MovieChat Forums > Bone Tomahawk (2016) Discussion > My Lord what a GREAT movie..

My Lord what a GREAT movie..

posted 8 years ago by badjesus
12 replies | jump to latest

No Spoilers.

Heard allot of great reviews but i still took my sweet time in watching it, unfortunate as it was amazing from start finish. Other folks have given better reviews but ill just note a few things i admired about it.
1. Tho' obvious...the acting. Literally EVERY actor was superb. 2. The exclusion of an abundance of music. I like that. Similar to another modern western No Country For Old Men (which had ZERO music in it something i point out to others who don?t notice its exclusion till i mention it lol). Far to often the audience is told via musical ques "how, what and when to feel" via the accompanying score....we dont need it...the images should be enough. When the horse is put down we feel that...any music woulda been overkill. 3. The lighting/directing ..again i refer to the scene of the horse...the angle of the 3 others watching the action in the distance, brilliant. We dont NEED to see the horse's final moments up close...its painful to watch so we watch rom a distance. Similar to De Niro in taxi driver when he makes the phone call in the hallway...its uncomfortable to watch...hence the camera shifts away...similar concept. 4. Tho' low budget it was a superb piece of filmmaking. Goes to show if you have talent you dont need a 150million bucks to make a picture. 4. I like the fact Russell and Wilson did this tho' they command larger salaries. They love the craft. Be great to see Tom Cruise do more similar things instead og Summer tentpoles. Incidentally..i liked the H8ful 8 and Russell in it...but liked him more here. His acting was better for one...i thought (this is just me now) Tarantino had him over act a tad too much. Here he was more subdued in Bone T?as someone who?s seen his fair share of tragedy would probably be.

[–] badjesus 8 years ago

...i won't write them hear as it may give something away but i forgot to mention in my post above that the words said to the "Backup Deputy" (love that) in the cave about "Each Other's Wives" totally choked me up! The dialogue in this film was AMAZING! From the things that wete said to another at the "appropriate time" ...the sermingly trivial things people discuzz when on long arduous journeys...and even the things the chatacters DIDN'T day or better put dudnt have to...i.e. They kbew wbat the irher was thinking. Sorry..I'll be raving about this film for a longtime. I just noticed the director/writer also did ASYLUM a few years back....another film i saw and remember thinking at the time "wow...that was surprisingly good". Hopefully a studio will grant him whatever projects he has written down in a notebook somewhere. Whatta great filmmaker!

[–] nicolevabre 8 years ago

Love your post, loved the film as much as you did, too, by the looks of it! Just re-watched this film again today (for the fourth time) and it's just as amazing as it was the first time.
One thing you pointed out was the dialogue, which is absolutely stellar; the long, meandering, taking their sweet old time in conversations is what really made me fall in love with this film. Richard Jenkins' character Chicory was my favorite, although it's not fair to say that since all actors were amazing.

Also, you might want to check out the director S. Craig Zahler's (sp?) book, Wraiths of the Broken Land. Sounds like there's a possibility of this being made into a film. If you can't wait for that, I highly recommend the book. Same tone as BT that you'd probably dig.

[–] mrorange7 8 years ago

I'll second that. Wraiths of the Broken Land is a cracking read. It moves along at a decent clip before unleashing in the home straight. It will be interesting to see what becomes of the film adaptation - given Bone Tomahawk's positive reception hopefully it sees the light of day.

Bone Tomahawk is brilliant. Hard to believe it was made on such a small budget.

And it also led to one of the coolest film posters I've seen in a long time.

https://mondotees.com/collections/black-friday-2016/products/bone-tomahawk-poster?variant=17148745987

[–] nicolevabre 8 years ago

Wow, I'll agree with you on the movie poster - that is super rad! What a shame that it's all sold out!
I checked out several more posters on that website, which I've never heard of and is the bee's knees, and they're all awesome! Borgman's poster is rad, and after that is Boyhood, which is like Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures album cover. Think I just found my new favorite website, thank you, mrorange!

Anywho, back to the film; every time I watch BT, I'm just amazed that it wasn't made on a blockbuster budget. There is nothing small about this production, and so much love, heart and soul was put into it, clearly. I do hope Wraiths is made into something as amazing as BT.

[–] mrorange7 8 years ago

The Mondotees poster collection is truly magnificent. I gather most things (especially sale items) get snapped up pretty quickly.

Check out some of the limited edition records/sound recordings. Great stuff. They have a bunch of tracks on their Soundcloud page. Lots of cinema-related musical goodness.

https://soundcloud.com/mondotees

Have you read any of Zahler's other books? I've heard A Congregation of Jackals is rather decent.

[–] nicolevabre 8 years ago

I'll def have to check out more stuff on Mondotees page & the SoundCloud, too, thanks for the link!
I've not read any other of Zahler's works other than Wraiths, but I ordered Congregation/Jackals yesterday...

[–] donbizzaro 8 years ago

On my 5th viewing. One of the greatest movies ever made.

[–] be-79281 8 years ago

I don't know what movie you guys were watching, but a serious waste of talented actors. Lacked several levels of substance (I was begging... please, gimme something, anything, in the writing, directing). Even great acting couldn't save this. It was trying to be artsy for artsy's sake, and people bought it. Just the worst.

[–] parkerone 8 years ago

I agree i really loved it. Ive long been a fan of kurt but this character was really made for him.

You have said it all in your post but the absence of music telegraphing the action was a bonus and i loved the kinda operatic music at the end -four doomed men ride out

I love westerns and this was great fun and i thoroughly recommend it

[–] Mistah-J 8 years ago

I haven't had high hopes before watching it but I was really pleasantly surprised.

Such a great satire and originality. It probably has something to do that it's director's first movie. The directing in this is awesome.

Definitely a director we should keep an eye for.

[–] Peter S 8 years ago

Pretty sure Mistah meant "such a great story".

I agree--I love well-done stories about self-sacrifice.

[–] Mistah-J 8 years ago

Yeah, it's a great story.
Not sure why it's wrong to call it a great satire as well?