HOSTILES (2017)

In the late ‘70s, iconic (and iconoclastic) director John Ford, who’d fallen out of favor in the ‘60s & early ‘70s (partially because his politics were mistakenly tied to John Wayne’s right-wing provocations), had his rep posthumously resurrected.  Less for his Oscar’d prime, than for THE SEARCHERS/’56, particularly by the rising generation of ‘70s filmmakers.  Visually quoting it became something of a rite of passage in such disparate  films as George Lucas’s STAR WARS/’77 (the opening family massacre) and Paul Schrader’s HARDCORE/’79 (a full-dress redo with the modern porn industry taking over from kidnapping ‘Indians.’)  Half a century later, writer/director Scott Cooper picks up on the idea, near-quoting a pioneering White family massacre for his opening (ruthless Comanches) before Indian hating Capt. Christian Bale enters as the film’s Ethan Edwards ruthless avenger.  (That's John Wayne’s bigoted character in THE SEARCHERS though Bale wears a Sam Elliott mustache and speaks in his growl.)  These mere set ups for the main mission, reluctantly returning jailed Non-Comanche Tribal Elder Wes Studi to his Montana homeland before he expires from cancer.  But unlike Ford’s tough-minded portrait of an unrepentant racist on the hunt for his kidnapped niece, a man who only succeeds with an assist from a Holy Fool, Bale learns to respect the hated Indian as his outfit loses men to external & internal forces.  At the very end, finding the greatest enemy of them all is the entitled White.  Handsomely staged & shot, if indifferently acted (you start to welcome the surprise kills), the film turns squishy & sympathetic by design, condescending to all sides on all issues in all respects.  Perhaps never more so than when it turns dying Indian leader Wes Studi into Moses; seeing the Promised Land (Montana), but denied entry.  Then, replacing THE SEARCHERS’ famous door closing end to allow Bale to literally open the last door to hope on a moving train.  Sheesh.

DOUBLE-BILL:  Maddening and magnificent, see what all the shouting is about in THE SEARCHERS.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID:  Five or six times, the film all but stops for philosophical one-on-one conversations so Bale and one of his men can parse the difference between portentous and pretentious to perfection.