A Kurt Russell Western from 2015 is a secret remake of John Wayne’s The Searchers. While the genre itself was largely out of fashion during his movie star heyday, Kurt Russell has still become a Western icon of sorts. This is largely thanks to playing Wyatt Earp in 1993’s Tombstone, which has become a classic over the years. In 2015, he returned to the genre once again with The Hateful Eight, which was Quentin Tarantino’s dark Western about a group of violent strangers trapped together in a snowy cabin.
Even the likes of Russell’s sci-fi actioner Soldier is a Western in disguise, with the story being a thinly veiled riff on Shane. In short, Kurt Russell Westerns are always a great time, and it’s a pity there aren’t more to go around. His return to the genre post-Tombstone was actually Bone Tomahawk, which is two parts a Western and one part a graphic horror movie.
Bone Tomahawk Plays Like A Remake Of John Wayne’s The Searchers
The 2015 movie shares much in common with the John Wayne classic
John Wayne’s The Searchers is regarded by everyone from George Lucas to Martin Scorsese as one of the best Westerns ever. This 1956 adventure sees Wayne’s bitter, racist Civil War vet Ethan pairing with his nephew on a years-long odyssey to find his kidnapped niece. The movie is a good deal darker than most Westerns from the era and features arguably Wayne’s greatest work as a performer. The Searchers and Bone Tomahawk share the same basic story, where a kidnapping sets off a rescue attempt that only leads to more violence.
In Bone Tomahawk, a doctor’s assistant named Samantha (Lili Simmons) is snatched by a clan of cannibals, so Russell’s sheriff and Samantha’s husband Arthur (Patrick Wilson) head out to find her. The film lacks the scope and grandeur of The Searchers but likewise finds a mismatched group of men forced to work together against a threat they don’t fully understand. While Russell’s Hunt is the main character, he’s not a straight port of Wayne’s character. Instead, Ethan’s prejudices are handed over to Matthew Fox’s gunfighter Brooder, who is the kind of man who humblebrags about how many Native Americans he’s killed.
Bone Tomahawk Shows The Violence That Was Impossible In Wayne’s Film
This Kurt Russell Western has harrowing scenes of bloodshed
Bone Tomahawk almost uses its Searchers template to lull audiences into a false sense of security. The journey is filled with dangers, but it also takes time to hang out with its main characters, so when it moves into horror in the final act, it hits much harder. There’s one gruesome sequence in Bone Tomahawk that’s especially infamous and with good reason. In a sense, the film can show the kinds of violence The Searchers had to refrain from.
The John Ford/John Wayne Western might lack overt gore or depictions of violence, but it’s still unremittingly dark. The discovery of Ethan’s destroyed family farm and vague descriptions of the corpses left behind are disturbing in their own right, while Ethan later shoots out the eyes of a Comanche corpse. Ethan claims that without eyes, the man’s soul is doomed to wander the desert alone. If this scene was in Bone Tomahawk, there’s no doubt director S. Craig Zahler wouldn’t have shown the eyes exploding in gory detail.
Back in 1956, restrictions on screen violence made it impossible for The Searchers to show the events that instead happen offscreen. More than likely, Wayne himself – who had a noted distaste for bloodshed in movies – wouldn’t have allowed them to be shown anyway. In 2015, the only real limit to what can be depicted is a filmmaker’s imagination. Bone Tomahawk isn’t a gorefest or loaded with violent scenes, but when they arrive, they’re unflinching.
Kurt Russell ALREADY Starred In A Stealth Searchers Remake
His 1970s Western show wore its influences on its sleeves
Funnily enough, Bone Tomahawkisn’t Kurt Russell’s first unofficial Searchers remake. In 1976, he and Tim Matheson co-starred as brothers in The Quest, a Western show where their characters set out to rescue their kidnapped sister. Russell’s Morgan was also held by the Cheyenne for years and has an insight into Native American culture. Each week, the brothers would get into misadventures, but the show itself arrived at a time when the genre was waning, so it only lasted one season.
The fact The Quest was up against Charlie’s Angels in the ratings didn’t help its chances. Like Bone Tomahawk, The Quest wore its influences on its sleeves, with Matheson himself once telling TV Insider “We basically took John Wayne’s movie The Searchers and remade it as a TV show.” Sadly, the show ended before the brothers found their lost sibling, though since both stars are still working, who’s to save a belated sequel couldn’t happen?