In this episode, we discuss last year’s low budget cannibal horror western, Bone Tomahawk. Starring the great Kurt Russell, this surprisingly great thriller is many things at once: charming, harrowing, stately, witty, and stomach-churning. Featuring a talented cast of bigger names than you’d expect, this starts as a search and rescue adventure yarn and takes a sharp pivot off into grisly horror about two thirds of the way in. Me and Dad discuss it at length, focusing on the greatness of Kurt Russell and Richard Jenkins, the surprisingly florid and literary dialogue (and its surprising historical precedent), the relative morality of shooting first and asking questions later, the ability of great writing to elevate tension, the questionable realism of progressive ideas about race in the old west, the need for more movies to end with songs that explain the plot, how to cannily evade being offensive to Native Americans, and most of all, the use and precedent set for violence, particularly ultraviolence, in this kind of film. Please note that we will spoil the end of this film, and it’s the kind of movie where a significant amount of tension is derived from the question of who will live and who won’t. If you’re listening for a recommendation, I’d say go ahead and watch it, because we both liked it a ton. Just be aware that it gets pretty damn gruesome at the end, but despite that manages to reach a satisfying and cathartic conclusion.
Additionally, at the end we touch briefly on a few recent releases, Trumbo and The Witch. Join us in two weeks time for the next episode, which will be our first Clint Eastwood entry, The Outlaw Josey Wales.
Bone Tomahawk stars Kurt Russell, Richard Jenkins, Matthew Fox and Patrick Wilson and was written and directed by S Craig Zahler. You can watch it on Amazon Prime!
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