Hostiles (2017)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5478478/





In 1892, in an army fort in New Mexico, U.S. Army captain Blocker (Christian Bale) just weeks from retirement is given one last assignment:

to safely escort a dying Cheyenne War Chief (Wes Studi) and his family of 4 from New Mexico to his tribal land in Montana where he will be allowed to live out his remaining days there.

Blocker refuses the assignment because many years earlier during the war between the Cheyenne and the White Man, that same War Chief was responsible for the deaths of many of his friends and fellow Army troopers.

Blocker is told by his superior if he doesn't perform this last assignment, which comes down from the President of the United States and it's also been widely covered in the newspapers, his pension and retirement will be forfeited and he will face a court martial.

Blocker reluctantly takes the assignment and during the many days long horse ride journey to Montana, he and the War Chief and the soldiers in their armed escort detail come across murderous Comanche indians, armed criminals and a woman (Rosamund Pike) who is recently widowed.

This is a powerful film with an intellectually poignant story containing deep and rich human characters who are smartly given intelligent dialogue.

Beautifully photographed in New Mexico, Arizona and Colorado and accompanied throughout by a melancholy musical soundtrack, this is an Oscar worthy movie with the following message:

no matter who we are, what race we are, what higher power we worship to, we all have the same destination at the end of this arduous journey of ours that we call life: Death.

But before that time comes for every one of us, what we do in the time that is given to us, how we grow and learn during it and how we are remembered by those we meet along the way and those we leave behind will always be what defines us.

This is a movie worthy of:

Best Picture
Best Director and Best Screenplay (Scott Cooper - who also directed and wrote Crazy Heart and Out Of The Furnace)
Best Photography (Masanobu Takayanagi - The Grey)
Best Editing (Tom Cross - nominated for La La Land and won for Whiplash)
Best Actor (Christian Bale)
Best Actress (Rosamund Pike - Die Another Day and Gone Girl)
Best Supporting Actor (Wes Studi)
Best Supporting Actor (Rory Cochrane - Master Sgt. Thomas Metz who has served with Captain Blocker for over 20 years)

Even the young actor, Xavier Horsechief

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm9214428/

who plays the War Chief's grandson Little Bear, does an excellent acting job considering the very few lines of dialogues he had.

So why was this film snubbed this year at the Academy Awards nomination?

Is it because it portrays American Indians as human beings and not as the savages that Hollywood and the history books have done so for so long and continues to do so?

Is it also because it portrays the White man as the murderer of many Native Americans and the cause of the suffering that still exists nowadays for many of them?

This movie is easily 10 times better than that stupid The Shape Of Water which should never have been nominated for Best Picture, much less won.

Even the other films that were nominated for Best Picture, The Finest Hour and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri were much much better than The Shape Of Water.

Just the final 60 seconds of this movie before it starts to fade out into the directorial credits frame will make you cry and think about your journey of life.

5/5