Butchers Crossing

[Westside Steve]

Butchers Crossing

Saban

R.     105 Min

 

A few random thoughts on the latest Nicholas Cage film:

1 It seems like he's cranking out a new movie every few months lately and he's not afraid to accept odd roles and a wide variety of subject matter.

2 Though he is not without talent and charisma sometimes it seems that these roles, despite their diversity, are the same guy. Does that make sense? With very few exceptions the character becomes Nick Cage and not the other way around.

3 He prefers to be not only the biggest, but often the only star in the movie.

4  It's a good idea to be suspicious of movies with a lot of production companies in the opening credits.

5 You will rarely find a powerful or famous director at the helm of any of these flicks. Which will dovetail into a similar but opposite situation with another film I'm doing this month.

6 since there's barely enough money in the budget for Nick's salary you won't find a lot of expensive sets or special effects. Not necessarily a bad thing, it is what it is.

And now the movie folks. A note for our younger friends who may think that history began 25 years ago; it actually didn't. For centuries indigenous peoples have been overtaken by stronger bolder and more adventurous tribes. In 1875 European settlers were claiming everything West of Massachusetts and doing their best to marginalize the Indians. One of those methods was hiring hordes of buffalo hunters to exterminate the breed which the natives desperately needed for survival. Bands them were getting rich by killing as many as they could and selling the hides while leaving the carcasses to rot in the wasteland. Fred Hechinger is Will Andrews, the son of a Unitarian minister who has left Harvard to experience first hand the ways of the wild west and a buffalo hunt in particular. There are just too many mugs applying for too few jobs so Will is set on his way, but we'll meet up with a fellow named Miller who claims to know of a gigantic herd located in a remote Valley a long and treacherous journey away. Nobody is willing to make the journey, besides they think Miller is nuts, until the kid chips in his 500 bucks he's brought from the east.

Now Miller, Will, old Charlie the cook, and Jeremy Bobb the antagonist head into the mountains and lo and behold there are the Buffalo. Even though they have more hides than they know what to do with Miller refuses to leave until he is captured every last one when things take a big turn for the worse: winter arrives early and the four  are stuck for the next 6 months or until the thaw comes.

There are a lot story lines that could have been fleshed out into appealing subplots, unfortunately it doesn't look like there was enough money to hire competent writers so these opportunities just die on the vine.

All I can tell you about the ending (a year after the team set out on what should have been a two or three-month affair) is lifted from one of my favorite episodes of Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone.

This is just one more Nicholas Cage movie that squandered the opportunity for greatness by a half-assed approach.

C

WSS