Home Forums Miscellaneous Topics Movie, Book, and Music Review 'Hostiles'...movie

We went to see the movie, 'Hostiles' the other night and enjoyed it. A few things I caught could have been done better, but it IS a western and we don't get too many to see anymore, so we decided to support it. We really liked the ending.
Your thoughts?
Brittman

It was slower than moleasses. Not a wole lot of character development. Not a fan of the movie but loved the scenery.

It was slower than moleasses. Not a wole lot of character development. Not a fan of the movie but loved the scenery.

It did kinda drag. Agree the scenery was awe inspiring.

We saw it a couple weeks ago. I liked it, one of the few westerns that showed both sides of the story somewhat realistically. I'd watch it again on DVD.

Different strokes for different folks. I don't believe this movie drug by, and my buddy across the fire says there was no character development. Christian Bale's character went from challenging an Indian chief to a knife fight, which was refused, to telling the chief that when he died, a part of Bale would also die. You will have to see the movie to find out what brought that change of heart. But that seems like character development to me. Rosamund Pike went from being a crazy Looney carrying a baby dead for DAYS to being the first one to fire a round in the final gunfight. And then the scene where Bale had to say goodbye to his only black trooper. Those were two men that had seen too much together. And then that First Sergeant unable to live with himself because of the things he had seen.
There was such a black mood to the picture that I could see it dragging viewers down. But don't think that this show only tells what the white's did wrong. Plenty of blame falls on the Indians also.
I think this will end up being a classic.

Am watching it now and am enjoying it immensely.

Not available here in Canada, only the Trailer. I see Christian Bale is adept at dodging arrows or lasers.

Loved it.

Great movie. Highly recommend it.

You're still alive?!

Didn't you jump out of a window in "Lonesome Dove"?

Turns out the old lady was right after all. He could fly

know this is an old thread - saw it while stuck on a plane. Much better movie than I anticipated and went in a direction I didn't exect.

Decent movie, nice scenery, but the story wasn’t told well in that I don’t think they showed any adequate reason why a man with 20+ years of violent racial hatred behind him suddenly changes his mind 180 degrees. Same could be said of Mrs. Quaid; her entire family is brutally murdered in front of her which completely unhinges her mind but a few days later she’s all friendly and offering comfort to the Indians. The acting was very good but there never was any real catharsis to justify Capt. Blocker’s change of heart which is the whole point of the movie.

Thank goodness for closed captions, otherwise I’d never have understood half of that mumbled, low toned dialogue.

I will say that the scene with Blocker and Cpl. Woodson in the infirmary was excellent, two stoic men bound by years of shared danger expressing their mutual respect and admiration and knowing that they won’t see each other again.

I think its a usual action film. There's nothing special about it. I didn't finish it since it feels like I can predict what will happen next.

The underlying message I took from the movie is that as humans, hostility is in our nature. No matter what walk of life we come from.

I thought the movie was just ok. Kind of slow moving. Enjoyed the scenery.

Good. Not great. Kinda slow for my taste.

Unforgiven is still my #1, with Open Range a distant, but solid second.

Wife and I watched it on Netflix.....never have time to watch a whole movie together in 1 sitting so we did it piece-wise. We both liked it. Agreed with the thought that we're all hostiles....but some (races as a whole and individuals within a race) control it differently.

I really like it.

I've seen this movie two more times since I posted in April and I have to say it's easily in the top five westerns ever made. Possibly the best three.

I love it.

I liked it as well.
The movie seemed to be intentional paced down a bit, to get the viewer out of the usual 10 second sound bite mentality and into thinking of life as paced from horseback.
I'll buy it if I see it.

I watched it for the first time last night on Netflix. Told the wife about it and she wanted to watch so I just watched it again with her. Great movie. Even she liked it, not many westerns that she does like.

I saw the film on a long haul flight recently.

I agree with Jin in Idaho - the rapid change in heart and 180 degree opinion / life long work attitude change did not seem credible.

I got the feeling there was at least two stories crammed into the film. Once again, film producers were grafting modern attitudes onto late c19 people.

Nice scenery though. Overall, I enjoyed the film.

Like others mentioned, I liked Open range, Unforgiven, Broken Trail and the mini series Streets of Laredo with James Garner playing the retired Texas Ranger.

Robthom & Jim, I think you guys have overlooked a key scene here. Ben Foster's portrayal of the man who was sentenced to hang for "war crimes." Foster whined that he did not do anything that Captain Blocker did not do, it was unfair of the army to hang him. Unknown to them, Mrs Quaid overheard the conversation. Now, I haven't seen the movie in quite a while. As I recall, Mrs Quaid told Blocker to come into the tent because of the rain. So Blocker realizes she heard about his war crimes, and yet she still takes him into a platonic embrace.
So Mrs Quaid realizes the war crimes is a two way trail. And she saw the Montana ranchers attitude to the Indians when Little Bear was made an orphan. And Blocker realizes he did underhanded things as Ben Foster's character did. And Blocker saw the depression that led his First Sergeant to leave camp seeking death.
I thought Foster's scene with the captain brought a light to Mrs Quaid and the captain and seemed to help us understand the change of heart.

That's because you pay attention when watching a film.

Most don't.

Deflave: The VarmintWife and I both enjoyed the movie very much when we first saw it.
I was surprised she enjoyed it so much.
I also re-watched the movie recently and give it a solid "91" on my scale of 1 to 100.
I look to purchase it when I come across a deal on the disc.
I like westerns - always have.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy