One of the many aspects of the Western film genre is the struggle between the so-called “cowboys and Indians.”  Both of those terms are clunky, and that is not me being woke.  It is just history.  It is inaccurate to refer to every person in the nineteenth century who lived west of the Mississippi as “cowboys.”  “Indians” is a little more nuanced.  My preferred title is native peoples, but there are some groups who have accepted the label “American Indians.”  In any case, this all points to a more complicated past that is the best part of today’s film, Hostiles (2017).  It is also an incredibly sad film, but that should also be expected given the subject matter.

What the Quaid family is not expecting is for a group of Hostiles in the form of a Comanche war party attacking their homestead.  It is 1892, and this small family of five are going about their day, with mother Rosalee Quaid (Rosamund Pike) teaching her two young daughters grammar inside the cabin.  In the middle of the lesson, Wesley Quaid (Scott Shepherd), bursts in to tell the rest to make a run for it while he tries to stop them.  In the process, Wesley, the two girls, and the infant in Rosalee’s arms, die, but mom evades the raiders.  Meanwhile, in another part of the West, Captain Joseph J. Blocker (Christian Bale) is leading a patrol that is rounding up the last of the renegade Apache.  Not long after returning to their nearby fort, Captain Blocker is summoned by his commanding officer, Colonel Abraham Biggs (Stephen Lang).  Orders have come from President Benjamin Harrison (not pictured) in Washington D.C. to bring Chief Yellow Hawk (Wes Studi), a Cheyenne leader in their custody, to his ancestral home in Montana.  Chief Yellow Hawk appealed to the president for this favor, citing his failing health due to cancer.  To make this happen, he will need to be escorted by a detachment of United States cavalry to be led by Captain Blocker.  Captain Blocker vehemently opposes this idea.  He had once fought against Chief Yellow Hawk, and had seen friends die at the hands of this longtime enemy.  This and the number of years Captain Blocker has battled native peoples in general has him threatening to refuse to go.  Colonel Biggs matches the threat, saying that if the junior officer disobeys he will be court martialed and have his upcoming pension retracted.  Grudgingly, Captain Blocker gives in, but as soon as they are outside of the fort, he orders Chief Yellow Hawk and his entourage of family members to be chained.  As the shackles are being put on, Chief Yellow Hawk warns that there are dangers ahead and that his people can help, but Captain Blocker ignores the advice.  Yet, the first sign of that danger comes when their party encounters the Quaid homestead.  As the soldiers investigate the still smoldering ruins, they find a distraught Rosalee inside next to the bodies of her children.  Captain Blocker treats her gently and is able to get her to come away and eventually bury the victims.  Further, he gets her to calm down when she has another hysterical fit upon seeing the Cheyenne.  With some food, water, and some cleaning up, she is able to regain some of her nerve.  She needs it as not long after leaving her destroyed home, they are assaulted by the same band of Comanche that had murdered her family.  A few casualties are sustained by Captain Blocker’s men, but with some help from the Cheyenne despite their restraints, they are able to drive away the Comanche.  From there, it is on to Fort Winslow in Colorado where Captain Blocker hopes to leave Rosalee in the care of the installation’s commander, Lieutenant Colonel Ross McCowan (Peter Mullan), and his wife, Minnie McCowan (Robyn Malcolm).  The McCowans are open to Rosalee staying, but she elects to continue traveling with Captain Blocker, with whom she has come to feel safe.  As they are leaving Fort Winslow, another person is added to their party: Sergeant Philip Wills (Ben Foster).  Sergeant Wills has been tried and convicted of killing civilians, and he is to be escorted to Fort Pierce to be executed.  Colonel McCowan asks Captain Blocker to take Sergeant Wills because Fort Pierce is relatively along the captain’s route.  Captain Blocker agrees, although he and Sergeant Wills have a past, having served with one another.  At one of their many stops, Rosalee and two Cheyenne women are kidnapped by wandering fur trappers, leading to Chief Yellow Hawk and his son, Black Hawk (Adam Beach), accompanying the rescue attempt.  To Sergeant Wills, it is a sign that Captain Blocker has gone soft on native people, and the condemned is open about his feelings on the matter.  At another campsite in the pouring rain, Lieutenant Rudy Kidder (Jesse Plemons) takes a warm cup to Sergeant Wills, who is chained to a tree.  The sergeant feigns on illness, causing Lieutenant Kidder to unshackle him.  Instead, Sergeant Wills kills the superior officer and rides into the night.  Going after him is First Sergeant Thomas Metz (Rory Cochrane), Captain Blocker’s longest friend.  The next morning, the rest find the two sergeants dead, something that deeply grieves Captain Blocker.  Nonetheless, they make it to Chief Yellow Hawk’s land where he soon dies and is buried.  As they are completing the funeral, they are approached by four riders headed by Cyrus Lounde (Scott Wilson).  He, along with three other armed men, are there to escort the supposed interlopers off his property.  He also ignores the signed presidential order.  It quickly devolves into a shootout, with Rosalee being the first to fire.  Though they manage to dispatch the four newcomers, everyone among Captain Blocker’s group dies save for himself, Rosalee, and Little Bear (Xavier Horsechief), Yellow Hawk’s grandson.  The final scene is of Little Bear and Rosalee boarding a train bound for Chicago and saying goodbye to the newly retired from the service Captain Blocker, although he boards at the last moment.

I was happy that Captain Blocker got on the train at the end of Hostiles.  It needed some kind of happy moment to conclude what is otherwise a grim affair.  I mean “grim” in terms of its tone, not its quality.  With the amount of death everyone experiences, it would be natural for them to be somber.  It is how we cope with loss, particularly in an emotional sense, that is the theme of the film.  Luckily for this Catholic reviewer, there is a Christian angle to how it is handled.  The best example in this regard is Rosalee, who asks Captain Blocker one night whether he believes in God.  He admits to having belief, but comments that God has gone blind to what has been happening in the West.  When the question is turned back to her, she says that if she did not have faith, what would she have?  This is the power of faith.  There are those who wonder how a loving God can allow a mother to witness the loss of her family, or the destruction of native peoples, references inspired by the film.  It is not for us to speculate on such matters, but to be encouraged that there is hope for the hopeless.  This is what keeps Rosalee going.  Even Captain Blocker has some time with a Bible, which he reads for comfort in dealing with loss.  Though Christianity is not referenced regarding Captain Blocker and Rosalee’s change of attitude relating to native peoples, I have to believe it played a part.  While the Cheyenne keep to their traditional ways, there is some suggestion that they, too, have a connection with God.  The point here is that Christians are taught to help one another, especially those in need.  We are all His children, and He desires us to live together as much as possible.

While this message of putting aside ancient grievances for the sake of harmonious relations in Hostiles is a good one, I must once more reference its overall sad tone.  There are a lot of people who die in the film, and that is heart wrenching to see.  It is also a slow-moving film.  However, if you can put up these issues, then you have a well acted and shot movie to see.