A REVIEW OF THE 2017 NETFLIX MOVIE HOSTILES

For those of you who are reading-challenged, I watched a thought-provoking morality movie on Netflix called “Hostiles” the other night. It’s a western, set circa 1878 just after Custer was killed and the Indian wars were ending. An Army captain, hardened by years of fighting and days away from retirement, is ordered to escort a group of Indians back to their sacred grounds in Montana. He hates Indians and is not happy about the assignment. The movie makes no attempt to disguise how abysmally the Indians had been treated, so it’s not your typical John Wayne fare. Along the way they pick up a woman whose family has been massacred by renegade Indians. Won’t tell you any more than that, other than to say that there are some very graphic fighting scenes which will probably turn off squeamish or possibly more discerning viewers. Beautiful photography, shot mostly outdoors. Slow moving, but in an enticing way, as it takes its time for character development. Battle scenes were very realistic, as there was none of that quick draw pulp fiction and the captain misses more shots than he makes. A beautiful English actress, Rosamund Pike, plays the massacre survivor. I fell in love with her when she played Jane, the eldest sister in the Kierra Knightly version of “Pride and Prejudice.” (It’s one of my favorite movies. If you haven’t seen that version, then you haven’t seen the best version of P&P ever made.) Rosamund’s a little out of place at first, but she’s such a good actress she makes it believable. Christian Bale is the captain, and he does a credible job portraying a weary, lonely soldier who realizes too late he may have been on the wrong side of the fight. And, yeah, amidst all the adventure and chaos there’s a predictable, but satisfying love story. Ain’t movies great? Reading is better, though.

-Nick Gallup