Bone Tomahawk - Snake Plissken, Jack Sheperd, and Deputy Dewey in a cannibal western

Directed by Craig S. Zahler (The Incident)

October 23rd.

Sweet, I get to see Kurt Russell in two westerns by end of the year? It’s a good time to be alive.

Not if you’re a bad guy in a western it ain’t.

Aw shit, how did you figure out I’m Powers Boothe?

Are you gonna do something, or just stand there and bleed?

I have seen it and it is good! Best western I’ve seen in a long while, in fact. The John Ford influence is strong, and goes well beyond the basic plot.

Be advised going in that it’s 80% western and 20% horror (and, to my mind anyway, the western part is better than the horror part.)

Many good actors in this but Richard Jenkins ends up walking away with the movie.

Holy shit. Just saw this and I’m still processing, but holy holy shit.

I love that it’s the best John Ford western since The Searchers. That’s great. And I love the horror movie this becomes.

But holy shit the dialogue in this movie. My god. It’s so incredible I’m at a loss for words.

Well, that’s too bad, because the 3X3 on the movie podcast this week is Best Lines in Bone Tomahawk. If you weren’t at a loss for words, you would have been able to send in your picks. :)

-Tom

Oh, I’m sending in my picks. I’m just trying to wrap my brain around this.

I think I’ve seen 12, maybe 15 films made in 2015. I’m not entirely certain that this one isn’t at least real close to the top of the heap.

I’m not sure I can place the older actor in the opening vignette, but that’s the best, creepiest Slim Pickens imitation ever done.

Sid Haig. Dude’s been around forever. He’s a Rob Zombie fixture lately, but my earliest memory of him is as a badass space mercenary in Roger Corman’s Galaxy of Terror. He has this cool crystal bladed weapon that comes alive and kills him by working itself up under his skin. It was quite the special effect back in the day.

“Creepy Slim Pickens” is a great way to describe him!

-Tom

The terrific opening scenes exemplify this movie’s greatness. Take what would be a couple of disposable characters in other movies, cast one with a terrific character actor (I don’t know the younger actor) and give them terrific dialog that is simply a joy to listen to. Great movies don’t have throwaway scenes, or even moments. This is one of those movies you could probably watch multiple times and still be picking up cool moments you’d missed in prior viewings.

I don’t see it referenced in this thread, but Tom has a review for this on the home page. If you haven’t watched it yet, make sure you follow his link to the movie.

Also, if you haven’t watched it yet, there’s something missing from your life.

You know what I really, really love about this movie, in addition to all the other wonderful attributes we’ve mentioned in this thread or that Tom mentioned in his review?

The sound. The sound in this movie is magnificent.

There’s no music soundtrack, much of the time. Perhaps that’s it.

But what I notice is how almost tactile the sound here is. You can almost touch it. The way it sounds when they spoon out stew over a campfire with the flames popping and crackling. The way a book sounds when you shake it and the pages rustle together. Whether it’s the foley work specifically or the work of whomever did the sound recording, I can’t remember a more intense feeling of watching a movie and noticing how incredible the sound was.

Tom’s review, ICYMI

This movie was FREAKIN’ AWESOME. I saw it for the 3x3 at Tom’s behest and I was impressed beyond words. The ending had me jaw dropped, the dialogue, the sound design, the production design, the casting. It was honestly close to perfect… I’ve been raving about it all week at work… Definitely not for the squeamish.

Honestly I am a little nervous about the gore - I don’t have the capacity for it that I once did, though I do still love a good horror flick. Been burned by too much torture porn I guess.

Right now Patton Oswalt is sort of live tweeting as he watches the movie in his hotel room. And of course, he’s loving it.

@pattonoswalt 39m39 minutes ago
How and why was BONE TOMAHAWK dumped unceremoniously on VOD and iTunes? It’s fantastic. Dream cast. Moody, violent, rude & funny.

@pattonoswalt 37m37 minutes ago
The scene in BONE TOMAHAWK where James Tolkan explains why 3 piano tunes cost a dime? That ALONE is a reason to see it. #bliss

@pattonoswalt 32m32 minutes ago
I shouldn’t be watching BONE TOMAHAWK in my hotel room. This should be in theaters with people laughing their asses off & then screaming.

@pattonoswalt 18m18 minutes ago
“Does anybody know how to spell ‘troglodytes’?” Man, BONE TOMAHAWK revels in grim laughter.

@pattonoswalt 8m8 minutes ago
BONE TOMAHAWK: Richard Jenkin’s little speech in the graveyard. Is he ALWAYS perfect like that?

@pattonoswalt 7m7 minutes ago
Just realized BONE TOMAHAWK is smuggling a tense Mann/Boetticher character study inside a Cormac McCarthy horror screed. Gorgeous.

@patrickwilson73 7m7 minutes ago
Juuuust you wait.

‏@pattonoswalt 3m3 minutes ago
.@patrickwilson73 Wait, you’re IN the fucking movie and you’re creeped out? Good Lord, here we go…

@pattonoswalt 6m6 minutes ago
BONE TOMAHAWK: And now I want there to be a podcast of just Kurt Russell & Richard Jenkins discussing reading in bathtubs.

@pattonoswalt 3m3 minutes ago
BONE TOMAHAWK: If there’s a “grizzle porn” gay subculture then Kurt Russell is its Cary Grant.

‏@pattonoswalt 3m3 minutes ago
BONE TOMAHAWK: Matthew Fox is charming & scary & hateful & heroic in equal measure. Perfect job casting, Matthew Maisto.

It’s great that Patton Oswalt likes Bone Tomahawk but holy crap I never want to sit next to him in a theater. ;)

Just watched it. It was great, and brutal. It made me want to reread Blood Meridian.

Also: those were the best orcs I’ve seen in a movie since Lord of the Rings.