The last time Scott Cooper and Christian Bale teamed up it was a few years ago for the promising-on-paper Out of the Furnace. The film featured a star-studded cast that was, unfortunately, wasted on an overlong, overcooked melodrama that failed to make much of an impression. The early buzz has been significantly better for their reunion, the brutal western Hostiles, which has some putting Bale's name in the ring for Best Actor. And now you can get a glimpse at his performance in the latest trailer.
Also starring Rosamund Pike, Wes Studi, Jesse Plemons, Timothee Chalamet, Q’orianka Kilcher, Ben Foster, Rory Cochrane, and Adam Beach, Hostiles is set in 1892 and follows a racist Army captain who must escort a Cheyenne war chief through hostile territory. It's a film that Cooper, who I had a lengthy conversation with at Middleburg Film Festival, wants to position as a commentary on race relations, and our mistreatment of all minorities not just Native Americans. It's a thoughtful, earnest effort that I nevertheless had some issues with, noting in my review that if Cooper is "using the mistreatment of Native Americans to make a point about racial division, it shouldn't just be the white characters who have a say."
Hostiles gets an Oscar-qualifying run on December 22nd before expanding in January 2018.
