Movie of the Week: Butcher's Crossing (2023)

I seem to always find myself gravitating toward westerns this time of year. I'm not exactly sure why that is, but my best guess is that after the October horror marathon and the awards darling dump in December, I'm ready for a bit of cinematic reset that tends to involve westerns, docs, and usually a little bit of Hitchcock. Snow-set westerns, naturally, end up being a target, as the usual fare is often too hot and dusty for winter viewing. After a McCabe & Mrs. Miller rewatch (an essential snowy western), I started digging for something different. Not only did I discover something new with Butcher's Crossing, but I think I've found an underrated gem.

It's 1874 and Will Andrews (Fred Hechinger) is much more interested in the myth of the American West than he is in his studies at Harvard, so he drops out and funds a trip out west with daddy's money. He's pretty open about seeking an adventure, something real, work that's hard and earned, but nobody wants to take a rookie on their life and career-depending buffalo hunts. That is, until he finds Miller, played by the great Nicolas Cage. (Because he's called Miller, I keep calling this Miller's Crossing in my head, but that's the Coen Brothers movie that I still need to see.)

Miller found his Daddy Warbucks at the right time - buffalo are scarce in his neck of Kansas, so he can use this fully-funded excursion (that's how Will has attempted to convince folks to let him on) to travel out to a valley in Colorado where there are buffalo aplenty. It's so fruitful (buffaloful?) that a good bounty quickly becomes not enough. As autumn turns to winter and the crew should be heading home, Miller becomes obsessed with the idea of killing (skinning, in some pretty grotesque sequences) as many buffalo as he can. It consumes him completely, putting everyone, including himself, at risk to the harsh elements.

It's an anti-western in every way, the antithesis of the genre's usual criticism. The West isn't glorious, it's grueling. It's not shootouts and saloons, it's muddy and murderous. Will soon finds out that the adventure that called to him is no adventure at all. It's a miserable existence and it's driven men like Miller to madness. And some pre-credits text addresses the overkilling of what would soon become an endangered species.

Hechinger is really the discovery of the past half-year for me. Between this, Thelma, Gladiator II, and our White Lotus catch-up, I'm excited to see what's next for him. Cage is always great and it's surprising to see that it took him this long to make a western, especially considering his genre taste. I liked his other one, The Old Way, but who knows if he'll make another - he was pretty clear that he didn't have the best experience with his horse on this one. “My horse on Butcher’s Crossing, named Rain Man, wanted to kill me," he said at a Hollywood Reporter roundtable. "Rain Man kept trying to knock me off and would try to run my head into roofs, and then I’d get off and try to be nice to him, and he would headbutt me. It was not fun. I’ve always had good experiences with animals. I always had great experiences with horses, but Rain Man wanted to kill me...I’m so glad I got through that movie alive."