Prime Video’s Western ‘Frontier Crucible’ Delivers Brutal Realism

Though there’s been a renewed interest in Westerns in recent years, an excellent neo-Western that rarely gets discussed (outside RedLetterMedia) is Bone Tomahawk. With its great character work, elegant and theatrical dialogue, and genre fusion of classy Western and cannibal horror, it’s the best movie to recommend to your friend if you want to make them realize how cool and weird your movie tastes are. But there are those who like their Western films to be horror-less (we call them The Normals). If that’s the case, don’t sweat it. That’s what Frontier Crucible—which was written by Bone Tomahawk writer/director S. Craig Zahler, and features classic Western action, but zero cannibalism—is there for.

What Audiences Missed With ‘Frontier Crucible’

Image via Well Go USA

Frontier Crucible, based on the novel Desert Stake-Out by Harry Whittington, was directed by Travis Mills, and released last year to not much fanfare. But that’s not commentary on its quality. The film is an ode to old-school Westerns, with a small-scale story and clearcut good guys and bad guys, and was shot on location in Arizona, with surprisingly gorgeous shot composition. But the biggest attribute that Frontier Crucible has going for it (and will likely be a selling point for some) is that, according to Thomas Jane in an interview with MovieFone, it was written by an uncredited S. Craig Zahler—the writer/director of crowd-pleasers (well, depending on the crowd) such as Brawl in Cell Block 99 and the previously mentioned Bone Tomahawk.

If you’re a fan of his work and you don’t know of his involvement going in, Zahler’s dialogue gives itself away pretty quickly; it’s often compared to Quentin Tarantino, only slightly less verbose and a little more pragmatic. (A more accurate dialogue comparison might be Mike Flanagan‘s film work.) That’s where the Bone Tomahawk connection comes into play, because much like it, Frontier Crucible is methodically paced and plays more like a hangout movie in the Old West than a gung-ho action Western. It’s also not afraid to show the brutality and pitiless nature of living on the frontier, with the film’s cold open mirroring the opening to Bone Tomahawk, showcasing unglamorized violence that’s blunt and, at times, disturbing.

It never gets anywhere near as vicious as the last twenty minutes of Bone Tomahawk—which is like bragging you won a game of limbo when the bar was hanging between two buildings. But it’s still a Zah