Written by: Scott Cooper (written for the screen by), Donald E. Stewart (manuscript)
Directed by: Scott Cooper
Starring: Christian Bale, Rosamund Pike, Wes Studi, Jesse Plemons, Adam Beach, Rory Cochrane, Ben Foster
Rated: R
Watch the trailer
Plot
In 1892, a legendary Army captain reluctantly agrees to escort a Cheyenne chief and his family through dangerous territory.
Verdict
Captain Blocker is at the end of his tenure, reconciling who he is, or thinks he is, with what he's done. He constantly clashes with why he finds Native Americans hostile and his own actions which are often just as bad, just in a different context. He has a duality of nature, or that's what we perceive.
It's a quiet, almost slow movie, but it should have you thinking throughout. If that's not your kind of movie, it may not be for you.
Watch it.
Review
The opening scene is rough, with a family attacked by Comanches. At first it seems like an unconnected scene to set the tone, but it does reconnect.
Captain Blocker eliminates Native Americans. He's now tasked with escorting one and he's none too happy about it. He's close to retirement and when his pension is threatened he relents. I don't blame him, but his ideals aren't always steadfast. From the jump Blocker compromises. He and a detail of men will escort Chief Yellow Hawk to Montana on the President's orders.
It's a sparse, quiet movie with a great setting. The tone fits a man that's long been a soldier, now towards the end of his service and trying to reconcile what he's done and the orders he's followed with how he feels and what he's seen. Yellow Hawk seems helpful, but Blocker has seen a lot of horrors. The first scene of this movie sticks in your mind. What could happen?
Blocker is then asked to escort a former soldier from his old unit that's been court marshaled. Blocker gets a look at what he could have become, a realization that hostile isn't dictated by the color of one's skin or their circumstances.
We get a look at a three possible outcome for a hunter. There's Blocker, Blocker's fellow sergeant who struggles much more with their past misdeeds, and then Ben Foster's character who's a sociopath now. Maybe he always was but no one cared when he was hunting Native Americans.
The side characters aren't always fleshed out enough, and the chief should have had more gravitas. He was under written. Most of the side characters get lost without enough writing to establish them. Bblocker's the most sympathetic, and I wondered if this was a path of redemption or just a character study. Does he realize what he could become? Will Yellow Hawk teach him that not every Native American is a threat?
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