale), who must escort a Cheyenne war chief, Yellow Hawk (Wes Studi) and his family back to their home in Montana in 1892. I like a good western that tries to be realistic - I guess what is called a “revisionist” western - in speech, dress, social behavior, social relationships, etc. In recent years there have been a number of those.
Because of his personal history as a U.S. soldier in the Indian wars - committing atrocities and witnessing retaliatory atrocities in kind - Cpt. Blocker is belligerent towards Native Americans, and he has a particularly hateful and even murderous animosity towards Yellow Hawk, who has been held in a military prison in New Mexico as a prisoner of war for several years. Now that Yellow Hawk is dying of cancer, U.S. President Harrison has pardoned him with permission to return to his homeland to die. Cpt. Blocker and a small band of soldiers are charged with escorting the hated former enemy. For the Captain it is a final assignment before his retirement from the service, but it’s a bitter pill for him due to his animosity. He is chosen because of his fluency in the Cheyenne language and threatened with court martial and loss of pension if he refuses.
Over the course of the trek, the band of soldiers and Indians must cooperate to defend themselves from a band of Comanches - the same band of Comanches that killed the family of settler Rosealee Quaid (Rosamund Pike), who then joins the group for survival. Blocker develops a certain respect for Yellow Hawk until, finally, there is some reconciliation.
I love Wes Studi. He’s a really handsome specimen. Because he himself is a Cherokee American, he often plays Indian roles in films - but not always. I used to confuse Wes Studi with Dutch actress Famke Janssen, because I thought he looked like a “Famke,” and that “Famke” sounded like a man’s name. (The two appeared together in the 1998 movie Deep Rising, directed by Stephen Sommers.) But I was wrong.