HOSTILES (15)

Ben Foster as Sergeant Charles Wills and Christian Bale as Captain Joseph Blocker, right Captain Joseph J Blocker (Christian Bale) begrudgingly escorts his sworn enemy – Cheyenne tribal chef Yellow Hawk (Wes Studi) – from a prison cell at Fort Berringer in New Mexico to the Valley Of The Bears in Montana.

Yellow Hawk is gravely ill and wishes to join his ancestors, surrounded by family including son Black Hawk (Adam Beach) and daughter-in-law Elk Woman (Q’orianka Kilcher).

Blocker shepherds the Cheyenne prisoners, joined by Master Sergeant Thomas Metz (Rory Cochrane), Lieutenant Rudy Kidder (Jesse Plemons), Corporal Henry Woodson (Jonathan Majors) and Private Philippe DeJardin (Timothee Chalamet). En route, the posse befriends Rosalie Quaid (Rosamund Pike), whose husband and children were slaughtered by Comanches, and accepts a new commission: to escort murderer Sergeant Charles Wills (Ben Foster) to the gallows.

Set during the final years of

the bloodthirsty war between the United States army and Native Americans, Hostiles is a gritty western that trots when it could gallop.

Resentment and rivalries fester against the backdrop of the Mountain States, which provide a breathtaking canvas for Japanese cinematographer Masanobu Takayanagi.

Bale delivers a blistering performance as a world-weary army captain, whose humanity is revitalised by an unexpected encounter with Pike’s griefnumbed widow.