Risk And Redemption Along The Trail

“Sometimes I envy the finality of death. The certainty. And I have to drive those thoughts away when I wake.” ~ Rosalie Quaid

“I’ve killed everything that’s walked or crawled. If you do it enough, you get used to it.” ~ Captain Joseph Blocker

Westerns certainly aren’t what they were at their height, from the 30s into the early 60s when it seemed that every other movie featured cowboys, Indians, dusty towns, white hats versus black hats, and saloon fights. That’s not really a bad thing, because over-saturation of the genre nearly destroyed it, and the films we see now in that genre tend to be more thoughtful, and certainly shades of grey as opposed to the white hat versus black hat simplicity of stories that never caught the tone of the real West. Hostiles is a new film out in theatres, initially in limited releases in 2017, and it takes its place as a great film in the genre, telling the story of a small group of people travelling through achingly beautiful landscapes… towards different destinies. Along the way, we find that there are no heroes or villains, and that redemption and reconciliation can come in unusual ways.

The film opens up in 1892, with Comanches killing a man and his children, while his wife Rosalie (Rosamund Pike) evades capture and hides herself. At a New Mexico fort, a cavalry captain, Joseph Blocker (Christian Bale) receives an unwelcome assignment. His commander, Colonel Abraham Biggs (Stephen Lang) informs him that he is to escort a dying Cheyenne chief, Yellow Hawk (Wes Studi) and his family back to their homelands in Montana. Blocker, who’s spent his life fighting Indians, doesn’t want the assignment, but doesn’t really have a choice- the President wants the job done, and Blocker will be drummed out of his job and lose his pension if he doesn’t do it. He gathers up a group of soldiers for the ride north with the Cheyenne, and their journey will bring them to cross paths with the angry and emotionally scarred Rosalie in the wilds of a West that is supposedly tamed.

Scott Cooper directed and wrote the screenplay, which finds its source material in an unpublished manuscript by the late screenwriter Donald Stewart, who had a hand in scripts for The Hunt For Red October, Patriot Games, and Clear And Present Danger. Stewart won an Oscar for another screenplay, Missing, a historical drama that dealt with the 1973 Chilean coup.  The story makes use of the era- the 1890s, when the frontier was supposedly closed and Indigenous peoples brought to heel. It examines the tensions between the American military and those they have subjugated, but also tensions between Indigenous groups. Where a John Ford western might have gone for the simplicity of treating all Indians the same, a more nuanced look like this film clearly shows the differences- the Cheyenne don’t particularly care for the Comanche, and their lives and cultures are quite different. The two Johns, Ford and Wayne, would have never bothered with that sort of notion.

The story also takes full advantage of the beauty of the western landscape- and contrasts that with the turbulence of human bitterness, anger, and world weariness. Blocker’s personality is that of a man who’s killed too often in service of his country that he’s stopped counting, while Rosalie, shattered by the deaths of her family, starts out from that broken place, counting any Indian as the same. Both characters, as well as those around them, have to come out of their initial viewpoints and see things differently. The story is one that definitely plays to the complexity of the history of the West, with shades of grey all around, with indigenous peoples examined in detail in ways that would have never been done in a film sixty years ago. Yes, it does move into that movie cliché of white people finding themselves by saving native people, but it does so in ways that are refreshing, while respectful of those native people.

Cooper’s background as a director suits him well to the material. He started out as an actor but moved into writing and directing. The acclaimed character study Crazy Heart is one of his previous works, as is Black Mass. This film shows his strengths- his cinematography in capturing the wild, rugged beauty of changing western landscapes, is well done, and his experience as an actor shows itself in how he handles actors, bringing out terrific performances in them. There’s a lot of attention to detail throughout- the clothing, equipment, and locations all feel authentic, as if we’re looking a century plus into the past. Even the score feels very much drawn out of the old West.

