The Underrated Christian Bale Western Crushing It On Netflix

Hollywood doesn't always do Westerns particularly well, a genre that can sometimes produce stereotype-filled stories with little in the way of real drama. But then a movie like "Hostiles" comes along, and it shows you just how good the genre can be when the right cast and director come together.

The 2017 film directed by Scott Cooper, which coincidentally premiered exactly eight years ago today at Telluride, has found new life on Netflix where it currently ranks #10 on the platform's daily Top 10 movies list for the U.S. While the streamer does have some major movie titles competing with it right now like "KPop Demon Hunters" and "The Thursday Murder Club," "Hostiles" is nevertheless quietly dominating as one of the most underrated movies on the streaming giant at the moment. And we'll take a closer look at it below, as well as why it might be worth giving it a chance if you missed it the first time around.

Starring Christian Bale as a U.S. Army captain who has a bloody past that's entailed killing hundreds of Native Americans and who's now tasked with escorting a Cheyenne war chief and his family across danger-filled territory, "Hostiles" tells a story of redemption and unlikely alliances. The cast also includes Scott Shepherd and Rosamund Pike — and, while the story's premise might feel familiar (you can actually watch a pretty similar dynamic unfold in "3:10 to Yuma," which also starred Christian Bale), the nuanced performances in "Hostiles" and direction from Cooper help it stand out. "While Hostiles may not be the Western we deserve, it's at least within a couple of hours' ride of the Western we need," raves a review from the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Beautifully shot and with a stirring score, "Hostiles" really isn't anything you haven't seen before from a Western. Still, it offers a powerful meditation on morality and death across its two-hour runtime. What's also impressive is the fact that the movie continues to hold its own years after its release, sitting on a respectable 71% critics' score and a 76% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. "The performances, the cinematography, and the story make 'Hostiles' a brilliant Western in its own right," opines one Rotten Tomatoes user review. "Christian Bale carries the movie with his solemn acting, and Rosamund Pike delivers what could be her best performance ever."

For those of you who are fans of Westerns, "Hostiles" offers powerful visuals and a thought-provoking narrative, which probably explains why it's now climbing up the charts on Netflix.