Bone Tomahawk

Old Man: "What do you see?"

Brooder: "A snake in a tree"

Old Man: "What kind?"

*Bang*

Brooder: "Deceased"

Dry, detached and deadpan wit keeps the pace of the film at cruising altitude thus avoiding awkward stretches that could plunge the film into a thudding dullness. The pace is slow. The variety of characters give the scenes an endearing charm with believable and sensitive performances but whether or not this saves the film from an overly simplistic plotline remains the point of much discussion for me.

Mr. Brooder: "I'm the most intelligent man here...I ain't married", to paraphrase.

Sheriff: "I know how to interrogate a man!"

Old man: "He's got a system!"

One of the saddest moments is when Brooder had to put his horse, 'Saucy', down.

Mr. O'Dwyer must know he's walking towards his death. Perhaps he believes a life without his beloved isn't a life worth living? He sees his fate set before him in the old man. Even the old man knows he's probably going to die. It's make or break on the grand frontier.

How do the Tomahawk Indians understand one another? Turns out they have an elaborate communication system in the form of shoving what appears to be an animal bone into their vocal chords and screaming into the air. All I could gather is that every scream translates to, "COME HERE NOW!!!"

The death of the deputy was more than gruesome. It was grotesque. I felt sick watching it. I'm never watching this film again.

The old man's musings on the authenticity of a flea circus got me in stitches. The fleas inherited the intelligence of the animals from drinking their blood - in this case dogs - and that this gave them the ability to be trained. He therefore deduces the fleas were really alive, not dead, and indeed did all those 'tricks' like pushing a miniature cannon onto a miniature battlefield.

One admirable quality about the citizens is that they never abandon their civility in spite of all the brutality that befalls them.

"Say goodbye to my wife, I'll say hello to yours."

If it weren't for the script being peppered with dark and at times inane humour standing in stark contrast to the dyer situations our heroes got themselves into the film would have been a pointless bore rather than simply pointless. The strong performances helped also but I couldn't help but feel the minimalist script held back the talents somewhat. The plot was simple: a rescue mission. That was it. There wasn't really much else going on. There were maybe hints of a running commentary on religion as well as historically based racial tensions between certain groups of people: even the "civilised Indian" didn't like the "troglodytes." I do believe the film was somewhat self mocking, and it was artfully, subtley done at times: once vocalised to wit by the only character with sense, Mrs. O'dwyer: "That's what makes life on the frontier so difficult. It's not the Indians or the elements. It's the idiots!"

I'm not saying the filmmakers were idiots by any stretch. Maybe I've missed a trick. All in all, if you take something like The Tales of Buster Scruggs, mix it with Machete and remove all semblance of subtext from the former, oh, and include all the walking scenes from L.O.T.Rs, you end up with Bone Tomahawk.

3 tomahawks out of 5