AP
Hostiles-Written and directed by Scott Cooper
A Critical Review
Hostiles is about white supremacy. It is also about the price paid by those who fought to achieve it.
The movie opens in New Mexico at the end of the Indian wars. The movie’s protagonist, Captain Joe Blocker (Christian Bale), is a professional soldier. He is not just any soldier. He reads Julius Caesar in the original Latin. He is a centurion. And, he fights to subjugate the Indian and perpetuate white supremacy. In his war against the Indians, Blocker has killed many and taken more scalps than Sitting Bull. Like many of the men he leads and fights with, he has paid a price.
The price Blocker and his men have paid becomes clear on the last mission before his retirement. He is assigned to escort an old and dying Indian chief, Yellow Hawk, to Montana to die in his ancestral burial grounds. Yellow Hawk (Wes Studi) has killed many of Blocker’s friends, some in a horrible way. Blocker at first refuses the order, but is reminded that his pension—all he will have after 20 years’ service—is at stake. He relents and starts on the journey that will strip away the scar tissue from the last 20 years of his life.
A Critical Review
Hostiles is about white supremacy. It is also about the price paid by those who fought to achieve it.
The movie opens in New Mexico at the end of the Indian wars. The movie’s protagonist, Captain Joe Blocker (Christian Bale), is a professional soldier. He is not just any soldier. He reads Julius Caesar in the original Latin. He is a centurion. And, he fights to subjugate the Indian and perpetuate white supremacy. In his war against the Indians, Blocker has killed many and taken more scalps than Sitting Bull. Like many of the men he leads and fights with, he has paid a price.
The price Blocker and his men have paid becomes clear on the last mission before his retirement. He is assigned to escort an old and dying Indian chief, Yellow Hawk, to Montana to die in his ancestral burial grounds. Yellow Hawk (Wes Studi) has killed many of Blocker’s friends, some in a horrible way. Blocker at first refuses the order, but is reminded that his pension—all he will have after 20 years’ service—is at stake. He relents and starts on the journey that will strip away the scar tissue from the last 20 years of his life.
With a small squad of soldiers, Yellow Hawk’s son, Black Hawk (Adam Beach), daughter (Tanaya Beatty), and daughter-in-law (Q’orianka Kilcher), Blocker reluctantly sets out for Montana. They encounter a mentally broken Rosalie Quaid (Rosamund Pike), whose husband and three kids have been killed by a ravaging Comanche war party. Blocker shows great kindness and understanding to Rosalie who joins the group and emerges from her mental depression as they continue their journey. Attacked by the same Comanches that killed Rosalie’s family, Yellow Hawk and his son help the soldiers kill them, earning some of Blocker’s goodwill.
They arrive at a fort on their journey where one of Blocker’s friends, Corporal Henry Woodson (Jonathan Majors), a black soldier, wounded during the fight with the Comanches, is hospitalized. As they say goodbye for the last time, Blocker expresses his admiration and deep regard for Woodson and reveals a sensitivity and humanity that surmounts his hatred for Indians.
At the request of the fort’s commander, Blocker agrees to escort a murderer, Sergeant Charles Wills (Ben Foster) north for trial. Like Blocker Wills hates Indians, but unlike Blocker he must pay with his life for Indians he has murdered. Rosalie also decides to continue with Blocker rather than remain at the fort among people with whom she does not feel comfortable. As they continue their journey it becomes clear that there is a Blocker and Wills have paid a mental price for fighting to spread white supremacy.
Unlike Rosalie, who began the journey, battered and embittered by Indians, her hatred was due to personal loss. The hate that Blocker and Wills have was to fuel and cover their violent white supremacy. But, their hate also had a crippling effect on them. Blocker is bitter, alone and mourning the friends he has lost. Wills has lost the ability to distinguish when he should kill. And, Master Sergeant Metz (Rory Cochrane), another of Blocker’s friend and second-in-command, has also paid a price for preserving white supremacy. His soul is dead, he cannot continue on this journey, or any other. When Wills escapes, Metz rides out after Sargent Wills (Ben Foster) and gives his own life because he has fought for so long, he has no reason to live.
This movie is a beautifully photographed by Masanobu Takayanagi, with exceptionally strong performances by the entire cast, especially Christian Bale. More importantly, it raises a moral question that will have to be answered. The question is what price will Americans and America pay for continuing white supremacist actions?
They arrive at a fort on their journey where one of Blocker’s friends, Corporal Henry Woodson (Jonathan Majors), a black soldier, wounded during the fight with the Comanches, is hospitalized. As they say goodbye for the last time, Blocker expresses his admiration and deep regard for Woodson and reveals a sensitivity and humanity that surmounts his hatred for Indians.
At the request of the fort’s commander, Blocker agrees to escort a murderer, Sergeant Charles Wills (Ben Foster) north for trial. Like Blocker Wills hates Indians, but unlike Blocker he must pay with his life for Indians he has murdered. Rosalie also decides to continue with Blocker rather than remain at the fort among people with whom she does not feel comfortable. As they continue their journey it becomes clear that there is a Blocker and Wills have paid a mental price for fighting to spread white supremacy.
Unlike Rosalie, who began the journey, battered and embittered by Indians, her hatred was due to personal loss. The hate that Blocker and Wills have was to fuel and cover their violent white supremacy. But, their hate also had a crippling effect on them. Blocker is bitter, alone and mourning the friends he has lost. Wills has lost the ability to distinguish when he should kill. And, Master Sergeant Metz (Rory Cochrane), another of Blocker’s friend and second-in-command, has also paid a price for preserving white supremacy. His soul is dead, he cannot continue on this journey, or any other. When Wills escapes, Metz rides out after Sargent Wills (Ben Foster) and gives his own life because he has fought for so long, he has no reason to live.
This movie is a beautifully photographed by Masanobu Takayanagi, with exceptionally strong performances by the entire cast, especially Christian Bale. More importantly, it raises a moral question that will have to be answered. The question is what price will Americans and America pay for continuing white supremacist actions?