Hostiles

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  • Hostiles

    Masanobu Takayanagi's cinematography was excellent.
    “Nothing is what rocks dream about” ― Aristotle

  • #2
    Re: Hostiles

    god what a slog to sit through. for a purported western (i was expecting something in the vein of Dances With Wolves or Unforgiven) there are about four scenes of actual action and another 2 hours of talk talk talk talk talk talk . . . .

    Wes Studi is totally wasted as Christian Bale's alleged antagonist (they almost never interact personally during the whole journey)

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    • #3
      Re: Hostiles

      I couldn't agree with you more, JoeBanks. By omission, my original post intends what you've said here. I sure do wish they'd show me the dailies before they cut these things, and let me critique their final cut, too, so they could repair damages and other things before they get out of the house. I know, I know... dream on (okay, I will!).

      For the first time, I'm surprised by Bale's performance in a movie as a lackluster one.

      In one early scene, Colonel Abraham Biggs (Stephen Lang) forces Capt. Joseph J. Blocker (Christian Bale) to take the assignment or be court-martialed. It was then I had the feeling that both of them were phoning it in. The scene had all the overwrought dramatic tension of a daytime soap opera with too many pregnant pauses to boot.

      It seemed to me that for the characters and the various situations in which they found themselves, there were a lot of unnatural, illogical reactions by characters.

      Besides the “talk, talk, talk” you mention above, there was also a lot of dead air of characters staring at one another as though we, the audience, were supposed to divine what their feelings and thoughts were supposed to be. I'm all for poignant pauses and dramatic beats, but not several in succession before someone speaks. All of it time wasted since Chief Yellow Hawk (Wes Studi) was dying, a good opportunity to develop more trust and respect between Bale's and Studi's characters.

      If only he were allowed to speak about it without restraint, I'd like to hear what Christian Bale has to say about working on this movie.

      As for the director, even though he's a homeboy from the burbs of Washington, D.C., after seeing his name everywhere ten times in the credits I chalked up the movie's dead end from start to finish to be a “Writer/Director” problem.

      When it was over, I felt like asking for my money back. The title is an apt one, but because, I regret to say, the only thing “hostile” about this movie will be the reviews.
      “Nothing is what rocks dream about” ― Aristotle

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      • #4
        Re: Hostiles

        The best movie I've seen so far this year.

        It's literary. It's an unpublished book in film form, and it plays out as such. It doesn't preach but it talks. Possibly a parable of sorts. Definitely a metaphor.

        If I taught a creative writing class, I would use this movie as a means to dig into the depth of what a story can do and how it can do it without being on the nose.

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