Bone Tomahawk Review

I watched this film on the All 4 player and it limited my enjoyment of this great film significantly. It’s been years since I watched a film with adverts throughout and I thought it was almost as primitive as the troglodytes in the film. I find it hard to imagine that I used to watch films on TV all the time. The adverts really killed the tension and I will endeavour to watch this film again someday without any interruptions.

The pace of the movie is rather slow, but the conversations and interactions between the characters were interesting enough that I wasn’t bored at all. There were great characters and performances all round, but the four posse members obviously stand out the most:

Sheriff Hunt is played by Kurt Russel and is everything you expect from a Sheriff and everything you expect from Kurt Russel. Russel is no stranger to the genre and you might even say he was born to play this kind of role.

Chicory (played by Richard Jenkins) is a little slow – in both senses of the word – but what he lacks in speed and intelligence, he makes up for in courage and his loyalty to the Sheriff. He had some great lines and provided some welcome comic relief to what is a mostly grim film.

Arthur (played by Patrick Wilson) is stubborn and blinded by his understandable desire to save his wife from a fate worse than death, and then death. If you were punching above your weight as much as this guy and your wife was half your age, wouldn’t you travel for several days on a broken leg to fight off hordes of cannibalistic savages in order to rescue her?

Brooder (played by Matthew Fox) is something of an anti-hero in that he is an arrogant dickhead and as the film goes on some of his finer qualities shine through. He ultimately sacrifices himself to help the others complete their mission. I read that Timothy Olyphant was considered for this role and I’m sure I would have enjoyed his take on the character as much as his other “gunslinger roles” in Deadwood and Justified.

I couldn’t really decide who my favourite character was, but I narrowed it down to Chicory and Brooder. Interestingly, these two characters that are pretty much polar opposites of one another.

I had already heard about the infamous scene from this film, so it didn’t quite have the shock value that it might have had. That said, I still practically felt each strike from that bone tomahawk. It is easily one of the worst ways to die and the director pulls no punches in depicting this gruesome execution. I found the scenes with Arthur’s leg were a little uncomfortable to watch, but truly nothing can really prepare you for that upcoming scene in the cave.

I have would loved to have seen Bone Tomahawk in the cinema. The whole experience would have been amazing, but I would especially have loved to witness the collective shock of the audience as that poor deputy gets hacked in half, gooch first.

4.5 severed scalps out of 5