Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.0

Butcher's Crossing Blu-ray Movie Review

"The world has been made a safe place for fools..."

Reviewed by Kenneth Brown January 8, 2024

It comes for the best of us. Val Kilmer. Bruce Willis. Eh, throw John Travolta in there, if only for Pulp Fiction's sake. And now (well, for some time), Nic Cage; he of the fiery eyes, snarling mouth, wild performances and self-knowing winks, cries and wooo's. It's the period in a once A-list actor's career where direct-to-market releases begin to litter a filmography, with everything from tense little action dramas to... um, other tense little action dramas. Maybe it's losing the best parts to new talent. Maybe it's that these are the only scripts that slide across the desk (although with Cage, that doesn't quite seem to be the culprit). Or maybe it's the love of the job. Let's go with that one, because Cage clearly loves the job. Churning through more flicks than seems healthy, Cage has become a veritable road runner, darting from film to film with the kind of twilight hunger reserved for the most prolific character actors and tireless legends. His work is always interesting, his performances daring even. Despite the fact that the projects themselves are decidedly piled more on the "miss" end of the hit-or-miss scales. Which brings us to Butcher's Crossing, a dull, slightly exhausting dire-straits wilderness-western that meanders, mulls and muses far more than it delivers.

Academy Award winner Nicolas Cage (1995, Best Actor, 'Leaving Las Vegas') stars in a gritty story about buffalo hunters in the Old West. Will Andrews (Fred Hechinger) has left Harvard to find adventure. He teams up with Miller (Cage), a mysterious frontiersman offering an unprecedented number of buffalo pelts in a secluded valley. Their crew must survive an arduous journey where the harsh elements will test everyone's resolve, leaving their sanity on a knife's edge. Based on the 1960 novel of the same name by John Williams and adapted for the screen by director Gabe Polsky and co-writer Liam Satre-Meloy, 'Butcher's Crossing' also stars Jeremy Bobb, Paul Raci, Xander Berkeley, Rachel Keller, Amber Rose Mason, Harper Hofstad, Beckett Hofstad, Duncan Vezain, Gabriel Clark and Zuzu Weingart.

You might think Cage would be the draw in Butcher's Crossing, digging deep and increasingly losing his in-the-wilderness chill as the elements and greed press in on Miller's sanity. But he's actually a bit boring, which is saying something. It's actually Jeremy Bobb that steals the show, chomping down on the scenery and flexing his inner sadist with verve and intensity. Switch the casting and now we've got a movie. But I did my best to pretend Cage wasn't Cage; to distance myself from the disappointment of blown expectations. The western that remains is decent enough I suppose, though overly methodical, lethargic and, as pacing and plotting go, long in the tooth. This is a film of yesteryear (perhaps the early 2000s or 2010s), despite its low budget and too-clean digital photography. It doesn't help matters that Cage's Miller is a less colorfully penned, almost forgettably sidelined version of Jeff Bridges and John Wayne's Rooster Cogburn, which leaves Hechinger's doe-eyed Will Andrews with the thankless role of sliding into the cliche, unremarkably dull role of a silver spoon Mattie Ross.

And good God, is it a slow burner. I love a good slow flick. Zero issues here. But there isn't enough meat on Butcher's Crossing's bones, making most of the sidetracks and tangents play more like runtime padding. It's a film that desperately wants to be taken seriously; to be seen as the next great dark western. Instead, Polsky doesn't seem sure of himself, relying on grand vistas that aren't quite as gorgeous as director of photography David Gallego's eye insists. The screenplay doesn't offer much in the way of character depth or story subversion either, leaving Cage and Hechinger to go at it alone, and leaving Butcher's Crossing feeling far more improvised than it likely was on location. Intermittent intensity and somber reflections does not a great drama make, nor does it offer much in the way of thought provoking explorations of the hopeless and disheartened extremes of the soul. Polsky is clearly aiming to make an exceedingly human film but instead creates something more akin to running through the genre motions.

