Bone Tomahawk!

I've been hearing about Bone Tomahawk for some time and long wanted to see it. I'd read that it was a pretty compelling yarn with some exceedingly grisly parts. All of that prove to be true.

In the tiny remote western town of Bright Hope, with much of the male population away on sundry cattle drives a dangerous threat emerges. Brought to the town by a murderous man who had escaped punishment for violating sacred ground brutal Native Americans who can properly be called "savages" invade and make off with the man and a woman (Lili Simmons) who was tending to some of his wounds. This demands that the sheriff (Kurt Russell) and his deputy (Richard Jenkins) go in search to rescue her. They are joined by her husband (Patrick Wilson) who is limited with a wounded leg and another mysterious man with a murderous reputation (Matthew Fox). These four ride into the wilds to find what one local dubbed "Troglodytes".

It appears that even the local Indians avoid and fear this cannibalistic tribe which lives far across rough territory in a high cave. Nonetheless the trek is undertaken and that's the story of the movie. What happens to these men in their quest to save one man's wife reveals character at almost every turn and in a nod to classic Westerns, the character revealed is that of men who are equal to the task despite the task being nearly hopeless.

The movie I was most reminded of while watching Bone Tomahawk was not another western but a historical fantasy titled The Thirteenth Warrior which tells the "true" story of the legend of Beowulf. I'd be curious if anyone else agrees with me.

This is a brutal movie with some scenes outlandishly violent. But to be frank by the time one reaches these sequences, the audience has been at least somewhat prepared for the rugged action. Like any good western of the modern era, these are not the superman of the past who rode relentlessly for days without any sense of weariness or pain and these are not men who shot without regard for other lives, even when that regard demands shooting. This is a grim quest demanding grim heroes.

This one's not for all, but if you can handle movie brutality, then Bone Tomahawk is worth the effort.

Rip Off