Bone Tomahawk (2015)

Hey, somebody’s gotta eat.

A bunch of people start going missing somewhere around in the West and it gets people thinking, “Just what’s going on?” Some believe that the people tailed-off and died, whereas others think that they were kidnapped by a savage tribe of cannibals that hide-up in the mountains and are most definitely best left alone and to their business. Problem is, Sheriff Franklin Hunt (Kurt Russell) can’t allow that to be enough for him, so he decides that it’s time to find these people, infiltrate this cannibal-tribe and oh yeah, save some lives. But in order to do so, he’ll have to get the help of some of the most trusted gunslinger’s he knows. Like, Arthur O’Dwyer (Patrick Wilson) who, despite a leg-injury, sticks it out on this mission. Or like Chicory (Richard Jenkins), the Sheriff’s Deputy who knows that time has passed him by, but he’s not willing to settle down just yet. Or, like a random cowboy named John Brooder (Matthew Fox), who shows up randomly into town and makes it his duty to stop these cannibals, all for a hefty-sum of course.

The more out West they are, the more scraggly the facial-hair.

Bone Tomahawk is the kind of movie that won’t be for everybody and that’s why it’s pretty great. It starts off as a slow, meandering and rather meandering Western that’s languid and taking its time, but then rapidly changes into something far more disturbing, barbaric and grueling that we never see it coming, nor do we know what to do with it. Writer/director S. Craig Zahler deserves loads of credit here for not just turning the Western-genre on its side, but also realizing the pulpy-limitations that can be reached when such things as convention, or good-taste are thrown to the side; sometimes, it’s better to just show a bunch of blood, guts, bullets, and cannibals.

Something that, honestly, the John Ford Westerns always seemed to be missing.

But I kid. Zahler does something interesting with this material in that he lets it breathe and move at its own pace. That can sometimes mean that it’s a bit slow and boring, but it also means that Zahler is using his time wisely, setting-up and building characters, giving us a better idea of who, or what exactly, we’re working with. It may not seem like much in the world of film, but when it seems like almost every other movie feels the need to rush itself, get going, and immediately jump to all of the gore and action, it’s a nice change-of-pace to get a movie that doesn’t rush things along.

It also helps that Zahler knows that by doing this, he’s also building tension, which is exactly why Bone Tomahawk works as well as it does. Cause when we get all of the necessary build-up that we need, the movie’s tension snaps like a rubber-band that’s been stretched too tight; the action that we’d been waiting around for so desperately, does eventually come around, but it hits a lot harder than we expect. It’s quick, brutal, unrelenting, and oh yeah, pretty damn shocking – all factors that seem to be missing from today’s film’s violence, without seeming gratuitous or over-the-top.

Why would anyone want to leave her at home, all alone?!?

Nope. In Bone Tomahawk‘s case, the violence is just a sick and savage culmination of all the building and waiting around that’s been done and it’s hard not to be gripped by this. Zahler is a smart director in that he knows the best way to film this kind of heartless action is not to look away, shake the camera, or pull off some sick style-points, but keep the camera there, tightly and firmly, so that we can see just what sort of carnage is being done. It makes it not just more hard-to-watch, but rather disturbing.

Another factor missing from most of today’s movie violence.

But if anything, Bone Tomahawk is a solid B-movie that wants to be a bit of an A-movie, what with its stars and possible ideas about land and freedom. Then again, the movie is best when it’s not caring about this certain kind of stuff and just allowing for these characters to blow each other’s heads off. Sure, there’s something more to this small dynamic of characters, but really, the movie’s not necessarily as character-based, as much as it just uses them to be pawns in a much larger, much more dangerous game. Zahler knows that it’s best to have us care about them and sympathize with them, even when we know that it’s all going to blow up in their face, as well as our own.

But hey, that’s just the price we pay for caring.

Consensus: A tad long, Bone Tomahawk isn’t high-art, as much as it’s a B-movie with some pretty horrifying violence, a solid cast, and a smart direction that plays on genre-thrills, but never shying away from the sheer brutality that’s actually shocking, given today’s standards.

8 / 10

Uh oh. Look out cannibals. Or, I guess, prepare the hot-sauce.

Photos Courtesy of: Image Entertainment