Bone Tomahawk (2015)
Kurt Russell plays the sheriff of a small western town who together with three other men form a posse to go after the Indians who raided the town the previous night and kidnapped three of the townsfolk.
What follows is an often slow burning western which should appeal to lovers of the genre. It's easy to forget in this age of building throwing superheroes and Empire battling space operas how thrilling it can be watching men on horseback galloping along the plains, but this first time venture from director S. Craig Zahler (surely a name to look out for in the future) proves the classic western is still not dead. Because that's what Bone Tomahawk is, it's a classic western albeit with a twist, but at it's heart this tale of love and revenge is a lot closer to True Grit and The Searchers than it is to Django Unchained.
As the four are eventually captured by their savage foes who turn out not to be Indians but something else entirely, the film gets extremely violent and graphic. Yet for some reason it's the beautifully choreographed and languid build up, the first 90 minutes that linger in my memory. The realization that four men - Kurt Russell, Patrick Wilson, Matthew Fox and Richard Jenkins - all excellent - telling camp fire tales and generally being tall in the saddle against the odds, when well scripted, is still as relevant today as it was in the fifties and the golden age of the Hollywood western.
Highly recommended, but definitely not for the squeamish.
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