The cast throughout the film are well chosen for their parts. Stephen Lang is authoritative and tough, but also somewhat sympathetic as Colonel Biggs. Timothee Chamalet plays a young private, the wide eyed Phillippe DeJardin, nicknamed Frenchie, with a naïve quality that you might expect out of a new soldier on his first assignment far from home. Jonathan Majors plays Corporal Henry Woodson, a Buffalo Soldier who’s brought in on the detail, and plays the character with a calm energy.

Rory Cochrane makes an impression as a sergeant, Thomas Metz, who’s known Blocker for a long while. He’s as war weary as the captain, but reliable and steady as you’d expect out of a career soldier. Ben Foster, who worked with Bale in the western 3:10 To Yuma, appears as Sergeant Charles Wills, not as part of the military detail, but now marked as a criminal, and he’s brought along on the trip in custody to await judgment, which makes the character something of a wild card for the story.

Adam Beach appears as Black Hawk, the son of the dying chief, a man who’s seen his people subjugated and broken down, but retains his own dignity in the face of all that. Q’orianka Kilcher plays his wife, Elk Woman, supportive and strong in her own way, a steady presence throughout the film. These are indigenous people with lives of their own, fully realized people that are far beyond the stereotypes we would have seen in a Western of the classic era.

Wes Studi first made an impression on audiences as a ruthless Pawnee warrior in Dances With Wolves, and followed that up with his most well known role. Playing the antagonist Magua in Michael Mann’s The Last Of The Mohicans, Studi played the character as a ferocious force of energy, a man driven by the pain of his own past into revenge. A villain Magua might have been, but his actions are understandable. Studi would later play an iconic figure of the West, Geronimo, in the film Geronimo: An American Legend, opposite Jason Patric, Gene Hackman, and Robert Duvall, commanding the screen every time we saw him. Here he gets a great part as Yellow Hawk, a fully fleshed out man nearing the end of his life. We can see why he’s respected among his people as a chief, a man who’s sacrificed much for them, who has seen the days of his people pass into something he could not have imagined as a child. There is a weariness in the character, but strength and dignity too, even as he finds himself in a lowly place at the end of his days, part of a military detail taking him home to die.

Rosamund Pike gets a fine part to play and makes the most of it as she goes along. Her Rosalie is a woman who finds her world completely shattered in a terrible moment. Her husband and children have been killed, and she’s witnessed it. In some ways it’s broken her spirit, driven her mad- something that is understandable. She holds a grudge, viewing all Indians the same- her initial hostility towards the Cheyenne family reflects that. Her journey as a character requires her to deal with her grief and emotional state- as well as come to terms with the fact that her anger is at times misdirected. The actress plays to that, bringing the grief stricken widow who forges on to vivid life. It’s a role that’s quite different from some of her previous work- Die Another Day, Pride & Prejudice, Gone Girl, or Wrath Of The Titans- but she makes it a compelling role to watch.

Christian Bale is a perfect choice for Blocker. As an actor he possesses that ability to disappear into the role in an understated way, and his character here is a world weary, cynical soldier who’s spent his life fighting and killing for his country- so much so that he’s lost count of the dead. He’s the sort of man who believes in God, and yet curses God’s creation. And he comes across, even though he doesn’t want the assignment, as the sort of officer who’s capable in his command. Blocker is the sort of officer that soldiers will follow, and Bale plays to that, as well as to the cynical weary quality of the man. It becomes a powerful performance, yet another one in a career of strong roles that is continuing to see the actor as one of the best of his profession.

Hostiles is not a light hearted film. Dark, powerful, and brooding, it contrasts the achingly beautiful landscapes of the west with the brutality and callousness of human nature. The story presents no traditional Western hero and villain, but a complicated shades of grey tale where everyone has complicated nuances with flaws and virtues. With its themes of agonizing grief, journeys, aching for home, and redemption, it proves to be one of the best Westerns in the genre.

