‎Hostiles (2017) directed by Scott Cooper • Reviews, film + cast • Letterboxd

Hostiles

2017 Directed by Scott Cooper

No peace without sacrifice

A legendary Native American-hating Army captain nearing retirement in 1892 is given one last assignment: to escort a Cheyenne chief and his family through dangerous territory back to his Montana reservation.

Christian Bale Rosamund Pike Wes Studi Jesse Plemons Adam Beach Rory Cochrane Ben Foster Stephen Lang Timothée Chalamet Jonathan Majors Q'orianka Kilcher Paul Anderson Ryan Bingham Peter Mullan Robyn Malcolm Scott Wilson Bill Camp John Benjamin Hickey Scott Shepherd Stafford Douglas David Midthunder Dicky Eklund Jr. Tanaya Beatty Luce Rains Scott G. Anderson Christopher Hagen Rod Rondeaux Ava Cooper Stella Cooper Show All…

133 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by Sean Baker 22

And why isn't Masanobu Takayanagi in awards season discussion for best cinematography? Every shot is gorgeous. I got to see on a large screen in the theater... I recommend you do the same. Shot on 35mm.

Arclight Hollywood.
Review by truman segal ★★★★ 4

2017: the year of timothèe
Review by josh lewis 🌹 ★ 6

scott cooper is the michael bay of Serious American Dramas, his stories essentially as complex as bay's boots-on-the-ground vs. liberal pussies but done in the only style he knows how: the laborious macho art weepy. this time he does the Good Colonialist story, where the white man's burden and guilt has a chance to act out extreme violence, not that it matters because the only thing cooper knows how to do is get otherwise good performers to mumble about rote emotions and Important Issues and move slowly—bale, at least, is suited to the grumbly macho cry and comes out looking fine but rosamund pike is next level awful in this. nearly every scene in this is like the third act…
Review by Steve Lovecraft ★★★★

Cormac McCarthy’s western epic Blood Meridian or the Evening Redness in the West is an obtuse and nearly insurmountable story to commit to screen, and I have my doubts that if it ever is produced that it will properly encapsulate the themes and poetic depth of that novel. But I can appreciate when a movie scratches the surface, and Hostiles is definitely one of those films. In it, Christian Bale is a U.S. Cavalry officer tasked with escorting a Cheyenne war chief back to his tribal home in Montana before the chief succumbs to cancer. To make things worse, the two of them had been at Wounded Knee, and there is a deep-seated hatred stemming from decades of violence that…
Review by jose ★★

yikes so it must’ve been hard for actors who portrayed iconic characters but sadly having no idea that the film was gonna flop and get no awards buzz .–.
Review by davidehrlich ★★★ 4

“Hostiles,” a sturdy and characteristically brutal new Western from “Black Mass” director Scott Cooper, begins with somebody shooting a baby — that’s not a spoiler, just a warning. The year is 1892, and a settler named Rosalee Quaid (Rosamund Pike) is teaching her young daughters about the magical power of adverbs. Suddenly, their New Mexico homestead is raided by a band of Comanche renegades. They murder her husband, they shoot her two girls, and they fire a bullet directly into her infant son; Rosalee carries the lifeless bundle in her arms for days, because it’s that kind of movie — the only kind that Cooper knows how to make.

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Recent reviews

Review by mauldin8302 ★★★★

"We're all guilty of something.
I'm just asking for mercy."

I can't believe that this got exactly zero discussion for end of year awards. Granted, it was a competitive year and it came out very late (limited release on December 22, 2017). But this latest feature from exciting young Director Scott Cooper (Crazy Heart, Out of the Furnace, Black Mass) is fantastic. The acting talent is superb from Christian Bale, Rosamund Pike, and Ben Foster to Rory Cochrane, Wes Studi, and Jesse Plemons. The raw and emotional. There is hostility on both sides, will they find their way to mercy and peace?

I would highly recommend it. There are some rich biblical messages to mine from this beautiful film.
Review by rayhan ★★★½

'Hostiles' is a haunting and emotionally engrossing Western which despite its depressing tone deserves a watch for its stunning landscapes, intriguing characters and strong acting performances
Review by Rigo Ayala ★★★

Los primeros 40 minutos me parecen de una potencia bestial, ojalá hubiera sido así toda la película pero después pierde muchísimo fuelle y termina cayendo en los típicos arquetipos unidimensionales del western que terminan por clavar la espina de lo grande que pudo ser esto. Aún así con un poco de paciencia tras el bajón de un inicio abrumador, la verdad es que si termina recompensando. Además, está cinta son 10 pasos gigantescos hacia adelante de Scott Cooper, que en mi opinión, tiene una carrera desastrosa. Bien.
Review by iN7 ★★★★½

Nothing new, Christian Bale's movies are always breathtaking, this movie and its soundtracks moved me in so many ways. Loved it.
Review by Iz ★★★★

TRIALS
Melancholy & Violence

THEME
Man Versus Man.
Review by Kyle HArris ★★★★

The greatest of its genre in the last decade or so. deeply symbolic and thoughtful. One to rewatch
Review by Jekasparkss ★★★★½

Scott Cooper. I didn’t know this man nor watched one of his films before and man let me tell you that I regret!
Scott Cooper has an eye for the prize he uses every technique that I’m told about on film classes. He pays attention to the slightest details.
The cinematography in this film amazed me it goes along with the storytelling so well making us connect with it at his deepest level.
The score oh boy that I loved it, it was like I WAS the character. It’s touching!
Oh the actors, Christian Bale what a performance! And my girl Rosamund Pike I think there’s not much to say!
Overall the story led itself perfectly from the tones to…
Review by Seanery ★★★½

I don't know what it is about Scott Cooper, but his films always seem to come up just shy of their potential, and Hostiles is no exception. It's a brutal look at the old west, that aims to remind us of the violent soil America was built on. Christian Bale does his usual gruff tortured thing as he and his men are forced to escort a former enemy (and native Chief) across dangerous territory. Along the way they face mutual threats, and Bale comes to see his prisoner as no more savage than himself. It's a noble enough message I suppose, and the film is primarily concern with the effects of trauma on the human soul, (always a favourite subject…
Review by JB ★★★½

Suitable grim, uneven at times dramatic neo-Western.