Some movies crescendo – they methodically build and build towards a cacophonous fever pitch. S Craig Zahler’s delectably nasty debut, Bone Tomahawk, sustains a dainty rumble for about 90 minutes before it suddenly explodes with sound, fury and a whole lot of entrails. The title refers to a weapon fashioned from human body parts and wielded by an elusive tribe referred to as troglodytes. Four mildly effete horsemen – Kurt Russell, Matthew Fox, Richard Jenkins and Patrick Wilson – take to the prairie when one of their womenfolk is captured during a raid. But the might of American justice is put to the test when it transpires that their enemy isn’t the usual band of rag-tag varmints.
Literate, whimsical, character-driven and subtle (until it’s really not subtle), the film isn’t so much a postmodern spin on the classical western, more a radical fusion of disparate elements which all enhance one another beautifully.
