Butcher’s Crossing – MANIFF 2023 (Film Review)

Frontier films are the long-standing relative of the classic western; more interested to represent the idea of space and time on the infamous frontier of the 19^th century. Gabe Polsky's Butcher's Crossing – which had its UK premiere at this year's MANIFF recently – is exactly that; a frontier film about a Harvard drop-out who travels to Colorado in search of adventure and a need to experience life, away from the books and the snobbery. While being based on the highly acclaimed novel by John Williams, Butcher's Crossing explores the lives of those ruthless hunters that were hellbent on wiping out the population of buffalo that once graced the lands in their millions.

Will Andrews (Fred Hechiner) is the wide-eyed ivy-school dropout who has ventured west in search of a life. Will has aspirations of joining a hunting party so he can “find something” in himself. After first being rejected by McDonald (Paul Raci) a former acquaintance of Will's father and resident buffalo hide salesman, Will comes across Miller (Nicolas Cage), an infamous and crazy expert hunter. The film's madness begins here: it takes a long time to get used to seeing a fully bald Nic Cage and you might never get truly accustomed to it – it's an odd sight, but what a sight indeed. Cage's bald cap-wearing character agrees to take Will on a hunt (if he puts up the cash needed for it that is) to the Rockies with his rag-tag team of reprobates in search of the largest buffalo herd seen for years.

The film feels massively rushed though, narratively speaking at least. In no time at all, the team have found this incredible herd and has begun the slaughtering by the time you've got comfy in your seat. And for the film's foreseeable, it becomes a spectacle of how to butcher the buffalo. It's as if the director couldn't wait to get to the violence, and then just stayed with it for a bit so that it sunk in. But not only that, the sense of time in this film is a little all over the place. The days, the months, and the seasons go by at such a rapid pace; you don't get the feeling they were trapped there for six months or more. It does take the shine out of the whole experience slightly because we are meant to feel trapped with them, are we not?

Another aspect that drags the film down slightly is the dialogue, which feels incredibly repetitive. It's as if the characters are going in circles – going through the motions with their limited vocabulary – and when you combine that with the performances, you become trapped in a buffalo rotisserie. There are a lot of pointless ideas thrown into the story too, seemingly, for the sake of it. Take note of the female love interest (if you can call her that), and the random woman with her wagon full of kids that don't add anything to the plot.

But even with all of these poor and inconsistent ailments, it becomes hard not to like this film for what it is. It's actually quite a dark watch at times, especially the ruthlessness in which they go about butchering these poor innocent beasts – it does a great job of painting these white hunters in a terrible and merciless light, just as they were. The film also harbours a very experimental aesthetic, whether that's through the use of some interesting cinematography or the creative editing that was used to showcase the mindsets of these four men as they slowly start to succumb to the terrors of madness. Leo Birenberg also aids the picture with his great score that elevates the eerie atmosphere that engulfs the film from minute one, lifting some scenes exactly when they needed aid.

It also becomes unintentionally funny as well, with moments of cheesy action or the fact Nic Cage is seen constantly shaving his bald head – surely the director meant this though, it's so bang on the nose that it just has to be. Butcher's Crossing is so inconsistent and it tries so hard to be so many different ideas, but the mismatch is too much to handle. It blows hot and cold, and yet, it's quite an enjoyable experience, with its experimentalism and its technical aspects becoming the film's most interesting and definitely the most effective characteristics.

Butcher's Crossing had its UK premiere at MANIFF 2023