Hostiles

Director: Scott Cooper

2017 / 134min / DCP

One of the most ambitious Westerns produced in the 21st century, Hostiles, set in the last years of the 19th, follows a small, often-imperiled party led by Bale’s nearing-retirement Army captain as they journey across the breathtaking but dangerous territories between New Mexico and Montana. Among the group are an ailing Cheyenne chief (Wes Studi) returning to his ancestral lands and a settler woman (Rosamund Pike) who’s the sole survivor of a Comanche war party—unlikely companions who must band together if they’re going to survive their long, harrowing journey. A rich, complex film, relishing the beauty of the open range while also recalling the ugly history of the Indian Wars that occurred on these same lands.