Under the lens takes a deep look at films by focusing in on one or two particular areas of the picture that helped to define it for better or for worse.
Butcher’s Crossing is a 2023 Western Psychological drama, directed by Gabe Polsky and starring Nicolas Cage, Fred Hechinger, Jeremy Bobb, and Xander Berkeley. The story follows an Ivy League drop-out who travels to the Colorado wilderness, where he joins a team of buffalo hunters on a journey that puts his life and sanity at risk. Based on the highly acclaimed novel by John Williams.
UNDER THE LENS: CINEMATOGRAPHY AND FRED HECHINGER
Cinematography: First off, Butcher’s Crossing is a gorgeously shot picture, by cinematographer David Gallego, who is himself a relative newcomer to the field. Much of the story of Butcher’s Crossing is captured in the moody camera angles and wide panning shots of the untamed wilderness. The landscape itself is a character in the picture, giving life and death, love and hate, pleasure and torment. We see a scene where the group is looking for water, and slowly dying of thirst. When Fred finds the water he collapses into it with relief, only to almost drown. The duality of what you need to live being something that also may kill you is showcased throughout the picture.
Fred Hechinger: An actor who has only been around for 5 years, he has already racked up an impressive 20 roles in that time, with 5 more releasing between now and 2024. Fred Hechinger delivers a wonderful and career-best performance as Will Andrews, an innocent and naive Harvard dropout who seeks purpose and to see what is out there beyond the horizon. He plays Will as someone who is fascinated by death and the hard world of the West, he is not so much someone with dark machinations, as much as someone truly naive. Over the course of the film we see how he is changed, excited by the violence, before realizing the brutality is wrong, by the end of the picture, he seemingly disappears off into the wild to seek more experiences.
HIGHLIGHTS
- Nic Cage delivers a good performance of a man potentially insane, but not quite evil.
- The buffalo hunting scenes are well-shot and dramatic
- The costuming is really good and sets each character apart.
QUOTABLE QUOTE
Will Andrews: I hope to find a stronger purpose, and more meaning in my life
SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT
Have you ever thrown caution to the wind and pursued new life experiences? What did that feel like?
CONCLUSION
Butcher’s Crossing is a dark western that dares to look into the heart of man to find not blackhearted evil, but the banality of it. None of the characters are truly evil, but they are pushed to evil acts for reasons important to them. We are also exposed to the horror of man when greedy, we see the extermination of a whole herd of Buffalo, the reason? Just for profit. Nicolas Cage delivers a fantastic performance, of a man driven to achieve his goals by any means, the picture has good direction and camera work as well as production value. However I feel it did suffer from a rushed ending, we never get a resolution to Will and Miller’s relationship, and the burning of the Buffalo depo by Miller feels rushed. This is after all the end of his whole livelihood, yet it’s very brief, an interaction between Will and Miller and showing Millers’ decline in the town would have tied the film together a bit better.
That being said, Butcher’s Crossing is a strong film and has some good things to say about the nature of man, it is a solid entry in Nicolas Cage’s filmography.
4/5 Stars
