MovieChat Forums > Hostiles (2018) Discussion > This movie gave me what I didn't expect ...

This movie gave me what I didn't expect - in a good way.

posted 6 years ago by Pinjetre (65)
7 replies | jump to latest

So. Many posters on this movie have negative feelings, and that is how it shall be on an open forum. Share what ever one feels about a movie, an actor, a media phenomena. The boards imdb.com closed, since they found that some of the discussions on several movies and series became a tad too - what should I call it - honest with unpopular (regarding to political correctness, the curse of many things in our days) statements and also some much much over the acceptable top of bad and ugly - that closing down of users discussion boards imdb.com was one of the biggest mistakes in our new history of social medias, because you have to let people speak, or ramble or be rude - if that is all there is. As long as it never goes further. But - sorry, I am wasting your time. So let me say some words about my personal, totally subjective view of this film. I admire both Christian Bale and Rosamund Pike. I admire the way Wes Studi acted more with language body than anything, I admire the way the drama was build up and the kind of a strange road trip this was, that actually healed, or at least gave a hope of healing in time, to several seriously damaged souls - and also the action parts that gave me the adrenalin kick. And the gentleness from different main players during this travel to the most beautiful landscape I have seen since my last trip to my own fjords on the West Coast og Norway. I may be the only one on this board to actually love this movie, but I don't care. I did, it hit me in the best of ways. And believe you me, I am one to react when things are too obviously political correct in both movies, literature and series. That is a wrong social and cultural heritage to give our younger generation. Heck, it's wrong to our own generation. But for this movie only, can I please admire it and love it for the good things and be generous with its flaws? I will never, never forget Rosamund Pike trying to dig graves for her children with her own hands. And the gentle way Christian Bale protected her during all of her days of this personal absolute catastrophe. I don't see how to end this post. I just had to write it. I had the need to tell all of you who think and feel different from me, and also for those who might be more agreeing, that what ever - we have a forum to discuss, and we respect each others. Salute and the very best to all of you!

[–] Starman (412) 6 years ago

This movie is very much loved,it just I think is not for most audiences who are attached too much to our archetypes of how characters or films are supposed to be done, this is a slow and emotional western, few of them are out there, but it works for me exactly because it is so different from most movies. There used to be westerns, so many of them in the old times, but none of them had such a profound depiction of emotions and human conditions in such a deep way, it is a very humane film. It is almost an antithesis of most blockbusters, that are fast full of cgi and fantasy, this goes the opposite extreme way, and it is refreshing. If all the comic book films were made in such a slow and deep humane way, I wouldn't mind. And if westerns are meant to come back as a popular genre again, and they were meant to be made in a similar way like this film, I wouldn't mind either.

Hostiles as a film is one of the few that seems to show the ways how we can face our darkness, that even though we are depicted as heroes, we might be just as corrupted as our enemies from a different angle.

[–] Pinjetre (65) 6 years ago

Thank you, Starman, for your kind and very interesting reply! All I can say is that I agree with what you say about antithesis of blockbusters and to welcome quality production of different genres. Just like in music or literature I can watch almost everything on screen from horror, thrillers, sci-fi, comedy, comics on film, romance, western, period dramas, realistic war movies - even some musicals (very few, but still), as long as they all offer a minimum of story building and character development; not just a vessel of effects or costumes - and if I'm lucky also a message from either wise dialog or the clever unsaid. Something to remember for a long time, no matter the genre.

To face our darkness, Starman, that is the essence. In «Hostiles» most of the main characters did so - most of them had the upper hand in this special setting - in different situations. And faced just that in individual ways. A couple of them was just at the start of seeing reality in the field, fresh from training (Pvt. Philippe DeJardin and Lt. Rudy Kidder), others was at the end of the hell that is war, and dealt with it individually (Capt. Joseph J. Blocker, Sgt. Thomas Metz, Corp. Henry Woodson, Philip Wills). I don’t think Capt. Joseph J. Blocker forgave Chief Yellow Hawk for every brutal murders, but they came to peace and mutual understanding at last, and Blocker found respect and the need to provide this tiny part of the tribe, to send off their close relative. So it became personal. No wonder since the ride from New Mexico to Montana must have taken a long, long time, and incidents during this journey did something to the group loyalty.

Now I’m taking a time out :-) Just needed to say more than thanks to you Starman. Bless!

[–] bb-15 (15) 6 years ago

Starman; well said. Yes, many audiences are attached to cliches about how Westerns were made decades ago when, as the rancher said at the end of the movie; “Indians have no rights”.

Before 1960, interracial marriage was illegal, every treaty with Native tribes was broken. Then the old Western film mostly became a justification for invasion and submission.

Once the US changed with the civil rights movement, the the genre changed though movies like “Little Big Man”, “Dances with Wolves”, “Windwalker” and “Soldier Blue”.

In history, at the end of the 1800s, there was strong criticism in the North Eastern US of living conditions in reservations, and there was some condemnation of the Wounded Knee massacre. At that time there were some Caucasians who got along with Native Americans and there was some intermarriage which was not stopped by US society.

* Considering the many things which happened in history, this film has a variety of views. There is blind hate. There is openness to connecting with people who are different.
- There is also the question of duty compared with out of control vengeance. That is Christian Bale’s character’s motivation imo. He does his duty. He follows orders. He is brutal but will only go so far within the limits of what he is ordered to do.
Finally, when he has orders from the US President, he expects them to be respected by the locals in Montana. When that is pushed aside by the rancher who also threatens Bale, then he feels he has the right to deliver lethal consequences.

[–] whynotwriteme (7720) 6 years ago

"In history, at the end of the 1800s, there was strong criticism in the North Eastern US of living conditions in reservations, and there was some condemnation of the Wounded Knee massacre. At that time there were some Caucasians who got along with Native Americans and there was some intermarriage which was not stopped by US society."

The North Easterners' grandparents had already disposed of most of their local Native Americans 100 or so years earlier. It was noted by many Western settlers that the further away from actual Native Americans a person lived, the more sympathetic to their plight they would be.

[–] brux (14724) 6 years ago

We do not even think of the natives of other parts of the American continent either. A guy I know from Argentina told me that the white settlers wipes the natives out ... almost totally completely.

[–] whynotwriteme (7720) 6 years ago

Argentina actually had horse nomad tribes much like the tribes of the American plains. Prior to the 1879 "Conquest of the Desert" these peoples controlled the interior of Argentina. They would embark on huge raids of the European coastal settlements for captives and cattle. The raids were called "Malons" and would involve hundreds or thousands of warriors. They would even raid Buenos Aires. Repercussions of these raids and the fact that the tribes constituted a barrier to Argentinian expansion led Julio Roca to launch the "Conquest of the Desert" which resulted in the ultimate defeat for the horseback tribes of the Argentinian Pampas.

[–] brux (14724) 6 years ago

What I find sad is that so many of us think that anything has changed since then. The big change was with FDR, and that has been worked on to reverse since the 1940's and the "cowboys" are almost ready to complete the task, making 90% of Americans, "Indians".