Hostiles

Should Go
She who must be obeyed LOVES a cowboy movie.
“Sometimes I envy the finality of death. The certainty. And I have to drive those thoughts away when I wake.” Rosalie Quaid (Rosamund Pike)
Hostiles is a heavily emotional experience that will make you think about it long after it is done. Despite the heavy subject matter, it has an uplifting message and some great performances from the main actors.
Forget the talk of the film being slow, this isn’t an action film or an old school shoot ’em up western, anyone looking for that should search elsewhere. There are some great action scenes; but Hostiles excels in setting the tone for an early American world where law and order rest on gun power. The cinematography is exceptional, meanwhile Christian Bale is superb playing an army captain who is seemingly tough and unflinching but shows an undertone of melancholy, Rosamunde Pike pulls off a great performance as a woman thrust into the ugly world of war and anarchy by a brutal attack on her family home in a scene that is exceptional and unapologetically shocking. Overall the film is about the futility of trying to civilize a wild land built on violence, and about the tragedy and the sheer pointlessness of conflict against fellow man.
Hostiles has a great message that is especially relevant in today’s dividing times. The film is about inclusion, and shows that we are all human no matter how evil one may seem.