AP
Hostiles-Written and directed by Scott Cooper
A Critical Review
Hostiles is about white supremacy. It is also about the price paid by those who fought to achieve it.
The movie opens in New Mexico at the end of the Indian wars. The movie’s protagonist, Captain Joe Blocker (Christian Bale), is a professional soldier. He is not just any soldier. He reads Julius Caesar in the original Latin. He is a centurion. And, he fights to subjugate the Indian and perpetuate white supremacy. In his war against the Indians, Blocker has killed many and taken more scalps than Sitting Bull. Like many of the men he leads and fights with, he has paid a price.
The price Blocker and his men have paid becomes clear on the last mission before his retirement. He is assigned to escort an old and dying Indian chief, Yellow Hawk, to Montana to die in his ancestral burial grounds. Yellow Hawk (Wes Studi) has killed many of Blocker’s friends, some in a horrible way. Blocker at first refuses the order, but is reminded that his pension—all he will have after 20 years’ service—is at stake. He relents and starts on the journey that will strip away the scar tissue from the last 20 years of his life.
A Critical Review
Hostiles is about white supremacy. It is also about the price paid by those who fought to achieve it.
The movie opens in New Mexico at the end of the Indian wars. The movie’s protagonist, Captain Joe Blocker (Christian Bale), is a professional soldier. He is not just any soldier. He reads Julius Caesar in the original Latin. He is a centurion. And, he fights to subjugate the Indian and perpetuate white supremacy. In his war against the Indians, Blocker has killed many and taken more scalps than Sitting Bull. Like many of the men he leads and fights with, he has paid a price.
The price Blocker and his men have paid becomes clear on the last mission before his retirement. He is assigned to escort an old and dying Indian chief, Yellow Hawk, to Montana to die in his ancestral burial grounds. Yellow Hawk (Wes Studi) has killed many of Blocker’s friends, some in a horrible way. Blocker at first refuses the order, but is reminded that his pension—all he will have after 20 years’ service—is at stake. He relents and starts on the journey that will strip away the scar tissue from the last 20 years of his life.
