Hostiles
18/01/18 Filed in: Cinema
As a kid we didn't have anywhere near the range of toys that children have today, and there certainly weren't any computers or mobile devices. We were either cowboys with toy guns or some form of medieval character with a wooden sword, or perhaps a bow and arrow. I was very much a fan of cowboys, and of course regarded them as the heroes and the 'injuns' as the baddies. I've long since realised that this depiction in the old western movies and comics was at the very least a distortion of the truth. Hostiles is a film that unpicks that stereotype. Perhaps not as radically as Dances with Wolves, but with some superb characterisations it gets inside the people, revealing that things are never black and white, and that all members of the human race have a story to tell, and a right to be respected.
The action begins at a homestead, with the husband outside cutting timber while inside his wife schools two adorable young girls. Their idyll is destroyed when a group of marauding Comanches attack, leaving the wife, Rosalie Quaid, the only survivor with three dead children, one just a baby in arms.
We are next introduced to the battle-hardened cavalry officer, Captain Joseph J. Blocker, played by Christian Bale, who is in the final throes of rounding up some Apache warriors after a life of fighting the indians. After he arrives at Fort Berringer in New Mexico with his Apache prisoners, he is presented with an order that he feels he cannot accept. Colonel Abraham Biggs commands him to escort a former adversary, the Cheyenne war chief Yellow Hawk, to his ancestral lands in Montana. Yellow Hawk, played by Wes Studi, is terminally ill, and no less than the President himself has signed an order guaranteeing the Chief's safe return to Montana. Along with Yellow Hawk is his son, Black Hawk, his daughter Moon Deer, Black Hawk's wife Elk Woman, with their son, Little Bear.
Blocker's protestations cut no ice with Biggs, and he is threatened with court-martial and forfeiture of his pension if he doesn't comply. Reluctantly, with a small detail of men, Blocker sets off. Once clear of the fort, Blocker insists that the two Cheyenne men are shackled, and the plaits removed from the hair of their women. His animosity towards them is very plain to see. As they make their way they encounter the burnt-out remains of the Quaid homestead, finding Rosalie inside, in a state of extreme shock and nursing her dead baby. Her two dead daughters are on the bed next to her, who she says are 'asleep', and must not be disturbed. It is a while before the gentle support offered by Blocker allows her to bury her family.
To Rosalie, Yellow Hawk at first appears no different to the indians who had killed her family, and she reacts with understandable terror. However, a little while after, Elk Woman offers Rosalie a dress, Rosalie's own clothes having been ruined during her escape from the Comanches. This marks the beginning of a changing relationship between the indians and their escorts. After they set off again, they do not travel far before the Comanches return, leaving Blocker with one man dead and another badly injured. Despite being shackled, Black Hawk kills one of the Comanches. After this Blocker unshackles both the Cheyenne men, which marks the next subtle change in the relationship between Blocker and the Chief. Still under threat from the remaining Comanches the party moves on, but after an overnight camp, they find that the Comanches are no longer a risk, having been dealt with!
Their journey continues, slowly. In fact this film moves at a very leisurely pace. It is not your frenetic western with cowboys chasing each other on horseback. In fact the horses never seem to go more than a walking pace. No, this is a story that shows how, as they undertake this long trip, Blocker and his long time friend, Sergeant Thomas Metz, both start to reflect on their past, and in the case of Metz his feelings eventually overwhelm him. They realise that the indians were not the only hostiles in the battles they fought. A bond starts to develop between Blocker and Yellow Hawk, while Metz experiences a total epiphany.
The journey throws up a number of other challenges. At one point all the women are abducted by fur traders, with Yellow Hawk and Black Hawk helping Blocker and his men track them. And we have Sergeant Charles Wills, court-marshalled and due to hang for murder, who is picked up from a fort along the way, introducing something else for Blocker to worry about. And somebody else to make him think about his past actions.
This is a longish film that moves very slowly, a metaphor perhaps for the slowly changing relationship between Yellow Hawk and Blocker. The Arizona scenery is everything that you would expect from a western, while the superb soundtrack adds greatly to the experience. It is, I suppose, a story of redemption, ably portrayed by some fine acting. The ending tries, I think, to combine both pathos and a final peacefulness of mind, but you will need to wait until the very end to experience this in full.
To Rosalie, Yellow Hawk at first appears no different to the indians who had killed her family, and she reacts with understandable terror. However, a little while after, Elk Woman offers Rosalie a dress, Rosalie's own clothes having been ruined during her escape from the Comanches. This marks the beginning of a changing relationship between the indians and their escorts. After they set off again, they do not travel far before the Comanches return, leaving Blocker with one man dead and another badly injured. Despite being shackled, Black Hawk kills one of the Comanches. After this Blocker unshackles both the Cheyenne men, which marks the next subtle change in the relationship between Blocker and the Chief. Still under threat from the remaining Comanches the party moves on, but after an overnight camp, they find that the Comanches are no longer a risk, having been dealt with!
Their journey continues, slowly. In fact this film moves at a very leisurely pace. It is not your frenetic western with cowboys chasing each other on horseback. In fact the horses never seem to go more than a walking pace. No, this is a story that shows how, as they undertake this long trip, Blocker and his long time friend, Sergeant Thomas Metz, both start to reflect on their past, and in the case of Metz his feelings eventually overwhelm him. They realise that the indians were not the only hostiles in the battles they fought. A bond starts to develop between Blocker and Yellow Hawk, while Metz experiences a total epiphany.
The journey throws up a number of other challenges. At one point all the women are abducted by fur traders, with Yellow Hawk and Black Hawk helping Blocker and his men track them. And we have Sergeant Charles Wills, court-marshalled and due to hang for murder, who is picked up from a fort along the way, introducing something else for Blocker to worry about. And somebody else to make him think about his past actions.
This is a longish film that moves very slowly, a metaphor perhaps for the slowly changing relationship between Yellow Hawk and Blocker. The Arizona scenery is everything that you would expect from a western, while the superb soundtrack adds greatly to the experience. It is, I suppose, a story of redemption, ably portrayed by some fine acting. The ending tries, I think, to combine both pathos and a final peacefulness of mind, but you will need to wait until the very end to experience this in full.