A thematically ambitious Western that could’ve used a little more energy, “Butcher’s Crossing” is most notable for being the second movie this year to put Nicolas Cage on the wild frontier.

While “The Old Way” (released in January) was a Spaghetti-esque revenge thriller, Gabe Polsky’s adaptation of John Edward Williams’ 1960 novel is a contemplation of man and nature, obsession and greed, and the American spirit smashing into harsh reality. It aspires to be “Moby-Dick” with a “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre” (1948) chaser, with at least one shot framed to evoke John Ford’s unforgiving masterpiece “The Searchers” (1956). “Butcher’s” is not in an equivalent league, but we do get to watch Cage shave his skull with a straight razor.

Set in 1874, the film starts out as the story of Will Andrews (Fred Hechinger, “The White Lotus”), a minister’s son who has dropped out of Harvard “in search of stronger purpose,” which back then meant going west to manifest one’s destiny — or something like that. He wants to check out thegreat buffalo huntsthat are littering the Kansas/Colorado plains with carcasses. He’s willing to pay, just to watch.

That’s catnip to Cage’s bald but heavily bearded Miller. Though soft-spoken and philosophical around saloon tables, Miller has a reputation as a grandiose loser in bison-hunting circles. While encroaching Americans have greatly thinned out the flatland herds, he knows of a mountain valley where throngs still roam. It’s hard to get there, but with wide-eyed Will’s money Miller puts together an expedition that includes mean but skilled skinner Frank (Jeremy Bobb) and cook Charlie (Xander Berkeley), a one-armed, alcoholic and religious fanatic.

Polsky擅长表现出艰苦的性质trek. You can die of thirst before you find water on the prairie, and pushing wagons uphill is treacherous, exhausting work. The hidden herd is nonetheless found (the film was shot in Montana, where the Blackfeet tribe manages protected, free-range buffalo), and soon Will (and us) receive semi-graphic instruction on how to pick them off, trim their valuable hides and make bull testicles good eatin’.

“We don’t belong out here,” Charlie observes as more hides than they can carry pile up and Miller refuses to leave.

将不能洗所有的血液,他的生产吗er fades into observer position as winter sets in and the older men clash.

“All we been doin’ is waiting!” Fred complains in one of the film’s many declarative lines of dialogue.

Audiences may feel the same. Though “Butcher’s” has its share of conflicts and drama, it can move as slowly as the glaciers that cut its imposing scenery.

Though Cage is playing a kind of cowboy Ahab, this is one of his less-manic performances. It’s a good one, too, which reveals the damage masculine pride and capitalist necessity does to men and beasts (Miller’s a bit of both). It doesn’t do much to goose the narrative along — nor deeply illuminate the grand ideas Polsky included, but could have stated stronger.

Bob Strauss is a freelance writer.