Butcher’s Crossing: Obsession and Greed Furnish this Home on the De-ranged

By Thom Ernst

Rating: B-

I’m aware that director Gabe Polsky has made television series and dramatic films, and that he’s a producer whose name is attached to such projects as Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call, but it’s the name he built for himself as a sports documentarian that stands out in my mind.

Polsky’s skill is finding the drama beyond the sport. He did it with Red Army (2014), a hockey saga told through the memories of taking heads and revisited with archival footage. It’s as dramatic as any straight-up narrative fiction.

Given his prior success, it’s not surprising Polsky should try his hand at fictional filmmaking. What is a surprise is that the film Polsky steps up to make is Butcher’s Crossing, an adaptation of John Williams’ (the author, not the composer) acclaimed novel.

There’s no reason to be surprised other than there’s nothing sporty about Butcher’s Crossing beyond hunting and riding a horse. It might be sports enough to pull Polsky into the project, but there are other themes — serious themes of extinction, greed, madness, and toxic masculinity — that might well be in Polsky’s wheelhouse.

Butcher’s Crossing is a simple film, practically standard in its telling of four men trekking deep into the badlands chasing the dream of the rumoured existence of a large herd of buffalo. The men are buffalo hunters, save for the young Will (Fred Hechinger) who has abandoned his studies at Harvard to explore a deeper meaning within himself.

It’s not clear what motivates the young, fresh-faced Will to leave the comforts of privilege to head out west and take part in a buffalo hunt, or why buffalo hunting should be held in such deep regard.

There is a hint of the influence of a buffalo hunter (Paul Raci) who Will’s parents took into their home when Will was a boy. The romanticism of the Wild West, of relying on your wit and stamina to survive, to be in the open wilderness, a return to basics, must have been intoxicating for a young boy living in nothing but warm and easy comforts.

Hechinger as Will is the best part of the film. He approaches the hardened men he meets when first arriving in the buffalo camp with a naive smile and gap-toothed grin. That no one smiles back does not seem to bother Will. If anything, the cold reception he gets suits his expectations.

Discovering the man who his parents took in turns into a bust. He’s unmoved by Will’s enthusiasm and feels no obligation to return the hospitality that was once shown to him. Instead, he sends Will to the local saloon where he meets Miller (Nicholas Cage with a shaved head).

Cage, an actor whose presence lends itself to audiences’ interest and curiosity, is fine as Miller. Yet his presence is often bigger than the film. With his face masked in a thick dark beard, and his head clean-shaven, Cage is a distraction.

Miller is hardened, a man whose brooding demeanor dissipates when he learns that Will is willing to finance a hunting excursion. Miller claims to know of a herd of buffalo, a sea of black, grazing far beyond the badlands, through Indigenous territory (who are never pleased to meet a non-indigenous buffalo hunter). Miller is either about to ride into buffalo hunting history, bringing back more pelts than any man before him, or he is heading into oblivion — and taking his crew with him.

What happens to the men — Will, Miller, the one-handed Charlie (Xander Berkeley), and the boorish buffalo skinner, Fred (Jeremy Bobb) — while on their hunting excursion could be a footnote along a history of similar themed misadventures: The Treasure of Sierra Madre (1948), Moby Dick (1956), Jeremiah Johnson (1972), Bless the Beast and Children (1971) and even, to a lesser degree, Apocalypse Now (1979).

Polsky nicely plays the obsession of some against the wisdom of others, almost like he’s filming a tennis match. It’s familiar stuff but entertaining. But Polsky is less successful at tackling the mass extinction of the buffalo; it’s there but only as an exclamation point save for a few informative screen cards near the end.

Butcher’s Crossing is a decent western, with decent performances. It’s a film that delivers what’s expected. But for a story that could give Captain Ahab a run for his money, getting the expected is a bit disappointing.

Butcher’s Crossing. Directed by Gabe Polsky. Starring Nicolas Cage, Fred Hechinger, Jeremy Bobb, Paul Raci, and Xander Berkeley. In theatres and available on V.O.D. November 7.