Death smiles at us all, all a man can do is smile back.
Marcus Aurelius
Hostiles (2017) is a movie of blight. Joe Blocker (Christian bale) is a salty army captain closing in on an eventful career in colonial America. As he comes to the crossroads in his life, he is tormented by his decisions as an Army commander in the fog and ghosts of war against native Americans. His past and inner struggles come to a head when he has to shepherd an aging Cheyenne chief back to his homeland – an ostensible political effort by President Harrison to apologize for past war atrocities. Blocker begrudgingly follows the order, but it becomes clear he has a history with this Chief.
Failing to understand the workings of one’s own mind is bound to lead to unhappiness.
Marcus Aurelius
Bale carries the movie well. The audience is taken along on an eventful journey and the western ends as it should. At some points, I worried that the movie would fall into a white Jesus complex but thankfully, it did not. The movie captures the realities of the time period well and offers some brilliant insights on death, honor and tragedy. In spite of all the blight, again, the movie ends how it should. A critical decision on the success of a movie is how it ends, and this one ends well. Each character is developed and along with the insights, I was satisfied with the suspense and closing.
The Last Democrat 