I have heard some prominent reviewers comparing the new Western "Hostiles" starring Christian Bale to Clint Eastwood's masterpiece from 1992 "Unforgiven" and while I agree that this is a good Western, with a very simple story and very well done, it is not anywhere near as good as Unforgiven, which arguably has the best line and scene in any movie of all time, (see video below) and is the best Western ever made. Anytime I see a good Western, it reminds me what a horrible time that was to be alive. Killing people indiscriminately was as routine as brushing your teeth, even including women and children, and US soldiers killed just as brutally as Indians. Life was very hard in those days, and if you got sick or even a small flesh wound or infection, odds are high that you are going to die. There was no medicine or pain killers other than alcohol and the all of the important medical discoveries were years into the future.
I thought the screenplay for this movie was very well written because the story was kept very simple and eventually wound up as a group of soldiers, Indians and civilians making their way to different locations while being attacked my savage Indians. There was not that much more to the story, but the simplicity I thought was the best part of this film along with the scenes of the great vistas of the Western United States.
I recommend Hostiles.
No comments:
Post a Comment