new to DVD: Bone Tomahawk

Bone Tomahawk has been described as a "horror Western" -- a description which I find to be, not inaccurate, but perhaps both misleading and unfortunate. Misleading because, though some scenes are definitely scary enough to earn the "horror" descriptor, those scenes are relatively few and far between, and certainly don't form the bulk of either the content or the tone of the movie itself. Unfortunate because the very use of the word "horror" will scare away many potential viewers -- and this is a movie well worth watching.

The story is set in motion by two bandit drifters played by the oddball duo of David Arquette and Sid Haig. The two share only one scene, which is a shame, as there's something vaguely comical, almost Laurel-and-Hardyesque about their interaction. The bandits disturb an area held to be sacred by a particularly brutal Native American tribe. The Indians kill Haig, but Arquette escapes and flees to  the small town of Bright Horizon. The Indians track him there and, in the morning, the citizens wake up to find that Arquette and a couple of locals have all been very quietly abducted in the ngiht.

The local Indian expert -- himself an Indian -- tells the sheriff that all other tribes fear this tribe, which has no name because they are so brutal and primitive that they have not yet formed a language of their own. Probably because they can't spend the whole movie clumsily referring to "the tribe that has no name," the characters name the tribe "Troglodytes" and set up a search-and-rescue party.

And here's where we get to the meat of both the movie and its story. The search party consists of four characters: There's Arthur O'Dwyer (Patrick Wilson), whose broken leg should disqualify him, but he's the most determined searcher of all, seeing as his wife is one of the abductees. There's Chicory (Richard Jenkins), an absent-minded and elderly deputy who turns out to be smarter and more resourceful than you might expect. There's John Brooder (Matthew Fox), whose genteel manner disguises the fact that he's the most skilled survivalist and fighter of the bunch. And they're all under the leadership of the grizzled but virtuous sheriff, Franklin Hunt (Kurt Russell).

If the first act introduces the characters and sets the story in motion, and the final act deals with the inevitable showdown between the heroes and the Troglodytes, the vast majority of the film has two focuses: the general dangers of trekking through the wilderness in the unsettled west (wild Indians, it turns out, are just one of many different threats), and the character interactions between the four heroes. Director/ screenwriter S. Craig Zahler does a great job of fleshing each of the four main characters into very three-dimensional personalities. These scenes, which make up the bulk of the film, are by far the best. All four actors are excellent in their roles, although Jenkins is a particular stand-out as the often comical Chicory. He's funny one moment, deadly serious the next, seemingly a moron one moment, seemingly brilliant the next, and kudos go to both Jenkins and Zahler for juggling these moments in a manner that never once makes Chicory seem like an inconsistent character. Indeed, when you think about it, doesn't the above description apply to us all from time to time?

Unfortunately, once the heroes do catch up with the Trogs, things do get gory and violent. To some viewers, it no doubt will seem excessive, and, I'll admit, this segment might not be so fun for those viewers. Yet I understand the artistic necessity for this choice. Up to this point, the movie has not shied away from the realities of frontier dangers; it would, perhaps, be a betrayal of the film's tenor to suddenly grow coy once all-out war (even if it is on a very small scale) has broken out. So I have mixed feelings about the ending. As an artist, I stand by Zahler's decision. As a viewer who wishes he could recommend this movie to family and friends, I have to weigh the truly great character work in the film's mid-section against the truly horrifying final act. It's almost like two different movies. For me and many others, it works. For many more, it certainly will not.