The Writing Life with Virgil Mathes
  • Home
  • About Me
  • My Novels
  • Writing
    • Academic Work >
      • Curriculum Vitae
      • Rhetoric and The Duel
    • Fiction
    • Poetry
  • Writin' the River
  • Contact
  • Friends

Writin' The River

My little space on the 'net  to discuss …

We are all Hostiles

1/18/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
Hostiles is a great western.  According to the previews, an early reviewer declares it this generation’s Unforgiven, and perhaps it is.  The movie is deceptively simple, but there is much going on “behind the scenes,” and the film is rich in layers of meaning.  I won’t give away too much; perhaps in a few months I’ll do a more complete analysis, but for now just go see the film.

Hostiles is a classic western, and addresses the classic western themes of captivity and savagery.

At its core, Hostiles is essentially a captivity narrative.  The plot centers on the primary captivity of the aging Cheyenne Chief  Yellow Hawk (Wes Studi) and his family, who have been held prisoner for 7 years.  Yellow Hawk is now near death and has been granted his request to be returned to his native homeland to die, and his long time nemesis Capt. Joseph J. Blocker (Christian Bale) is assigned the detail.  But the movie does a marvelous job of examining all manner of captivities for many of the characters.

Capt. Blocker says in an early scene that “every time we lay our heads down out here, we’re prisoners,” and indeed, this remark proves prophetic.  Chief Yellow Hawk is a literal captive, being escorted in chains, and in turn Capt. Blocker is held captive by his duty and obligation to escort and protect his sworn enemy. Sgt. Charles Willis (Ben Foster) is literally a prisoner, and in spite of being a U.S. soldier he finds himself held in a captivity even more severe than the “savages” he’s traveling with.

Rosalie Quaid (Rosamund Pike) is held captive by the trauma she endures in the opening scene, and Capt. Blocker and his entire detail are held captive by their duty to assist her. Msgt. Thomas Metz (Rory Cochrane) is held captive by his “melancholia.”

And finally, the entire detail is held captive by the savage Comanche who threaten them throughout the film.  This captivity is central to the overall theme and connects viewers to the theme of savagery, which permeates the film.

The film destabilizes the issue of savagery almost immediately with the character of Jeremiah Wilks (Bill Camp), a Harper’s Bazaar writer who asks Capt. Blocker if it’s true that he has taken more scalps than Crazy Horse himself.  Capt. Blocker defines Chief Yellow Hawk’s savagery by his brutal treatment of foes and prisoners, but it quickly becomes apparent that the Capt. has as brutal a history as his opponent, begging the question of how savagery is defined.

Savagery is clearly demonstrated in the opening scene by the Indian attack, and when Mrs. Quaid is brought to the Army detail’s camp, she is upset by the appearance of the native prisoners - they are racially identified as “savage.” But shortly thereafter, the wife reaches out to her, and her status as a savage is destabilized through her charitable action.

In the same vein, when the entire party is threatened by the Comanche, the Cheyenne Chief Yellow Hawk tells Capt Blocker that “these people are rattlesnake people” and are dangerous, that they will not discriminate, and will kill them all.  Yellow Hawk’s message to Capt. Blocker throughout the film is that they must work together against a common enemy.

Their Army prisoner Sgt. Charles Willis (Ben Foster) appeals to the Capt.’s sense of common enemies in a different way, pleading for mercy and arguing that his guilt is no greater than the Capt.’s or any other Army soldiers’ from that time.  His argument is that they are all guilty, essentially that they are all savages, and it is hypocritical to condemn him for crimes that are fundamentally no different from what others have committed, yet he should hang while others go free.  Capt. Blocker says only “I was doing my job,” thus falling back on his commitment and the captivity of his will and conscience to the demands of his duty, wholly sidestepping the question of his savagery.  

The definition of “savage” is destabilized by several characters across several scenes, and in fact the movie directly addresses the “Indian question” through both its plot and the dialogue of several characters.  I have seen various people on social media criticizing the film for its “liberal” bias, but I found their criticisms ill-founded.  The dialogue representing differing perspectives on how natives should be treated by the govt, by the army, and who represents the real savage are all questions that were being actively debated in the late nineteenth century, and the film does justice to its characters, subject, and its viewers by presenting fully fleshed out characters facing a complicated period of history.





​

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Join me as I postulate about literature, popular culture, martial arts, and who knows what else.

    Archives

    July 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    October 2019
    June 2018
    April 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    June 2017
    April 2017
    November 2016
    July 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015

    Categories

    All
    1860 Army
    21 Foot Rule
    45-70
    Adult Choices
    Andres Moreno
    Arizona
    Arizona Rangers
    Bagwell
    Ballad Of The Laurie Swain
    Battle Blade
    Battle Blades
    Battle School
    Ben Foster
    Big Iron
    Bill Jordan
    BLM
    Bone Tomahawk
    Book Review
    Bowie
    Brotherhood
    Cancel Culture
    Case Bowie
    Chopped
    Christian Bale
    Civil Rights
    Clear Creek
    Cold Steel
    Color Guard
    Colt
    Community Service
    Confederate
    COVID
    CustomerService
    Darren Castle
    Defensive
    Democracy
    DiCaprio
    Dinosaur
    Donald Sutherland
    Doug Peacock
    Education
    Expendables Bowie
    Family
    Flu
    Forsaken
    Fortress
    Frank Williams
    Freedom
    Frontier
    Gary Johnson
    Greeting
    Grey Westerns
    Grizzly Years
    Harley Davidson
    Hateful Eight
    Helles Belle
    HEMA
    Heroes
    High School
    Hillary
    Hobgoblins
    Honor
    Hostiles
    Hugh Glass
    Infantry
    James Keating
    Jill Stein
    Jurassic World
    Just Be
    Justified
    Keep Rubber Side Down
    Keifer Sutherland
    Kindle
    Knife
    Learning
    Legacy
    Lever Action
    Lynne Holliday
    Mandated
    Marlin
    Marty Robbins
    Memorial
    Michigan
    Mogollon Rim
    Monuments
    Motorcycle
    Mountain Men
    Movie Review
    Movie Reviews
    Movie Violence
    Musso Bowie
    Natchez Bowie
    Navajo
    Officer Darrin Reed
    Old West
    Phoenix Society
    Plowshare Forge
    Police
    Presidential Race 2016
    Quentin Tarantino
    Ranger
    Ranger Up
    Range War
    Rebirth
    Relax
    Revenant
    River
    River City Sheath
    Roomba
    SAA
    Seminar
    Service
    Short Story Collection
    Show Low
    Skinwalkers
    State Firearm
    Statues
    Student
    Success
    Swordsmanship
    Third Party Candidates
    Thuer
    Tolerance
    Tony Hillerman
    Training
    Trump
    Utopia
    Vacuum
    Volunteer
    Water Closet
    Wattpad
    Welcome
    Wes Studi
    Westerns
    Wilderness
    Winchester
    Writing

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.