SPOILERS!!! I just watched S. Craig Zahler's directorial debut, Bone Tomahawk starring Kurt Russel, Patrick Wilson, Matthew Fox, Richard Jenkins, and Lili Simmons.
This film has a 'From Dust Till Dawn' effect. For the first 90 minutes it's a straightforward, no-nonsense, modern retelling of John Ford's 'The Searchers'. Especially the first two acts. It's a search party movie. Then it transitions to a western revamp of 'The Hills Have Eyes' and I honestly don't know if it works. It's still very fresh to me. I just watched it.
Bone Tomahawk is darker and smaller in scope than The Searchers. The open landscape and vastness of the prairies were a huge part of the cinematography in Ford's vision. In this film the dusty setting serves the psychology and morality of the characters, more than the visuals. There are no epic, panning wide shots or tracking shots of the heroes on horseback. No heroic western musical score. It's unsettling and straight-forward. Zahler seems to play with the audience, bouncing back and forth between absurd and realism for the first two acts of the film, mainly through dialogue. And David Arquette.
I didn't feel anything for the protagonists. And I didn't fear the antagonists. Yet the acting is solid and the dialogue is a fun and stylistic. The big bad guy was on screen for about a couple minutes and there was nothing exceptionally interesting about him. And that's not necessarily a bad thing. A lot of movies take that approach. The Hills Have Eyes used gore and savagery to tell you everything you needed to know about the bad guys and this film is no different. Motive is not on the menu. But human legs sure are. Ugh. Sorry. That was very very dumb.
Patrick Wilson is like the good version of the evil entity in It Follows. Slowly making his way from one part of the screen to the other and I mean slowly. He's hobbled with a severely broken leg from the very beginning of the film which can be exhausting to watch, but eventually he gets there to save the day. Well. To save some of them. He was about thirty seconds too late to save Kurt Russell. Speaking of Russell, I'm so glad he was in this movie. If you're going to fuse horror and western I can't think of a better leading man than the genre-hybrid king himself.
Side note: At one point in the film someone says 'thank you' to Lili Simmons (I think it was Richard Jenkins) and she responds with 'you're welcome'. I know that's how it works in real life but it felt weird on screen. It bothered me. And I have no idea why.
Zahler seems to deliberately avoid suspense. This movie doesn't have any. Deaths just happen. There's no build up. No musical score to make us uneasy or anxious for what's around the corner. When Brooder (played by Matthew Fox) realizes he's doomed and decides he's going out in a dynamite blaze of glory, there is no fancy Hollywood brew haha about it. He just blows himself up. I tend to associate realism with comedy. And at times I found some of the action to be comical for that reason. But it works. I was never bored or confused.
Breaking it down: it's all about perspective. What is this movie trying to be? As a throwback to the old B-movies from the 70s and 80s, it is awesome. Amazing, even. Especially with Russell and Wilson leading the way. But I can't call it a horror film. I was never scared. And it didn't feel like Zahler was even trying to scare me. The gore almost felt clinical and technical. It's bright and matter of fact. As opposed to another Russell film like 'The Thing' which is terrifying and gut-wrenching even up to modern filmmaking standards. Carpenter used lighting and sound to really bring his gore to life. The effects in 'The Thing' help determine the stakes. The realism of 'Bone Tomahawk' make the special effects come across...well... almost too realistic. And in a lot of ways that can actually take you out of the narrative.
Bottom line. Is it a good film? I think so. Just not a horror film. A solid B-movie western. Great cast. Sean Young was weird though.
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