Butcher's Crossing (film)

Last updated

Butcher's Crossing
Butchers crossing poster.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Gabe Polsky
Screenplay by
  • Gabe Polsky
  • Liam Satre-Meloy
Based on Butcher's Crossing
by John Edward Williams
Produced by
  • Gabe Polsky
  • Molly Conners
  • Amanda Bowers
  • Will Clarke
  • Andy Mayson
Starring
CinematographyDavid Gallego
Edited byNick Pezzillo
Music by Leo Birenberg
Production
companies
Distributed by Saban Films
Release dates
  • September 9, 2022 (2022-09-09)(TIFF)
  • October 20, 2023 (2023-10-20)(United States)
Running time
107 minutes [1]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Box office$15,648 [2]

Butcher's Crossing is a 2022 American Western film directed by Gabe Polsky in his narrative feature film debut, [3] based on the 1960 novel by John Edward Williams. [3] [4] It stars Nicolas Cage, Fred Hechinger, Xander Berkeley, Rachel Keller, Jeremy Bobb, and Paul Raci. [4]

Contents

It had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 9, 2022 and was released in the United States on October 20, 2023 by Saban Films. [5]

Plot

In 1874, Will Andrews, the naive and idealistic son of a pastor, has dropped out of Harvard and travelled to Butcher's Crossing, a tiny frontier town in Kansas built on the buffalo hide trade. Sold on the romanticism of going on a buffalo hunt, Will falls in with Miller, an intense and stoic but experienced buffalo hunter who spins him a tale of a remote Colorado pass where one of the few remaining massive herds can be found. Though warned about Miller and the folly of this enterprise, Will puts up all of his money to fund the expedition.

With Will's money, they purchase supplies and hire Charlie Hoge, a drunk, one armed, bible-thumper, to be wagon driver and camp cook, and Fred Schneider, a brash, but pragmatic, 'skinner' who insists on being paid a salary due to his doubts about Miller's stories.

After an arduous journey that takes them to the brink of death, the party eventually reach the mountain pass to discover an untouched herd with thousands of buffalo.

Miller begins his hunt and kills hundreds of buffalo a day, leaving Will and Schneider scrambling to skin the carcasses. Despite advisement against this, Miller refuses to slow down, while Will becomes numb to the methodical slaughter.

After three weeks of constant butchery, Schneider points out that they have overstayed their intended time and already have more hides than they can carry. He proposes they stop and return before the weather turns and they become trapped. Miller refuses and Will sides with him.

As a result of this, the team become trapped by a blizzard. They are now forced to live out the winter in the mountains for several months. Frustrated, Schneider lashes out at Hoge and burns his bible. In revenge, Hoge poisons Schneider's food. Will's sanity slips further and Miller obsesses over the triumph of returning to town with the largest haul ever seen once he's killed every single buffalo. The team settles in to endure a long, boring slog of survival as they wait the winter out.

When spring comes, Schneider realizes that Hoge was poisoning him and kills him. Unable to haul all of the 4,600 hides they have collected, they pile 1,600 in their wagon and leave the remaining 3,000 with the intent to return for them. During the journey back, their damaged wagon falls off a cliff, taking Schneider and the 1,600 hides with it, as Miller and Will numbly stare on.

Will and Miller return to town, only to find it largely abandoned and derelict. The two are horrified to learn that the bottom has fallen out of the buffalo hide market while they were trapped for the winter and the hides were now completely worthless.

Robbed of his victory, Miller sets the old buffalo exchange building on fire. A dishevelled Will says that he has "seen what [he] needed to see" on the buffalo hunt when asked if the experience was worth it and rides into the wilderness, alone.

