Hostiles

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Steve B One of the all-time great Westerns. Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 09/03/25 Full Review Doug B Great time piece western, great script and actors were excellent. Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 09/02/25 Full Review BadNews R Hostiles is a film that undeniably looks and feels like prestige cinema. From the very first frame, it’s clear that the filmmakers poured immense effort into the visuals. The cinematography is breathtaking — vast plains, rugged landscapes, and quiet, haunting moments are captured with painterly precision. Every shot feels intentional, and the natural scenery becomes its own character. The costuming, too, is spot-on, adding authenticity without feeling overly polished, and the casting is excellent. Christian Bale, Rosamund Pike, and Wes Studi all deliver powerful performances, fully inhabiting their roles. In terms of technical achievement, Hostiles has everything you could ask for in a western drama. But where the movie falters — at least for me — is in the screenplay. The story itself is solid enough, with themes of forgiveness, redemption, and the human cost of violence. Yet the dialogue often feels weighed down, overstuffed, and, frankly, exhausting. Conversations drag on with overly heavy exchanges that sound more like monologues than natural dialogue. Instead of drawing me deeper into the world, it kept pulling me out, reminding me that I was watching something scripted rather than living alongside the characters. Now, I’ll admit: westerns aren’t usually my favorite genre. Still, there are exceptions that grab me, like The Unholy Trinity (2025), which I absolutely loved for its energy and originality. So it’s not that I can’t appreciate a western — it’s that Hostiles struggled to hold my attention. And that’s really the biggest issue here: boredom. For all of its beauty, the pacing feels glacial, and when a movie loses your attention early on, it’s almost impossible to get it back. Instead of being immersed in its emotional depth, I found myself checking out during long stretches of dialogue that felt overwrought and unnecessary. Critics may have hailed this film as a modern western masterpiece, and I know many in the general audience hold it in high regard, but I just can’t pretend to agree for the sake of consensus. For me, Hostiles is the definition of a hit-or-miss movie. If you connect with its tone, patience, and meditative approach, it may be a moving and profound experience. But if you don’t, it’s a tough, almost punishing sit. Personally, I landed on the latter side — despite the craftsmanship and the performances, I found it more miss than hit. Verdict: A stunning film visually, but weighed down by dialogue and pacing that made it a difficult watch. Rated 2/5 Stars •  Rated 2 out of 5 stars 09/01/25 Full Review Jay B I don't understand why this script got made into a movie. Fine acting and production, but not much of a story. Too many cliches to list. I skipped to the end after about halfway just to get closure. Rated 1/5 Stars •  Rated 1 out of 5 stars 09/01/25 Full Review Benjamin C Pretty good up to the end. There's something to be said about exposition ruining a good film, this film has the opposite where there's not enough. There's a lot of time spent looking at Bale staring off into space, to his credit he's really good at it. The end of the movie broke my immersion as it seems to reach too far into dramatics and relying on Bales stare to explain what's happening. The melodrama ending didnt fit in a setting that demanded realism. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 08/31/25 Full Review Kenneth L Well-made character study of hard men living in hard times. I wanted to like it more than I did, but it was still plenty good. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 05/11/25 Full Review Read all reviews

Hostiles

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