Bone Tomahawk Reviewed

Glib reviews of recent-ish DVD and/or Blurays

Bone Tomahawk

This is one weird movie, or really maybe it’s two weird movies or three. Weird western definitely, of the more bookish Jonah Hex kind of tales. Not the movie, the 70’s version of the Comics is my touchstone. Ol’ Jonah was grizzled as heck and dealt occasionally with some spookier creepier western elements, in a very pulp western type of way.

The first few minutes of the film were all about Sid Haig’s ode to Slim Pickens in his portrayal of a deeply cynical murderer and brigand who stumbles across into a burial ground and horrors unseen but seared in your brain in a very verite styled opening. Maybe there are a few short films in this movie that I like more, the more I write about it, defomitely more than when I sat down, to give it a middlin’ review, but thinking about it in review as opposed to the more visceral vibe of right after the movie ends, literally with a thud.

If you are a fan of slow moving westerns that deconstruct a lot of macho tropes, and make the viewer have some empathy for these schmucks who are trying to live up to the biggest of them all, the ‘doing of what must be done.’ There are no antagonists but the protagonists at first, then we find out the ‘bad guys’ are nigh mythical beings, who eventually seem to be some sort of offshoot of orcs or something, more than they do Native Americans. The movie’s last half or third or so takes a quickly dark and violent turn after a seeming endless Gun totin’ Bros learnin’ stuff about humanity, and each other as they bond to save the one interesting character from town; the ‘Lady Doctor’, who goes from interesting tough voice of reason and humanity to offscreen princess to rescue in one simple cutaway to ‘the next morning.’ 

The one really gruesome thing near the end is the one part of this movie, other than how the Doctor goes from vital to victim a little too easily for the plot, which is denser than it needs to be; which makes this movie fun to recall. The scenes are maybe better recalled, than experienced. Kurt Russell was maybe the only actor in the film who was recognizable, adding a beard to his Tombstone styled ‘Stache that he abides whilst shooting Westerns. There are maybe some problematic parts to this movie, cliche wise, but as a film that sits with you, it seems to be one that I could revisit, which makes it a winner. The beginning and the end, for me really made the film, homage to the past, and the end with the abruptness of a film with a higher calling than a revenge oater. Thud.

8.00001 Creepy Blue dudes living in a cave outta 10