Bone Tomahawk-2015
Director S. Craig Zahler
Starring Kurt Russell
Scott’s Review #403
Reviewed May 10, 2016
Grade: B+
Bone Tomahawk is a 2015 film almost nobody has seen or heard of, and it’s a unique independent horror/western hybrid.
It draws heavily on Quentin Tarantino and features an impressive cast for such a low-profile film.
Bone Tomahawk is the proverbial diamond in the rough and is worth seeing for film fans with patience enough to sit through the slow-moving pace to get to the good stuff.
The best of it comes in the final thirty minutes.
Notably, the film was recognized by the Independent Film Committee and received two Spirit Awards, for Best Supporting Male (Richard Jenkins) and Best Screenplay.
It won neither.
The film does not have a “star”, but rather a myriad of heavy hitters in a clear ensemble.
Kurt Russell plays Franklin Hunt, sheriff of a tiny town named Bright Hope, presumably somewhere in the West (Wyoming?) circa 1890.
His deputy sheriff, Chicory, is played by Jenkins.
When drifters kill some travelers, they accidentally stumble upon a mysterious Native American burial ground and taint its contents, leaving one brutally murdered by the tribe.
The other (played by David Arquette) stumbles into Bright Hope and is immediately deemed suspicious.
When he, a female Doctor’s assistant, and a young local man disappear, it is realized that they have been abducted by the owners of the burial ground, who are feared to be cannibalistic savages.
Hunt, Chicory, a foreman named Arthur (the doctor’s assistant’s wife), played by Patrick Wilson, and a local playboy played by Matthew Fox decide to trek through rugged terrain to find and rescue the missing.
The pace is slow and will undoubtedly turn off some folks seeking slicker, high-tech viewing, or even some CGI, but the payoff for patience is immense.
The group’s trek through the desert in pursuit of the accosted feels endless, and I did wonder what the point was, but the forthcoming turn of events makes the tedium worth it.
In defense of the long, plodding journey, this aspect lets the audience get to know and begin to care about the characters; some make it out alive, and others are not as lucky.
The fun part is finding out who does and doesn’t.
Bone Tomahawk contains one of the most gruesome scenes that I have ever witnessed in my thousands of viewed films.
A male character, nude, is brutally scalped, and a spear is hammered into his throat in full view of the prisoners.
As if this is not shocking enough, he is then turned upside down, split down the middle, and chopped in half, as his insides spill to the ground.
The snapping sounds of his bones and the visual horror of the guts are even too much for the non-squeamish to view.
It is uncanny that Kurt Russell plays a similar character in another 2015 film, the much higher-profile The Hateful Eight. Sure, he is a bounty hunter, but the period, setting, and costumes are almost identical.
One might wonder which was made first.
Bone Tomahawk is a guy’s movie, but not in the traditional sense; there are no explosions, no unnecessary machismo, and no obvious clichés.
But at the end of the day, it is a Western, and the cast is mainly male. Besides the Doctor’s assistant, the only other females are wives with small roles.
The most glaring is Sean Young- given hardly anything to do in a cameo appearance. Otherwise, the only other females in sight are Native American women who are blind, deaf, pregnant, or missing appendages.
A unique hybrid of film genres, Bone Tomahawk (2015) is a clever, different experience.
I am a champion of independent film, and this film is a good example of why.
Evidently, with a stellar cast of A-list or former A-list stars banding together to make a piece of art, it seems others champion good films too.
Independent Spirit Award Nominations: Best Supporting Male-Richard Jenkins, Best Screenplay
