Hostiles review

          Hostiles is about an army captain in the late 1800's by the name of Joseph Blocker (played by Christian Bale) who is tasked with the responsibility of transporting a Cheyenne Native American family and their grandpa, who is known as Chief Yellow Hawk, back to their homeland in Montana. He has a hostility towards the natives and refuses to take up the task at first, but is eventually coerced into it after being swayed by the fact that it is an order from the president, who at the time was Benjamin Harrison. He rakes up a couple of soldiers and heads out. The group faces ambushes from other native tribes and also stumbles upon a women (played by Rosamund Pyke) who is alone with and has recently suffered some terrible losses. They take her with them and the story goes on from there.

          I wasn't really expecting much for this movie. I saw barely any marketing for it other the trailer I watched online. It did have a limited release and a theater near me was showing it luckily. After watching it, I can say that I am honestly a bit confused. The trailer portrayed this epic struggle that the group faces, but what I got was a story about a group of people who are facing suicidal thoughts with envies of death. Many of the soldiers, even Blocker, struggles with internal problems and you can see that in his actions, but not many of the others. The story is very much a slow burn with a hefty amount of screen time being dedicated to conversation between the characters. Its these moments where the movie can shine, but also come off as slow. For example, the conversation between Blocker and the guy giving him the assignment is well done. The argument between the two is interesting while another guy in the room serves as a nod to the changing politics towards Native Americans. He states that Native Americans should be treated as equals which serves to show the changing views towards Natives at the time. That combined with the conversations that severely slow down the film make for an uneven pace.
Because the movie spends so much time on conversation between certain characters, it shys away from developing any other characters, one of which they try to make you feel empathy towards, but because he didn't get much screen time it fails to inject you with that empathy.  I feel as though they were going for a philosophical, meditative perspective and for some parts of the film it works, but you have to trek through the slow burn to get to those good parts.
The empathy is barely there and the harsh, bleak story would work better if I could have actually understood what the characters where saying through their gritty cowboy voices. The film does, however, boast some above average cinematography with harsh, natural shots of the desert adding to that feel of exhaustion. The film has some powerful moments, but they re scatted thinly throughout and the filler is hard to get through. The performances are wonderful despite the unforgivable slow burn nature of the film. Go check it out if you want. Who knows, you make take something away from it or feel something that i didn't. 6.9/10