Butcher's Crossing

A great Nic Cage movie.

Beautifully shot with a brooding soundtrack, Butcher's Crossing delves in to the psychology of the hunter.

At one point in the show it really does look like the film is going down the road of Apocolypse Now. The dark man becoming darker as he gets lost in his hunt, making irrational decisions as he can now only obsess about one thing. However it pulls up before fully exploring this particular heart of darkness.

Cage is fantastic. He applies rare restraint in the delivery of his character allowing the story to do most of the work.

Its a very enjoyable film exploring a regretable piece of history, not to be missed :)

Seen this at the Borderlines Festival in Herefordshire. A good film, gritty, well made. Hard to watch at times due to the subject matter (if you like animals!).

Thought it showed the senseless slaughter of American Bison well, and the reasons for it. Well acted and well shot with interesting scenery, a good interplay between the lead characters. No particular twists or surprises, but all the better for it in my view.

One criticism would be it wasn't great on showing the timeline over the 6 months or so of the story. However, this is a minor point and I think overall the film is well worth a look. Hope you enjoy!

I wanted to give a higher rate but it's hard because the movie has many issues. That being said, it's not a bad movie, very watchable especially if you love westerns.

The actors performances are good, the story and plot are decent. Probably lacks more action. You won't see many bullets.

My biggest issue, and maybe this is a "me problem", is their clothing. I see this problem many times in modern low budget westerns. The people in charge of the outfits, wardrobes and characters design should put a bigger effort in making the audience feel the old western days, teleporting the audience back in time. Instead, I feel they are wearing Levi's jeans and gap shirts, all clean. The horses are also way too clean.

Anyway, it's not that big of a deal, just wanted to share my point of view.

Cheers.

I didn't really expect to like this film all that much. Sometimes in that situation you turn out to be right, sometimes you turn out to be pleasantly surprised. 'Butcher's Crossing' fell somewhere in the middle. I certainly enjoyed it more than I expected to, let's just say that.

The casting of Nicolas Cage is an interesting one. On the one hand, I didn't feel he was overly suited to the role. On the other hand, I felt his charisma brought a lot to the movie. And in a movie that is pretty desolate and grim, having a character/actor that you can enjoy and feel some familiarity with can go a long way.

I found myself a lot more interested in the story line than I expected. Generally old-time westerns do absolutely nothing for me. But the story here, simple as it was, kept me entertained and wanting to know what was around the next corner. 6.5/10.

Unceremoniously dropped on Amazon Prime with no real fanfare, this Western odyssey bares similarities to Joseph Conrad's 'Heart Of Darkness' (except without all the racism) and has a connection to Francis Ford Coppola's take on that material, 'Apocalypse Now (1979)', in that it also features a depiction (or several) of a bison being killed and butchered. 'Butcher's Crossing (2023)' has an additional connection with another film, that one being the Coen brothers' 'Miller's Crossing (1990)': not only goes it have the word "crossing" in the title, but its pseudo Kurtz stand-in (portrayed by Nic Cage) just so happens to be called Miller. "Alright, Mr. IMDb Trivia, get on with it," you're probably thinking. To that I say, "okay."

There's something that just feels unfinished about the film, specifically when it comes to its editing, sound mixing and colour grading. The former is mostly successful, making good use of montages and other non-linear techniques to create a purposefully elusive and unsettling atmosphere, but there's something almost intangibly off about it and it could have been tightened up with another pass to really hammer its dream-like nature home. The audio mix is notably incorrect on occasion as it straight-up clips during some of the infrequent yelling that occurs; it's a pretty major technical problem that contributes to the picture's sort of amateurish vibe. The cinematography isn't bad, but it often feels like we're looking at raw dailies. It doesn't have its own feel to it, and any semblance of naturalism is counteracted by its flat and uninspired appearance. Another problem with the feature is that its apparent conversationalist messaging is only really evident during its text ending, which uses statistics and real-life imagery to decry the extensive hunting its characters so eagerly partake in elsewhere in the piece. It feels quite random for the film to end on such a blatant anti-hunting note when its majority makes no real attempt to demonise the act, instead depicting it in quite a bit of detail (there is a lot of animal killing and butchery in this, which is something to be wary of going in) and positioning its characters' potential descent into madness not through their barbaric actions but rather through their isolation and unwillingness to cut their losses.

Where the affair mostly succeeds is in its general tone and semi-surreal atmosphere. Although it's a bit too front-loaded for its own good, the narrative is mostly compelling and the direction often takes an unexpected route to convey the feeling of a particular segment, rather than the unfiltered truth of it. There's this hard-to-pinpoint nightmarish quality to a lot of it, and a sense of dread slowly builds right from the start. You're never quite sure where it's going to go, which is yet another of its most potent strengths. The solid performances really ground the experience and lend it a sense of truth, while the sparse set design and tangible costuming make sure you don't doubt the period setting for a single second. There are some genuinely stunning vistas here, instantly iconic snapshots of the American landscape that are synonymous with the bloodstained Manifest Destiny of the era and therefore carry their own sense of ideological danger alongside their undeniable beauty (not to mention the fact that they could kill you in an instant). A couple of its environments are clearly recreated on a green-screen soundstage and they do yank you out of the otherwise solid verisimilitude, but far more are real and tactile and plain gorgeous to look at.

There is a lot to like about the piece and it draws you into its earthy narrative relatively early on. While it can't keep you glued to the edge of your seat and its technical issues do prevent it from feeling fully polished, it remains mostly engaging for its majority. It gets a bit repetitive in its midsection and the pacing is a little off in places, but it's a solid effort that's rather entertaining overall.