I have heard some prominent reviewers comparing the new Western “Hostiles” starring Christian Bale to Clint Eastwood’s masterpiece from 1992 “Unforgiven” and while I agree that this is a good Western, with a very simple story and very well done, it is not anywhere near as good as Unforgiven, which arguably has the best line and scene in any movie of all time, (see video below) and is the best Western ever made. Anytime I see a good Western, it reminds me what a horrible time that was to be alive. Killing people indiscriminately was as routine as brushing your teeth, even including women and children, and US soldiers killed just as brutally as Indians. Life was very hard in those days, and if you got sick or even a small flesh wound or infection, odds are high that you are going to die. There was no medicine or pain killers other than alcohol and the all of the important medical discoveries were years into the future.

I thought the screenplay for this movie was very well written because the story was kept very simple and eventually wound up as a group of soldiers, Indians and civilians making their way to different locations while being attacked my savage Indians. There was not that much more to the story, but the simplicity I thought was the best part of this film along with the scenes of the great vistas of the Western United States.

I recommend Hostiles.

One day a famous PHD in Economics will write a book that attempts to count the amount of money and lives the 19 men who created the world changing disaster of 911 has cost the world. The number of lives is in the millions, and the amount of money is in the 10’s of trillions. These 19 terrorists on that day, also gave this country the longest war in its entire history, Afghanistan. Nobody who ever lived through 9.11.2001 will ever forget that day; and 911 is where the the movie “12 Strong” begins.

What is good about this movie is to record an important moment in US History that marked the beginning of the war in Afghanistan. Anyone who sees this movie will learn something they didn’t know about the first 12 men to risked their lives and ventured into the middle of Afghanistan to locate Taliban fighters so US bombers could destroy them. Even more amazing about their incredibly riskly and unlikely mission is that they used horses to fight a great deal of their battle where they were greatly outnumbered. The only thing about this movie that I didn’t like was that it was slow in too many places, a bit too long and in terms of a war movie, there was really nothing new here. This film stars Chris Hemsworth and Micheal Shannon, who seems to be in many movies lately.

This movie should be seen by anyone who is interested in getting a history lesson about something that happened right after 911. For me, I give it a mild recommendation.

HUGE Omissions and errors in this list include “Molly’s Game” not nominated and Jessica Chastain and Idris Alba also not nominated. They also did not nominate Michele Williams for best supporting actress. Another mistake. Why the Shape of Water was so liked by so many, I have no idea.

Best Picture
Call Me By Your Name
Darkest Hour
Dunkirk
Get Out
Lady Bird
Phantom Thread
The Post
The Shape of Water
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Best Actor
Timothee Chalamet, Call Me By Your Name
Daniel Day Lewis, Phantom Thread
Daniel Kaluuya, Get Out
Gary Oldman, Darkest Hour
Denzel Washington, Roman J. Isreal, Esq

Best Actress
Sally Hawkins, The Shape of Water
Frances McDormand, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Margot Robbie, I, Tonya
Saoirse Ronan, Lady Bird
Meryl Streep, The Post

Best Supporting Actress
Mary J. Blige, Mudbound
Octavia Spencer, The Shape of Water
Allison Janney, I, Tonya
Laurie Metcalf, Lady Bird
Lesley Manville, Phantom Thread

Best Supporting Actor
Willem Dafoe, The Florida Project
Woody Harrelson, Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri
Richard Jenkins, The Shape of Water
Christopher Plummer, All the Money in the World
Sam Rockwell, Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri

Best Director
Dunkirk, Christopher Nolan
Get Out, Jordan Peele
Lady Bird, Greta Gerwig
Phantom Thread, Paul Thomas Anderson
The Shape of Water, Guillermo del Toro

Best Animated Feature Film
The Breadwinner
Coco
Ferdinand
The Boss Baby
Loving Vincent

Original Screenpla
Get Out
Lady Bird
The Shape of Water
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Best Adapted Screenplay
Call Me By Your Name
The Disaster Artist
Logan
Molly’s Game
Mudbound

Best Foreign Language Film
The Insult, Lebanon
Loveless, Russia
On Body and Soul, Hungary
The Square, Sweden
A Fantastic Woman, Chile

Best Documentary Short Subject
Edith and Eddie
Heaven is a Traffic Jam on the 405
Heroin(e)
Knife Skills
Traffic Stop

Best Documentary Feature
Abacus
Faces Places
Icarus
Last Men in Aleppo
Strong Island

Best Production Design
Beauty and the Beast
Bladerunner 2049
Darkest Hour
Dunkirk
The Shape of Water

Best Cinematography
Bladerunner 2049
Darkest Hour
Dunkirk
Mudbound
The Shape of Water

Best Costume Design
Beauty and The Beast
Darkest Hour
Phantom Thread
The Shape of water
Victoria & Abdul

Best Sound Editing
Baby Driver
Bladerunner 2049
Dunkirk
The Shape of Water
Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Best Sound Mixing
Baby Driver
Bladerunner 2049
Dunkirk
The Shape of Water
Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Best Animated Short Film
Dear Basketball
Garden Party
Lou
Negative Space
Revolting Rhymes

Best Original Score
Dunkirk
Phantom Thread
The Shape of Water
Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Best Visual Effects
Bladerunner 2049
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol2
Kong: Skull Island
Star Wars: The Last Jedi
War for the Planet of the Apes