Is It based on Blood Meridian?
Nope, but it had a similar tone and setting and shared some common themes.
Ah. I’ve had blood Meridian on the shelf for years, but never picked it up.
I didn’t realize this was already out on streaming. Simultaneous release? It doesn’t seem to be in theaters near me.
Enjoyed it but wasn’t nearly as blown away as most here seem to have been. Good to great acting for the most part except for Lili Simmons who I found ‘ok’ at best, though her dialogue was the worst to work with. The script had some gems, mostly between Jenkins and Russell but everyone (Simmons excepted) had some good stuff to work with.
However, the whole cannibal setup had some problems for me from their inconsistent competency to the Land of the Lost (original not movie) level cave. For me, they needed to be a little more fleshed out (ha!) or a little more mysterious. As it was they were kind of in a ‘Realism’ uncanny valley for me.
Still, the interaction between the four main characters made it a worthwhile couple of hours.
Yeah, just a few theaters here and there, simultaneous VOD release.
I can see where you are coming from, but I think The Proposition with Guy Pearce may get a lot closer to the tone and setting. Terrific film either way.
I like The Proposition suggestion, but the Australian undertone is an important part of that movie. It matters a lot that Ray Winstone is English and that the outlaws are Australian, one of whom has taken up with Aboriginals (Australia has it’s own baggage with Aboriginals similar to ours with Native Americans). Bone Tomahawk, on the other hand, is very American. It’s characters are comfortable with their conviction about a bunch of uncivilized savages (a conviction shared by the audience!) in the same way that Blood Meridian’s people are comfortable with that conviction about Native Americans. Also, there’s nothing in The Proposition that matches the simple but horrific violence in both Bone Tomahawk and Blood Meridian. Finally, just as Cormac McCarthy has a distinct but not overly showy style, Bone Tomahawk has distinct and stylistic dialogue with simple and even austere direction (just like Ex Machina, I’m astonished this was the work of a first-time director).
I don’t mean to speak for carltonbauheimer, but those are the points of commonality I see between Bone Tomahawk and Blood Meridian. But I do like you bringing up The Proposition in this context; it’s a great recommendation.
-Tom
Yeah, some of those are great and it’s hilarious that Patrick Wilson shows up, but for Pete’s sake, Patton Oswalt, shouldn’t you be paying attention to the movie?
-Tom
Ah, crap. This doesn’t come out in the UK for another month.
Cool, thanks for the recommendation. I’ll have to check that out.
I think you made the comparison more eloquently than I did/would have if I had elaborated.
So someone on another forum was saying that the reason the horses disappear halfway through the movie was because they ran out of money :). It wasn’t actually in the original script. You could have fooled me! It worked perfectly.
Sometimes, when you see a bad movie, I feel that certain people (like the writer or director) get unfairly blamed for its crappiness, when really, who knows why a movie sometimes doesn’t work. Maybe two actors hated each other. Maybe on a key scene, the camera broke down and everyone was thrown out of the moment and couldn’t bring the energy. It’s impossible to know.
But then you hear about a detail like that and realize that the really great filmmakers are able to improvise on the spot because they really understand the characters, the story, and what the movie is about. What a great example of a writing solution to a filmmaking problem.
This wasn’t released in theaters? I did a quick check on IMDB just now and it only released in USA and some festivals which sounds pretty weird.
This never would have found an audience for a wider release. People expecting a Western would be all, like, der dee der dee for an hour and a half and then they’d be all, like, GAH WHAT IS HAPPENING? People expecting a horror movie would be all, like, mygod get ON WITH IT already, why am I watching this instead of Insidious 4?
Because of the nature of the movie, Bone Tomahawk brings to mind Hunter S. Thompson’s line about “too weird to live, too rare to die”. That certainly describes the situation with its release.
-Tom
Watched this at work with a bunch who are pretty hard to please, especially with a slowly developing movie like this. Richard Jenkins was the consensus big winner of the movie. From reading this thread, I had an inkling THE scene was coming up, so it was entertaining hearing a room of grown men who have seen the worst things in the world, squeal at poor Deputy Nick.
The two main things that bothered me about the ending of the story was they broke Chekhov’s Gun with the dynamite and the Sheriff didn’t get any empty comforting at his end. Deputy Nick had the cavalry coming, Mrs. O’Dwyer was repeatedly told how determined her husband was, and Chicory had his fleas. The Sheriff gets left behind with a rifle and a flask he can’t use.
I think the Sheriff’s comfort was knowing the married couple made it out alive, and that he could take out a couple more of those orcs before he died.
This was some kind of masterpiece. Chicory has to be one of the all-time great western characters. Kurt Russell, Matthew Fox, and especially Richard Jenkins were fantastic. I really enjoyed seeing Sid Haig, too! I thought the final exchange between the Sheriff and Chicory was kind of beautiful. In lesser hands it could’ve been so corny.
This is the kind of movie that always worries me a bit. After I come across a really special film like a Bone Tomahawk or The Woman Chaser (1999), I end up spending forever searching through junk in the hopes of finding another underappreciated cult flick.
2015 is shaping up to be a pretty strong year for films. For me, it’s not quite on par with 2014 (which could be my favorite year ever), but between this, Fury Road and Sicario, I’ll settle for three permanent recommendations.
Anybody else having the trouble of wanting to recommend this movie to somebody but knowing the last third of the movie would absolutely ruin it for them?
They could’ve cut 20 minutes off of the running time and still kept half of the limping.
Are you talking about the gore?
-xtien