Cast

Production

Principal photography began in Montana in October 2021. [4]

Release

In September 2021, it was announced that Saban Films had acquired North American, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Scandinavia distribution rights to the film, while Altitude Film Distribution was handling international sales and distributing the film in the UK and Ireland. [8]

Butcher's Crossing had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 9, 2022. [9] It was theatrically released in the United States on October 20, 2023. [10]

Box office

As of January 26, 2024, Butcher's Crossing grossed $15,648, in the United Arab Emirates. [2]

Critical response

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes , 74% of 61 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5.9/10.The website's consensus reads: "Butcher's Crossing benefits from Nicolas Cage's lead turn, which helps make this largely boilerplate Western more compelling than not." [11] Metacritic , which uses a weighted average , assigned the film a score of 55 out of 100, based on 14 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews. [12]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nicolas Cage</span> American actor (born 1964)

Nicolas Kim Coppola, known professionally as Nicolas Cage, is an American actor and film producer. He is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and a Golden Globe Award as well as nominations for two BAFTA Awards. Known for his versatility as an actor, his participation in various film genres has gained him a cult following.

<i>XXX</i> (2002 film) American action film directed by Rob Cohen

XXX is a 2002 American action film directed by Rob Cohen, produced by Neal H. Moritz and written by Rich Wilkes. The first installment in the xXx film series, the film stars Vin Diesel as Xander Cage, a thrill-seeking extreme sports enthusiast, stuntman, and rebellious athlete-turned-reluctant spy for the National Security Agency. Cage is sent on a dangerous mission to infiltrate a group of potential Russian terrorists in Central Europe. The film also stars Asia Argento, Marton Csokas, and Samuel L. Jackson. Cohen, Moritz, and Diesel had previously worked on The Fast and the Furious (2001) as director, producer and cast member respectively. The film grossed $277.4 million worldwide and was followed by two sequels, xXx: State of the Union (2005) and xXx: Return of Xander Cage (2017).

<i>Face/Off</i> 1997 film by John Woo

Face/Off is a 1997 American science fiction action film directed by John Woo, from a screenplay by Mike Werb and Michael Colleary. It stars John Travolta as an FBI agent and Nicolas Cage as a terrorist, who undergo an experimental surgery to swap their faces and identities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steven C. Miller</span> American film director, screenwriter and film editor

Steven C. Miller is an American screenwriter, editor, and director. His feature film debut, Automaton Transfusion, became an instant cult classic and catapulted his career into Hollywood. He directed the remake of Silent Night, Deadly Night in 2012 and then shifted from horror to action. He has directed films starring notable actors such as Bruce Willis, Sylvester Stallone, Nicolas Cage, John Cusack, Aaron Eckhart, Giancarlo Esposito, and Dave Bautista.

<i>XXX: Return of Xander Cage</i> 2017 American thriller film by D. J. Caruso

xXx: Return of Xander Cage is a 2017 American action thriller film directed by D.J. Caruso and written by F. Scott Frazier. The third installment in the xXx film series and a sequel to both xXx (2002) and xXx: State of the Union (2005), it stars Vin Diesel in the title role along with Donnie Yen, Deepika Padukone, Kris Wu, Ruby Rose, Tony Jaa, Nina Dobrev, Toni Collette, Ariadna Gutiérrez, Hermione Corfield, and Samuel L. Jackson.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fred Hechinger</span> American actor

Fred Hechinger is an American actor. He began his career with supporting roles in such films as the coming-of-age film Eighth Grade (2018), the period drama News of the World (2020), and the psychological thriller The Woman in the Window (2021). Also in 2021, he starred in the Netflix horror The Fear Street Trilogy (2021) and the first season of the HBO anthology series The White Lotus (2021). He has since portrayed Seth Warshavsky in the miniseries Pam & Tommy (2022) and starred in the comedy film Thelma (2024).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nicolas Cage filmography</span> List of acting performances by Nicolas Cage

Nicolas Cage is an American actor whose career began with a role in the 1981 television pilot The Best of Times. The following year, Cage made his feature film acting debut with a minor role in Fast Times at Ridgemont High, the second and last time he went by his birth name Nicolas Coppola, which he changed professionally to avoid allegations of nepotism due to his connection to the Coppola family. In 1983, Cage starred in the teen romantic comedy Valley Girl alongside Deborah Foreman and had a supporting role in his uncle Francis Ford Coppola's Rumble Fish.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gabe Polsky</span> American film producer

Gabe Polsky is an American film director, writer, and producer.

