Directed by:
S. Craig ZahlerScreenplay:
S. Craig ZahlerCinematography:
Benji BakshiCast:
Kurt Russell, Patrick Wilson, Matthew Fox, Richard Jenkins, Lili Simmons, Evan Jonigkeit, David Arquette, Fred Melamed, Sid Haig, Maestro Harrell, James Tolkan (more)Plots(1)
When a group of cannibal savages kidnaps settlers from the small town of Bright Hope, an unlikely team of gunslingers, led by Sheriff Franklin Hunt (Kurt Russell), sets out to bring them home. But their enemy is more ruthless than anyone could have imagined, putting their mission – and survival itself – in serious jeopardy. (RLJ Entertainment)
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Reviews (15)
I think that, when it comes to film quality, there has never been a better horror movie with aboriginal cannibals. A week ago I complained that in Roth's Green Inferno hardly anything happens for half of the film. Here, the proportion between “introduction” and “action” is even more sober, but it doesn’t matter at all when you can see the difference in talent between Roth and the first-time director S. Craig Zahler. Ninety minutes are dedicated to introducing characters stubbornly determined to rescue the abducted inhabitants of a village. That’s enough time to sincerely start rooting for them, which also helped by the superb performances. The extremely brutal final half-hour then feels like a sucker punch, because the tribe of cannibals don’t fool around. It is very clear for everyone that these nice characters have walked into a place where they should have never been at all. I never imagined that the horror genre could blend so smoothly with the western. But Bone Tomahawk is both a really good western and really good horror. Very close to perfection.
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Dialogue as if from a contemporary Manhattan conversational movie, theatrical performances, an atmosphere that is anything but western, amateurish cinematographic work with space and, in the end, a hole in the logic that makes it look like the filmmakers are mocking their audience. Bone Tomahawk reminded me of some festival bizarreness from the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival awarded the Ecumenical Jury prize. But I watched it to the end, because to see such cruel and brutal scenes in a western with a cast of A-listers is even rarer than the painfully bad direction.
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Thanks to Bone Tomahawk my girlfriend got laid again. Nothing happens at all for 90% of the film, which at 133 minutes is literally Martyrs of the highest caliber for me. (Those who like boredom and slow narrative will be in their element). An aimless wandering through a desolate landscape with a not very interesting story and with uninteresting dialogues that will not make you smile or even think, in short, it is not interesting. What is nice, though, is surprisingly decent cast and about three nice good scenes at the end, but I could have watched that on YouTube in five minutes and would have saved myself two hours twenty minutes. The savages and their screams are impressive, but putting the cards on the table at a time when the viewer is disgusted and bored is something that not even Indiana Jones would have been able to save. 50% so for the production quality and the actors, but otherwise boring. The scariest thing about the film so far is the rating. Story 5/10, Atmosphere 3/10, Gore 5/10, Visuals 6/10, Action 1/10, Entertainment 2/10.
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A mix of proper western atmosphere (the sounds of the prairie, the small town, the sets) with an uncompromising carnage that is so explicit you see it in mainstream films only every 5 years or so (last time in The Hills Have Eyes 2), because it goes far beyond the normal. S. Craig Zahler focuses mostly on the characters, their symbiosis with the wildlife and their interaction with each other. The script is utterly unpredictable until just before the finale, when it turns out to be a slaughter. Cut or speed up the first half, stretch out the second half and it would probably be a bit more entertaining.
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A slow journey movie with excellently played characters. Kurt Russel was just made for this western, Fox is a convincing as the arrogant bastard and Wilson is a regular guy with a wife holed up in a cave full of Indian cannibals. The action is swift and when the action eventually comes toward the ending, it’s naturalistic and good and bloody. The butchery in the cave is unarguably the zenith of the movie.
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