Beyond Bone Tomahawk: On The Borders And The Brutality Of The Western

Bone Tomahawk, released in 2015 as the directorial debut of S. Craig Zahler, quickly attained cult status. Its deceptively simple plot, in which a band of men sets out to rescue three abducted people, masks a primal terror and a complex set of themes. Revered as much as it is reviled for its gruesome and unflinching imagery, the film’s savage eye is elevated by its sincere approach to character and its presentation of the frontier as a physical ordeal. In its blending of Western and Horror ...