<i>Butchers Crossing</i> 1960 western novel by John Williams

Butcher's Crossing is a western novel by John Williams, originally published in 1960. The story follows William Andrews, a young Harvard student who leaves his life behind to explore the American West. The book begins and ends in the fictional frontier town of Butcher's Crossing, Kansas, in the early 1870s, where Andrews joins a buffalo-hunting expedition. He and the people he meets along the way must confront and survive the brutal realities of nature in their attempts to get buffalo hides to sell. Along the way, Andrews contemplates his purpose in life with respect to nature, specifically through the influence of Ralph Waldo Emerson.

<i>XXX</i> (film series) American spy action film series by Rich Wilkes

XXX is an American spy fiction action film series created by Rich Wilkes. It consists of three full-length feature films: XXX (2002), XXX: State of the Union (2005) and XXX: Return of Xander Cage (2017), and a short film: The Final Chapter: The Death of Xander Cage. The series has grossed $694 million worldwide.

<i>City of Lies</i> 2018 crime film directed by Brad Furman

City of Lies is a 2018 crime thriller film about the investigations by the Los Angeles Police Department of the murders of rappers Tupac Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G. It is directed by Brad Furman, with a screenplay by Christian Contreras based on the non-fiction book LAbyrinth by Randall Sullivan. The film stars Johnny Depp as retired LAPD detective Russell Poole and Forest Whitaker as journalist Jack Jackson, with Rockmond Dunbar and Neil Brown Jr. also starring.

Sony's Spider-Man Universe (SSU) is an American media franchise and shared universe centered on a series of superhero films produced by Columbia Pictures in association with Marvel Entertainment. Distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing, the films are based on various Marvel Comics characters and properties commonly associated with Spider-Man.

<i>Kraven the Hunter</i> (film) Upcoming superhero film by J. C. Chandor

Kraven the Hunter is an upcoming American superhero film featuring the Marvel Comics character of the same name. Produced by Columbia Pictures in association with Marvel Entertainment, Arad Productions, and Matt Tolmach Productions, and distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing, it is intended to be the sixth film in Sony's Spider-Man Universe (SSU). The film was directed by J. C. Chandor from a screenplay by Richard Wenk and the writing team of Art Marcum and Matt Holloway. It stars Aaron Taylor-Johnson in the title role alongside Ariana DeBose, Fred Hechinger, Alessandro Nivola, Christopher Abbott, and Russell Crowe.

<i>Color Out of Space</i> (film) 2019 science fiction horror film directed by Richard Stanley

Color Out of Space is a 2019 American science fiction Lovecraftian horror film directed and co-written by Richard Stanley, based on the short story "The Colour Out of Space" by H. P. Lovecraft. It stars Nicolas Cage, Joely Richardson, Elliot Knight, Madeleine Arthur, Brendan Meyer, Q'orianka Kilcher and Tommy Chong. This is Stanley's first feature film since his firing from The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996). According to Stanley, it is the first film in a trilogy of Lovecraft adaptations, which he hopes to continue with an adaptation of "The Dunwich Horror".

<i>Renfield</i> (film) 2023 film by Chris McKay

Renfield is a 2023 American action comedy horror film directed by Chris McKay and written by Ryan Ridley, based on a story by Robert Kirkman, who also served as a producer alongside McKay, Samantha Nisenboim, David Alpert, and the duo of Bryan and Sean Furst. Inspired by characters from the 1897 novel Dracula by Bram Stoker and its 1931 feature film adaption, the film stars Nicholas Hoult, Awkwafina, Ben Schwartz, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Brandon Scott Jones, Adrian Martinez, and Nicolas Cage.

<i>Pig</i> (2021 film) American film by Michael Sarnoski

Pig is a 2021 American drama film written and directed by Michael Sarnoski, from a story by Vanessa Block and Sarnoski. The film stars Nicolas Cage as a truffle-hunter who lives alone in the Oregon wilderness and must return to his past in Portland in search of his beloved foraging pig after she is kidnapped. It also stars Alex Wolff and Adam Arkin.

