The trenchant Christian Bale, always an actor who can make everything he does seem important but remote, struggles to portray a battle-hardened Captain of the Union army.

‘Hostiles’ captures this constant threat beautifully, with riveting moments of action and drama making it hard to predict who will make it out in the end. But amidst great performances and gorgeous cinematography, ‘Hostiles’ misses the mark by giving us just an overview of its real subject matter.

Ultimately this is a hard movie to recommend – it does attempt some important themes but it’s overlong and just too cheerless to sit through considering the lack of ingenuity within the narrative. The only real question it poses is why Rosamund Pike’s career hasn’t taken off since the three year old Gone Girl. She delivers a phenomenal performance here as well and deserves more interesting projects.