For more of my movie reviews, click here to follow me on Letterboxd.
BUTCHER’S CROSSING (2022)
Rating: 2.5 out of 5 Stars
It puzzled me when BUTCHER’S CROSSING premiered at festivals to high praise from critics and then nearly disappeared, getting barely any attention upon its public release and since. Finally watching this new Western the other night, I understood exactly why that happened.
The critics were wrong about BUTCHER’S CROSSING. The distributors and the public had the final verdict (and the correct one). Sadly, this is not a well-made movie. With lofty ambitions to make a sweeping Western tale about a buffalo hunt with grand themes you might find in a Joseph Conrad novel, Gabe Polsky bit off more than he could chew. The ill-conceived screenplay leans hard into the thematic side of the source material, stressing it hard with obvious performances all around and an obnoxious visual style. The movie is filled with one montage after another showing the characters’ descent into madness and loss of humanity. The only way to do this film well was to play it completely straight, simple, and even then getting those kind of ideas on screen that usually only work well in literature is a gargantuan feat.
Nicolas Cage’s presence doesn’t help. He may be my favorite actor of all time but I’ll be the first to admit when Cage is not right for a movie. In general, I don’t think the brilliant performer fits well in period pieces, especially ones set in the 1800s or beyond. There’s something modern about Cage that doesn’t translate well to the Old West and the film would be better served without him, however cool he looks with a bald head hunting buffalo in Montana…
I never understood why BUTCHER’S CROSSING came and went. Now I do. Of the two Westerns Cage shot back to back in Montana during 2021, THE OLD WAY is definitely the better film. Let’s see how his third Western, GUNSLINGERS, turned out this coming year.
Watched on Amazon