An Inferno Of Conspiracies

"Dante's Inferno isn't fiction. It's a prophecy." ~ Robert Langdon

“There is a switch. If you throw it, half the people on Earth will die, but if you don’t, in 100 years, the human race will be extinct. You are humanity’s final hope.” ~ Bertrand Zobrist

"Professor, you are having visions, aren't you?" ~ The Provost

"You won't be able to trust your own thoughts for awhile." ~ Sienna Brooks

“The greatest sins in human history were committed in the name of love.” ~ Robert Langdon

Conspiracies and chases through breathtaking Old World architecture abound as Tom Hanks and director Ron Howard return for Inferno, another adaptation of a Dan Brown novel. Following in the footsteps of The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons, which featured troublesome authority figures, dark conspiracies, hidden truths contained in art, and an overly curious and knowledgeable American professional, the film returns to Europe for a country hopping exercise in preposterousness and high stakes poker. Well, not the poker, just the high stakes.

Having had taken a hand in deciphering Leonardo's great secrets and saving the Vatican in previous film outings, Robert Langdon (Hanks) finds himself waking up in an Italian hospital with no idea how he got there, and suffering of a head graze. The attending doctor, Sienna Brooks (Felicity Jones) informs him he was shot, which has affected his short term memory. Before he has time to even adjust, a woman (Ana Ularu) turns up armed and ready to kill. The two flee, following a trail that starts with an oddity among Langdon’s personal belongings that points the way to the works of Dante, a conspiracy that has global implications, a villain who’s gone and killed himself even before the first act starts, and shadowy forces whose agenda seems murky at best.

This is the third Robert Langdon outing in film, though the character has appeared in four books now, each time as the proverbial Smartest Man In The Room, able to figure out cryptic mysteries long hidden away in art, books, or aged documents. Dan Brown has made a bloody fortune off the character, who’s proven to be exceedingly popular since the second book of the series, The Da Vinci Code, became a runaway bestseller. That book and Angels & Demons got film adaptations from Howard and Hanks, though the third book in the series, The Lost Symbol, got passed over in favour of this most recent book, which follows the characters from Florence and Venice in Italy to its finale in Istanbul, Turkey. It’s been seven years since we last saw Hanks in the leading role.

David Koepp, who has many screenwriting credits, as well as directing credits to his name, previously co-wrote Angels & Demons as an adaptation, so this is his second time around with Langdon. The adaptation makes some significant departures from the source novel, particularly in the second half, telling a tale of a biological weapon and a madman who thinks he’s doing the right thing for the world- even if there’s some sense to the root cause, what with overpopulation being a real issue. Unlike the previous books and films, which stressed old secrets hidden away by secret societies in various odd places, this story has a more contemporary thread in its conspiracy, even if it makes use of old creative outlets and artistic sensibilities.

The preposterousness that’s standard to a Dan Brown plot is there, of course, along with the plot holes. Also returning are some of the standard Brown operating procedures: shifting allegiances, authority figures who might be on the side of the right or wrong, the highly intelligent young female counterpart to Langdon, and the broad conspiracy theories. The formula might seem a bit well worn by now, what with having had seen it already play out before. The pacing of the film itself seems rather frantic, and deeply convoluted at times. Of the three films, this one doesn’t work as well as its predecessors (particularly Angels & Demons), perhaps because of that frantic, convoluted pace, and because it’s following already familiar territory. And I found myself a bit irritated by the villain’s entire plan- why not just release the damned virus instead of going through this whole elaborate, grandly staged scheme? The notion ends up coming across rather like a Bond villain- only there, you expect that sort of grandiosity out of the villains.

