Film Review – Butcher’s Crossing

Director Gabe Polsky achieved some critical acclaim in recent years as a documentarian, exploring the oddity and askew glory of Russian sporting achievements in 2014’s “Red Army” and 2019’s “Red Penguins.” He returns to dramatic interests with “Butcher’s Crossing,” adapting a 1960 novel by John Edward Williams, which examines the hardship of the frontier experience in 1874. It’s a tale of survival and mental illness, detailing a young man’s odyssey into a world he doesn’t understand, learning more about the ugliness of humanity in the process. Polsky 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 despite 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. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com