MovieChat Forums > Bone Tomahawk (2016) Discussion > Good film. 2 major problems with it

Good film. 2 major problems with it

posted 8 years ago by southtxabstract
1 reply | jump to latest

The pacing. I don't mind slow burns or long movies for that matter but some scenes I felt were too drawn out. I enjoyed all the characters but felt this story could have been told just as well if they had shaved at least 20 mins.

The other problem I had was the ending. Felt rushed. If you're gonna make it a longer than usual horror film at least have some time dedicated to what happens next after you hear the gun shots and the old man smiling. I'm not talking about a happy ending, just some sort of closure. Do they make it back? You have a woman who probably isn't trained to use a weapon, an old man, and a guy with a severe leg injury and double the trek back without horses and they all have no food or water. I think I just answered myself.

It was a good film nonetheless. I'll give anything a chance if Kurt Russel is in it. And once again he doesn't disappoint. 7/10

N I N

[–] HeelTaker 7 years ago

I get what you mean by your 2nd issue, but if you think about it logically then there is no way in hell they made it back to town alive.

The two men are injured and exhausted, the woman has eaten little in days so as to not "plump up" and become desirable for the tribe to eat so she would be weak from starvation, they have no supplies, little weaponry and absolutely no one knows where they are.

The only way they could have made it back is with some crappy deus ex machina like a passing cavalry happens to come across them or some such nonsense which would have been so unsatisfying an ending.

So the options were: show them returning back in town with no explanation - cop out, show the deus ex machina that will save them - cliche and unsatisfying, show them dying - realistic but risky to have the audience realise the whole movie amounted to pretty much nothing except for the couple to have their (oddly nonchalant) reunion.

Or end it the way they did, ambiguously with the (very little) audience hope that they will make it back alive against insurmountable odds as long as you don't think about it too carefully and realise there is no. way. in. hell.

So given those options I think it ended perfectly.