Howard filmed on location, some of that being in Florence and Venice, but also on sets in Hungary, substituting perhaps for Turkey, which, let’s face it, isn’t exactly friendly territory for filming these days. He’s already well familiar with the world of Robert Langdon, the incessantly curious academic with a tendency to find himself wrapped up in mysteries and hidden secrets; the films mark his only actual film franchise, since his directing work has usually been self contained stories. He films at times both in the frantic chase style that the story requires, but also like he’s doing a travelogue, looking at places you’d love to get a look at yourself- if not for the fact that his characters are being chased by one dangerous lunatic or another. He does what he can with what he’s got- Inferno as a source material isn’t quite up to the entertainment reading value of the first two Brown novels- and ends up bringing out a film that’s at least a capable, if not quite as satisfying, follow up.

The cast are well chosen. Ben Foster appears only briefly as the villain, playing Zobrist as a man who entirely believes in himself and his cause, and damn the consequences. There’s something inherently dangerous, charismatic, and unhinged in the man, but he believes he is absolutely right, and that his path is the only path to follow. It reminds one of a cult leader, without the cult. Omar Sy appears as Christoph Bouchard, an official who turns up as the story goes along, and ends up playing to the what's his real agenda aspect of most of the characters in the film.

Ana Ularu is a Romanian actress, and she finds herself following in the footsteps of Paul Bettany and Nikolaj Lie Kaas before her, playing the profoundly dangerous henchman, the immediate threat to the protagonist. She certainly impresses in that job, as the actress conveys a thoroughly ruthless, efficient energy to the performance, coming across as a credible threat on screen.

Irrfan Khan is best known to audiences in India as an actor, but he’s done some work in Hollywood, including last year’s Jurassic World. Here he plays a character nicknamed The Provost, the head of a private security concern whose allegiances shift as the story goes along, from working on behalf of a client to coming to grips with the fact that his client is a monster. It makes for a rather interesting take on the character, less clinical than the character was in the book.

Sidse Babett Knudsen is a Danish actress, playing a pivotal role for the film, Elizabeth Sinskey, head of the World Health Organization (though we must wonder why the WHO has officials who run around with weapons). The character is desperately racing against time to contain a crisis, and like others in the film, we are left to wonder for a time at her own agenda. The character is an interesting one, with some history with Langdon, and the actress gives the character a sense of gravity and resolve as she goes along.

This is only the third project I’ve seen Felicity Jones in. She had a blink and you’ll miss it appearance in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, and appeared in Julie Taymor’s adaptation of The Tempest (which I absolutely hated- honestly, Shakespeare should come back from the grave and sue her for that). The actress appears next in the Star Wars one-off tale Rogue One next month. Here she plays the highly intelligent young partner by circumstance of Professor Langdon, but she too has her own secrets, which take her in different directions from the character’s place in the books. She certainly conveys the intelligence of the character in just the right way.

Tom Hanks returns once more as Professor Langdon. He brings to film the sense of curiosity and intelligence so integral to the character, which is a good thing. Langdon is a wellspring of information and arcane knowledge, and here he finds himself in a situation where his memory, one of his greatest gifts, isn’t quite reliable, which gives him a reason to be shaken up. He’s also shaken up by the stakes of the story, which go rather beyond what has come before. Langdon’s curiosity, even in the face of danger, does make him an interesting character, and Hanks plays to that. Being an already established character helps (as does being played by Hanks)- we’re generally already on his side and sympathetic to him. Hanks does have that history of playing characters we can at least empathize with; though personally I will never, ever, ever empathize with Forrest Gump, a character I would rather see wiped out of existence for all time.... did I mention I hate double infinity hate Forrest Gump? Fortunately this character is a world away from that loathsome irritant, and while he seems decidedly perplexed by the situation he’s in, it’s good to see him again.

Inferno doesn’t measure up to its predecessors in the series. For me, Angels & Demons with its high stakes and countdown to an awful thing happening tone works best as a film. This adaptation, with its plot holes, is treading ground we’ve already seen before, and does tend to be rather frantic and convoluted as things go along. Still, as long as you ignore the plot holes, the film works well enough, giving us another Langdon caper that also serves as something of a travelogue.

A travelogue, mind you, with bullets and deadly bio weapons.