Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: Hostiles (2017)

4/29/2023

Hostiles (2017) - Mighty western goes awry for Cooper

♥♥

Similarities, hostilities, black and white notions ... are indicated as thematic material on this poster for Scott Cooper's Hostiles

An Indian-hating army captain gets as assignment to lead a Cheyenne chief and his family through dangerous terrain in order for them to be set free. But on the way they meet a victim from a massacre.

Hostiles is written by Donald E. Stewart (Missing (1982)) and co-writer/co-producer/director Scott Cooper (Crazy Heart (2009)).

The film stays gripping and very promising for a long time for a western-lover. Christian Bale (Knight of Cups (2015)) is good as the hard, bearded captain, and the scenery is outstandingly handsome. Cinematographer Masanobu Takayanagi's (Black Mass (2015)) images beautifully capture the magic of the West's wide open spaces.

The more disappointing it gets when the film keels over into pompous self-seriousness, since Cooper now wants to strike home a point about racism and the negativity of violence: SPOILER By letting Bale (and Rosamund Pike (Radioactive (2019)) as the woman who loses her family to the Indians) risk their lives for the Cheyenne family, whom they now feel as bodyguards for! That is not credible, and the film becomes overlong to boot, ultimately a disappointment.

Crazy Heart (2009) or, The Weary Kind

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 39 mil. $

Box office: 35.6 mil. $

= Huge flop (returned 0.91 times its cost)

[Hostiles premiered 2 September (Telluride Film Festival) and runs 133 minutes. Shooting took place from July - September 2016 in Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona. The film opened #36 to a 22k $ first weekend in 3 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #3 and in 2,934 theaters (different weeks), grossing 29.8 mil. $ (83.7 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were France with 2.9 mil. $ (8.1 %) and the UK with 1 mil. $ (2.8 %). Cooper returned with Antlers (2021). Bale returned with a voice performance in Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle (2018, VoD) and theatrically in Vice (2018); Wes Studi (A Love Song (2022)) in A Dog's Way Home (2019); and Pike in Beirut (2018). Hostiles is fresh at 70 % with a 6.80/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Hostiles?

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William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

Born in Paris, France, Godard lived much of his life in Switzerland. He wrote for French film criticism magazine Cahiers du Cinema and became foundational for the New French Wave that inspired new waves in scores of other countries across the world with his Breathless (1960). Later credits include A Woman Is A Woman (1961), Vivre Sa Vie (1962), Le Petit Soldat (1962), Contempt (1963), Alphaville (1965), Pierrot le Fou (1965), 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967), Weekend (1967), Every Man for Himself (1980), King Lear (1987), Century of Cinema (1995, documentary), Goodbye to Language (2014) and many more. Godard died of assisted suicide at age 91. R.I.P.

Wolfgang Petersen has died

James Caan has died

Caan was born the son of Jewish immigrants from Germany in New York. He got his start on TV in the early 1960s. His credits include El Dorado (1966), The Rain People (1969), Brian's Song (1971, TV movie), The Godfather (1972), - for which he earned his only Oscar nomination, - Slither (1973), The Gambler (1974), Funny Lady (1975), Rollerball (1975), Silent Movie (1976), Hide in Plain Sight (1980), - the only film he also directed, - Thief (1981), Misery (1990), Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), Bottle Rocket (1996), Eraser (1996), Dogville (2003), Elf (2003), Las Vegas (2003-07), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) and many more. Caan passed away at age 82. R.I.P.

Jean-Louis Trintignant has died

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Ray Liotta has died

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Philip Baker Hall has died

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William Hurt has passed away

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Ivan Reitman has passed away

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Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

Eagerly anticipating this week ... (6-24)

4/29/2023

Hostiles (2017) - Mighty western goes awry for Cooper

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