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Blu-ray Review: BUTCHER’S CROSSING

Home » Blu-ray Review: BUTCHER’S CROSSING

Jan 05 Posted by in DVD/Blu-ray, Reviews | Comments

It’s 1874, and wide-eyed Will Andrews (Fred Hechinger, The White Lotus) has dropped out of Harvard to head West in hopes of finding a stronger purpose, and more meaning in life, expanding his view of world beyond just Boston. He arrives in Butcher’s Crossing, Kentucky, a small town centered around the bison hide business, where he meets buffalo hunter Miller (Nicolas Cage). The buffalo herds close to town have thinned out, and the hides are poor quality, making it tougher and tougher to make a living. However, Miller has been claiming for years that he knows about a massive herd of ten thousand bison in an untouched, secluded valley to the North. This has made Miller a bit of a joke in the town, but he manages to convince Will to fund the hunt and join him on the expedition for the adventure he came west looking for. As Miller and Will start their trek into the Colorado mountains, they are joined by cook McDonald (Paul Raci, Perry Mason) and skinner Fred Schneider (Jeremy Bobb, The Continental). Fred has his doubts about Miller’s herd, and insists on a guaranteed monthly pay rather than a share of the profits. The group plans to return to town before the Winter, when everything is frozen, and the passage through the mountains is blocked by snow and ice. It’s a long, arduous journey, through tough terrain, dangerous Indian territory, harsh elements, and other threats. The trip will also be a test of their patience and resolve with one another, especially as Miller has a chip on his shoulder and the desire to prove himself to all the naysayers in town. With the cold weather fast approaching, Miller is willing to put caution to the wind if it means returning with a record-setting number of pelts—even if the rest of his party disagrees.

Butcher’s Crossing is based on a novel by John Williams, though I can’t say how close of an adaptation it is. In general, the story and characters are interesting, but the film tends to over-promise and under-deliver. As the group is preparing for their expedition, we hear discussion of a lot of threats and dangers that lie in their path, but ultimately, the majority of these never even come to fruition, at least not that we see on screen. Besides one short scene early on, there is a lot of tension built up for little pay-off. Nicolas Cage, who looks like he has once again switched faces with a modern day John Travolta, has proven time and again that he can really do “crazy”, but he feels underutilized here. Over the course of the film, we see Miller’s obsession take over, forcing the group to continue their hunt so that he can take out every last buffalo and prove to the people in Butcher’s Crossing that he was right. However, this only feels like Nic Cage dialed up to a 5, when he could easily take it to an 11. I enjoyed him in this role, but would have liked to see Miller fall even harder into madness. Fred Hechinger does a decent job of showing the evolution of his character. Before they leave Butcher’s Crossing, Miller warns Will that a hunt like this changes a man, and we certainly see that here. When Will first arrives, he’s a wide-eyed, constantly-grinning young man, eager to experience new things/ But by the end of his time hunting and skinning bison, he’s become much more weathered and stoic. Rounding out the crew are Fred Schneider who’s the voice of reason, always questioning Miller. He’s on a salary rather than a commission, so this trip isn’t completely about money for him. On the opposite end of the spectrum is McDonald, a longtime friend of Miller’s who will do whatever he asks without question. McDonald is an old man, missing an arm, who recently found god.

Overall, I think the performances are pretty strong, and the hunting party is a good, interesting mix of personalities, though maybe a bit cliched at times. The film also includes appearances by Xander Berkeley as Charlie Hoge, a buffalo hide salesman and old friend of Will’s father, and Rachel Keller as Francine, a prostitute/bar maid in town who fancies Will. While Charlie is given an interesting character arc, Francine’s storyline is pretty much forgotten early on. In general, I think the costumes, sets and landscapes look very good, and do a nice job of transporting the viewer back to this frontier era. However, there are a few scenes where glaringly-obvious green-screened backgrounds take you out of the moment.

Sony has released Butcher’s Crossing on physical media on Blu-ray and DVD, but it is also available digitally in 4K. I was sent the Blu-ray release for review, which features fairly solid picture and sound. The video presentation looks very clean, with bright colors during the daytime scenes, and a clear picture even in the darker scenes lit by the orange glow of a campfire. While not really a flaw of the Blu-ray presentation in particular, the green-screened moments look almost laughably bad in a couple cases. I’m not sure that these would look any more natural on the 4K digital version. That said, all of the scenes involving the bison (dead or alive) do look very natural and realistic. Dialogue is clear throughout, the audio track makes good use of the surround channel to add some nice ambiance of the nature and outdoor setting. It feels especially immersive in sequences where the characters are having a rush of thoughts in their head and we see a quick-cutting montage of those memories. There are also some moments where characters experience a ringing in their heads, and the audience feels this as well.

The Blu-ray disc resides in standard HD keepcase with a cardboard slipcover. Unfortunately, this is a very barebones release, including just the film and no bonus material (not even a trailer) or a digital copy.


What’s Included:

Film: (1:47:25)

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