Bone Tomahawk

Bone tomahawk is a gritty and often brutal western. It has a good script that keeps it humorous throughout. With the old hapless back up debuty being the main source of humour. Some memorable quotes are:

Brooder “I’m am the smartest man here. You all have wife’s and your a widower.”

Chicory “What has that got to do with anything?!”

Brooder “Smart men don’t get married!”

Chicory “ugh that tea smells gruesome”

Sheriff “It’s soup!”

Chicory “Oh... can I have some?”

Chicory “I’m doing better than I thought. Much better!”

Deputy Nick “Your looking at my side of the board!”

Chicory “What do you see? “

Brooder “A snake in a tree...”

Chicory“what kind?”

Bang!

Brooder “Deceased!”

There are some amazing performance’s by the actors especially Richard Jenkins and Patrick Wilson I felt they played there role very well.

The film follows the rescue mission of four people from the town of brighthope. The band is made up of sheriff Hunt, Chicory the back up deputy, Arthur O’Dwyer and Mr Brooder. They are on a mission to save two captured towns people and a prisoner who where taken hostage by a band of Troglodyte Indians.

One of the hostages is Mr O’Dwyer’s wife who was tending to the prisoner in the jail after being shot by the sheriff. The other was the deputy Nick.

The reason the hostages were taken was because the prisoner who identifies as buddy (probably a made up name) crossed over the Troglodyte burial ground with his partner after murdering two sleeping travellers nearby. His partner was killed straight away but buddy gets away and makes it to Bright hope, where by he is arrested and shot by the sheriff.

Plot

In short the band of rescuers set off in search for the hostages. Mr O’Dwyer has a broken tibia which slows the group down somewhat but he is determined and will not be persuaded to stop. As they travel on his leg starts giving him lots of pain and becomes infected.

On the second night they encounter two Mexicans who come upon there camp at night Mr Brooder shoots them both dead. Much too the shock of the others. He justifies it by saying they were probably scouts for a raiding party that would have slit there throats in there sleep.

On the third night they are attacked by a raiding party who steal there horses expect for Mr Brooders which is mortality wounded. Mr O’Dwyer wakes up first and saves there life’s by shooting one of the thief’s. Brooder is injured but not badly. He is forced to shoot his horse.

After this the group determines to travel by night and rest by day as it is safer. The problem is now Mr O’Dwyer’s leg he hobbles on though using a crutch and takes opium for the pain. By the time he catches up to the group at there next camp site though his leg is in terrible shape.

They rests and when they wake up to carry on O’Dwyer and Brooder get in two a bit of a fight which makes O’Dwyer’s leg worse. Chicory who has some medical training says the leg needs amputating. Mr O’Dwyer refuses and tells him two set it straight. So they do but he passes out from the pain. They leave him behind and mark the rout so he can follow if things go bad.

The three remaining members carry on. That day they come across the area they are looking for but don’t know which valley it is. They hear a weird noise that they heard the night of the kidnapping. They determine that it’s the troglodytes and they have been spotted.

Eventually they come across a narrow entrance to the troglodytes cave brooder goes first. The others follow but they are immediately set upon by the troglodytes. Brooder is injured mortality and sheriff Hunt gets and arrow to the arm. They leave Brooder with some dynamite and a gun an push on but to no avail Brooder is immediately killed and the sheriff and Chicory are captured and wounded again.

We cut back to Mr O’Dwyer who wakes up and set off after them slowly and painfully.

We go to the cave where we meet up with the hostages. sheriff Hunt and Chicory are thrown in a prison. We then see one of the hostages deputy Nick get tortured and finally cut in half from the dick down! The sheriff and Chicory try to escape while this is happening and the sheriff looses a couple of fingers for the trouble.

The sheriff and Chicory reunited with mrs O’Dwyer and together they hatch a plan to try and give Mr O’Dwyer a fighting chance. So they trick the troglodytes into drinking whiskey with opium in it but it will only work in two of them.

Mr O’Dwyer makes it to the entrance to the cave but takes a different route to the others he manages to kill two of the troglodytes. He finds a bone inserted in to the throat of one of the troglodytes that is how they make there weird noises and communicate. He pulls it out and uses it to his advantage. He manages to kill two more.

In the cave the troglodytes have cottoned on two what the prisoner did with the whiskey and pull sheriff Hunt out of his cell. The start torturing him but before they finish him off they hear gun shots and one leaves two go see what’s happening.

The sheriff manages to grab a bone tomahawk and cuts the toes of the one remaining Troglodyte and then kills him. Soon after Mr O’Dwyer come into the cave. sheriff Hunt is mortality wounded and he tells them to leave him behind with a gun while the other three escape. Chicory lingers behind two hear his last wishes as the ever dutifully back up deputy. As the leave the cave they pass mutilated troglodyte women

When there a little way off they hear gunshots this is the end of the film.

I really enjoy this film it’s metal as fuck! Brutal and gruesome in all the right places while still maintaining a sense of humour though out. Even the opening instantly sets the tone. The weird eerie noise the troglodyte Indians make give a great sense of dread to the film. The only thing missing is that jump moment it never really delivers but I feel it could have done with. There are some slower scenes as well towards the beginning of the film but they are necessary to keep the native moving.

4 out of 5 🤘