My colleague Brian Orndorf had a more positive reaction to Polsky's efforts, commenting that the filmmaker "hopes to work in an understanding of bison population decimation while in the process of crafting a slow-burn descent into insanity, and this strange balance of history and psychological horror keeps Butcher’s Crossing involving in spite of its grim premise. It also helps to have Nicolas Cage around, who seems to be enjoying the acting assignment, going raw and bald with his take on a hunter’s blinding obsession for prey." I didn't see as much Ahab in Miller as I hoped, nor as much Moby Dick in the barebones man vs. nature conflict of the piece; possibly a failing of my own, tied to my growing detachment with the film, but if so, one that started early, very early, in its long, soooo long journey into damnation. Saddle rot and thirst loom larger at times than Bobb's Fred Schneider or any other danger, though, which strikes me as ironic considering how badly I wanted to get out of my seat and go grab a soda.

Then there's Williams' original novel. Take this passage for instance: "It came to him that he had turned away from the buffalo not because of a womanish nausea at blood and stench and spilling gut; it came to him that he had sickened and turned away because of his shock at seeing the buffalo, a few moments before proud and noble and full of the dignity of life, now stark and helpless, a length of inert meat, divested of itself, or his notion of its self, swinging grotesquely, mockingly, before him. It was not itself; or it was not that self that he had imagined it to be. That self was murdered; and in that murder he had felt the destruction of something within him, and he had not been able to face it. So he had turned away." Now compare that to its counterpart early into Polsky's Butcher's Crossing. It's all there, on the screen, but the scene as translated lacks the inherent power of Williams' words; the brutality of the description; the ache and regret of the experience. Visually it's presented but thematically it's more one-dimensional.

Maybe it's best to give Orndorf the final word on the film: "[Butcher's Crossing] is mostly interested in the ways of increasing hostility, allowing capable actors and the natural swagger of Cage to help build tension as various dangers, real and invented, come for the hunters, creating a gripping overview of foolhardiness."

Butcher's Crossing Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Sony's 1080p/AVC-encoded video transfer is a beaut, boasting all the frills you'd expect from a new film released on Blu-ray. Detail is exacting, with razor sharp edge definition, refined textures, and plenty of crisp stubble, crows' feet and hand-stitched fabrics to make every bison butcher look suitably worn and weathered. Grain is faintly perceptible and consistent, lending the cinematography a welcome (albeit slightly artificial) filmic look, and there isn't any errant noise or artifacting to report. Colors, meanwhile, are often sunstruck and desaturated but ultimately quite lifelike, with handsome skintones, rich splashes of campfire orange, and deep nighttime black levels. The seasonal changes bring with them striking shifts in the palette too, with lovely yellows in autumn, harsh whites and foreboding blues in winter, and lush greens in spring.

Butcher's Crossing Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Butcher's Crossing features a strong DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track as well. There isn't much in the way of broad insanity, eruptive violence or rowdy sonics on tap. This is, after all, a much more contemplative film striving to fall in step, visually and aurally, with the works of Terrence Malick. Dialogue is clear and intelligible, and always struck me as naturally grounded in the wide spaces and dense forests of the wilderness. The occasional rifle blasts, roaring fires and galloping horses are backed by plenty of LFE heft as well, and the rear speakers more than fill the environments with directionally accurate ambience and subtle, organic touches. Immersion is achieved effortlessly and the entire experience offers one of the more nuanced direct-to-market sound designs I've reviewed.

Butcher's Crossing Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The Blu-ray release of Butcher's Crossing doesn't offer any special features of note.

Butcher's Crossing Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Butcher's Crossing wants to be a number of better films, from Dances with Wolves to True Grit to, of all things, a bit of Ravenous. To its credit, it doesn't fall prey to imitation too often, though it's clear the work of Terrence Malick is on everyone's minds (cinematographer David Gallego's most of all). But it drags, and meanders, and bores, and Cage surprisingly doesn't offer much help. At least Sony's Blu-ray release offers an excellent AV presentation, despite a lack of special features. All told, some will enjoy Crossing's leisurely descent into darkness. It just lost me early on.