← Back to Reviews
in
I'd say about 80% of this movie is exactly what I enjoy about a good western. It takes its time, establishes the surroundings (hard to avoid considering the open desert and mountains), and injects a leisure dialog when the action is simmering in the not too distant future. It's the writing that seems to really be the ambitious element of this production. It's filled with humor and sarcasm, and though not all of it lands subtley, I have to give it points for trying and for the most part delivering some offbeat whimsy in this otherwise cold blooded tale of gruesome murder and rescue.
Kurt Russell is his usual wisened old tough guy self, and the rest of the cast are plenty capable and well selected to carry the load through the desert at night. Their trek is to face off with supernatural-like cave dwelling killers who resemble an Indian tribe, but who are not such a thing. The movie packs some real suspense and surprising scenes of action, though most of the film is all about the slow boil.
My issues with the movie are two things: the casting of Lili Simmons as the town doctor's assistant/wife. Everything else about this film is authentic. The clothes, the drawl, the locations, and a fair part of the dialog. So why do we have to witness yet another frontierswoman acting like she just walked off the set of The Wedding Planner? She's totally modern except for her dress. Immediately I was taken out of the movie and put onto the casting room as a fly on the wall.
Another issue I had was the "memorable" scene of graphic violence. It's the most disturbingly violent thing I have ever seen in a film and I'm just wondering why they had to go that far. It did nothing. I was enjoying the movie. I don't mind violence if it's done with some degree of poetry or urgency, or even tongue in cheek playfulness, but this scene is just wrong and strong. And the last act of the film feels like it goes into some sort of pre-teen fantasy nightmare with phony prison bars hammered into stone walls by barbarian killers, as if that's gonna hold Snake Plissken and his grandfather.
Anyway, for the most part this movie is really cool. It follows in the footsteps of what makes Tarantino's movies a cut above in the dialog department, and certainly takes its sweet assed time establishing the characters and letting the viewer enjoy the ambiance, but ultimately goes for the male fantasy cop out and ventures into torture porn.
+
Bone Tomahawk (2015)
Director: S. Craig Zahler
Director: S. Craig Zahler
I'd say about 80% of this movie is exactly what I enjoy about a good western. It takes its time, establishes the surroundings (hard to avoid considering the open desert and mountains), and injects a leisure dialog when the action is simmering in the not too distant future. It's the writing that seems to really be the ambitious element of this production. It's filled with humor and sarcasm, and though not all of it lands subtley, I have to give it points for trying and for the most part delivering some offbeat whimsy in this otherwise cold blooded tale of gruesome murder and rescue.
Kurt Russell is his usual wisened old tough guy self, and the rest of the cast are plenty capable and well selected to carry the load through the desert at night. Their trek is to face off with supernatural-like cave dwelling killers who resemble an Indian tribe, but who are not such a thing. The movie packs some real suspense and surprising scenes of action, though most of the film is all about the slow boil.
My issues with the movie are two things: the casting of Lili Simmons as the town doctor's assistant/wife. Everything else about this film is authentic. The clothes, the drawl, the locations, and a fair part of the dialog. So why do we have to witness yet another frontierswoman acting like she just walked off the set of The Wedding Planner? She's totally modern except for her dress. Immediately I was taken out of the movie and put onto the casting room as a fly on the wall.
Another issue I had was the "memorable" scene of graphic violence. It's the most disturbingly violent thing I have ever seen in a film and I'm just wondering why they had to go that far. It did nothing. I was enjoying the movie. I don't mind violence if it's done with some degree of poetry or urgency, or even tongue in cheek playfulness, but this scene is just wrong and strong. And the last act of the film feels like it goes into some sort of pre-teen fantasy nightmare with phony prison bars hammered into stone walls by barbarian killers, as if that's gonna hold Snake Plissken and his grandfather.
Anyway, for the most part this movie is really cool. It follows in the footsteps of what makes Tarantino's movies a cut above in the dialog department, and certainly takes its sweet assed time establishing the characters and letting the viewer enjoy the ambiance, but ultimately goes for the male fantasy cop out and ventures into torture porn.
+