Besides the gorgeous, burnished look supplied by cinematographer Masanobu Takayanagi, Cooper gets a range of fine performances from a topnotch cast that includes Christian Bale, Rosamund Pike, Wes Studi, Ben Foster, Scott Wilson, Q’orianka Kilcher and Timothee Chalamet.

Unlike this month’s other neo-western, Jared Moshe’s terrific “ The Ballad of Lefty Brown,” which harkens back to classic westerns by directors like Ford and Howard Hawks, Cooper’s film belongs more to a lineage that includes “revisionist” westerns such as Robert Aldrich’s “Ulzana’s Raid.” By any reckoning, it is one of the most vivid and compelling evocations of the bitter, violent hatreds that once separated Native Americans from the settlers and soldiers who invaded their territories. The nod to “The Searchers” is a bit misleading, though. Only the mother survives by hiding in the woods. Before setting fire to the ranch, the Natives go after the rest of the family and kill all the kids. Grabbing a rifle to defend his family, the father is cut down and scalped first. Grave and somber, Scott Cooper’s “Hostiles” opens with a scene that recalls John Ford’s “ The Searchers.” In 1892 New Mexico, a family of homesteaders-mom, dad, three kids-are going about their business when Comanche warriors thunder toward their ranch.

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