<i>The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent</i> 2022 American film by Tom Gormican

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent is a 2022 American action comedy film directed by Tom Gormican, who co-wrote the screenplay with Kevin Etten. It stars Nicolas Cage as a fictionalized version of himself, along with a supporting cast including Pedro Pascal, Sharon Horgan, Ike Barinholtz, Alessandra Mastronardi, Jacob Scipio, Neil Patrick Harris, Tiffany Haddish and Caroline Boulton.

<i>The Pale Blue Eye</i> 2022 American film directed by Scott Cooper

The Pale Blue Eye is a 2022 American mystery thriller film written and directed by Scott Cooper, adapted from the 2006 novel of the same name by Louis Bayard. The film features an ensemble cast that includes Christian Bale, Harry Melling, Gillian Anderson, Lucy Boynton, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Toby Jones, Harry Lawtey, Simon McBurney, Timothy Spall, and Robert Duvall. Its plot follows veteran detective Augustus Landor in 1830 West Point, New York, as he investigates a series of murders at the United States Military Academy with the aid of Edgar Allan Poe, a young military cadet.

<i>The Old Way</i> 2023 Western film by Brett Donowho

The Old Way is a 2023 American Western film directed by Brett Donowho, from a screenplay by Carl W. Lucas, and starring Nicolas Cage as a retired gunman on a mission to find the outlaws who killed his wife.

The following is a list of unproduced Sam Mendes projects in roughly chronological order. During his long career, British film director Sam Mendes has worked on many projects that never progressed beyond the pre-production stage under his direction. Some of these projects fell into development hell, were officially cancelled, were in development limbo or would see life under a different production team.

References

  1. ↑ "Butcher's Crossing (15)". British Board of Film Classification . July 31, 2023. Archived from the original on August 1, 2023. Retrieved November 8, 2023.
  2. 1 2 "Butcher's Crossing". Box Office Mojo . Retrieved January 26, 2024.
  3. 1 2 3 Borys Kit (June 21, 2021). "Nicolas Cage to Star in Frontier Epic 'Butcher's Crossing'". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on June 9, 2022. Retrieved August 1, 2021.
  4. 1 2 3 Kroll, Justin (October 18, 2021). "Nicolas Cage Unveils Wild New Look On His Western 'Butcher's Crossing'". Deadline Hollywood . Archived from the original on October 18, 2021. Retrieved October 23, 2021.
  5. ↑ Collis, Clark. "Nicolas Cage is hunting buffalo and losing his mind in Butcher's Crossing trailer". Entertainment Weekly . Archived from the original on September 19, 2023. Retrieved September 18, 2023.
  6. ↑ Grobar, Matt (November 1, 2021). "'Butcher's Crossing': 'The White Lotus' Actor Fred Hechinger To Star Opposite Nicolas Cage In Gabe Polsky Western". Deadline Hollywood . Penske Media Corporation. Archived from the original on April 22, 2022. Retrieved November 1, 2021.
  7. 1 2 3 4 Grobar, Matt (November 9, 2021). "Nicolas Cage Western 'Butcher's Crossing' Adds Jeremy Bobb, Xander Berkeley, Rachel Keller & Paul Raci — First Look Image". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on November 21, 2021. Retrieved November 17, 2021.
  8. ↑ Lang, Brett (September 21, 2021). "Nicolas Cage Frontier Epic 'Butcher's Crossing' Sells to Saban Films (Exclusive)". Variety . Archived from the original on October 12, 2021. Retrieved September 26, 2021.
  9. ↑ "Butcher's Crossing". Toronto International Film Festival . Archived from the original on September 23, 2022. Retrieved July 28, 2022.
  10. ↑ Collis, Clark. "Nicolas Cage is hunting buffalo and losing his mind in Butcher's Crossing trailer". Entertainment Weekly . Archived from the original on September 19, 2023. Retrieved September 18, 2023.
  11. ↑ "Butcher's Crossing". Rotten Tomatoes . Fandango Media . Retrieved April 23, 2024. OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
  12. ↑ "Butcher's Crossing". Metacritic . Fandom, Inc. Retrieved November 25, 2023.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.