Genre: Western/ adventure
Related Films: The Magnificent Seven, Tombstone, Open Range
By Leanne Harragan
(This review contains minor spoilers)
Renowned Army Captain Joseph Blocker reluctantly escort a terminally ill Cheyenne war chief back to his tribal land. Travelling from New Mexico to Montana, they have more than one troublesome encounter on their journey.
I'm not usually a fan of the western genre and I don't think I've even watched that many, probably less than five. The main draw of this film for me was Rosamund Pike and I was not disappointed. Her performance as the grieving widower who in a matter of moments lost everything was powerful and her character arc was also fantastic.
For a typically macho genre, this film was slight different. While there were scenes of fighting and in no way did it shy away from demonstrating the brutalities, it delves deeper and explores the difficulties and the PTSD that these men suffered.
The main thing that came through in this film was the humanity, through some deep dialogue between different characters. The character development of bitter Captain Blocker is great to watch as the journey goes on, he goes on his own personal journey beautifully portrayed by Christian Bale. My personal highlight was the development of Pike's character who lost her whole family at the hands of Native Americans on the plains goes on to forgive, befriend and adopt an orphaned Cheyenne child.
While it was great to have some casting of Native American actors both Wes Studi and Adam Beach, it is a shame that their characters were left slightly underdeveloped. Hitting a runtime of just over 2 and a bit hours it felt a little long, there were a number of long establishing shots of the group travelling across different landscapes. While this looked great, it unnecessarily added to the runtime.
I'm sure this film won't be for everyone but it's made me appreciate that I should give different genres more of a chance.
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