A movie like Butcher’s Crossings wants to bring depth to the western subgenre. But it’s basically Waiting for Godot mixed with The Searchers. The bison hunt sequence during Dances With Wolves is one of the most thrilling scenes ever filmed. And it was done with no CGI and great camera work and editing.
There are no thrilling sequences here as a group of bison hunters search for a huge herd of bison in the Old West frontier days of the mid-1870s. It tries to be too cerebral but never does what it is is intended. The movie is based on a 1960 novel of the same name written by John Edward Williams. I should’ve known something was amiss when the movie started and all five production companies showed their logos reminding me of that Family Guy joke.
I couldn’t find the financials for how much the movie costs. But my guess is one production company owned the rights to the novel but didn’t have the bread to make it. So, other production companies threw in some money here and there. But I don’t know if they will get anything back. The only box office report I can find is that the movie made about $15,000 in the United Arab Emirates.
Even Nicholas Cage can’t keep the movie afloat as he plays the John Wayne role from The Searchers as Miller, a bitter gruff aging cowboy who has been talking about the grand herd of bison for decades but can’t find the right investor to give him the money he needs. That is until he meets a young Harvard dropout, Will Andrews (Fred Hechinger), who wants to make a fortune in the American buffalo hide trade. So, he comes to the town of Butcher’s Crossing, Kan., where he is immediately rejected by the local bigwig, McDonald (Paul Raci), before meeting Miller.
Miller arranges two other cowboys to go with them. They are Fred Schneider (Jeremy Bobb), who wants to be paid up front instead of shares and Charlie Hoge (Xander Berkeley), who’s very religious and drinks. Schneider gripes a lot and both characters are so one-dimensional you know exactly what their fates are to be. After a shorter than necessary sequence of them going through the frontier of dry land and no water, they come to an oasis of bison and water.
Miller goes nuts killing all the bison for the rest to skin and they overstay their intended three weeks and get trapped by a blizzard only to fight and argue. There’s not much action in the movie but it could’ve worked had the performances held the movie together. Yet, Cage is too busy trying to make Miller another one of his outrageous roles. His look is unique but he doesn’t add anything to the gruff cowboy archetype. It was probably another movie he made to pay off that massive debt he owed. And Andrews while initially conveying the gee-golly-gee wonder of someone seeing the frontier for the first time is supposed to be the anchor of the movie. Unfortunately, he can’t handle it. It could be that writer/director Gabe Polsky can’t grasp who is supposed to be the main character.
The movie also ends with a big letdown, even though it follows the one of the novel almost correctly. Sadly, I think Polsky wanted to give the movie a message about how European settlers and cowboys almost eradicated the bison from North America. This was something Dances With Wolves was able to do better by showing the skinned carcasses of bison on the prairie as the Sioux walked by in sadness and horror.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 