This Nicolas Cage Western Based On A Classic Novel Is A Must-Watch For Hulu Subscribers

Nicolas Cage has made so many movies that even Nicolas Cage probably has a hard time keeping track of them all. While this has left his CV littered with no small amount of stinkers — such as "Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance," one of the worst Marvel movies ever — his prolific work rate also means that most people have several genuinely good Cage movies they have never seen, or possibly even heard about.

One of Cage's unsung gems is now available for Hulu subscribers, and it's a particularly interesting specimen. Gabe Polsky's 2022 Western "Butcher's Crossing" is based on a 1960 novel of the same name by John Williams, which has been compared to Cormac McCarthy's realistic Western fare. This is not the worst possible comparison point, seeing as what just might be the greatest neo-Western of our time, the Coen Brothers' "No Country for Old Men" (2007), was based on McCarthy's book.  

Though Cage himself doesn't rank the film's script among the five best ones he's ever read, it's still definitely worth watching. In fact, with a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 72%, "Butcher's Crossing" is solidly on the critically-appreciated spectrum of the actor's work, and definitely his highest-rated Western. 

"Butcher's Crossing" is a story about two very different men who embark on a singular, brutal mission. It takes place during the last years of the Great American Buffalo Slaughter, which killed tens of millions of bison and nearly drove them extinct. Young, romantic Will Andrews (Fred Hechinger, "The White Lotus") wants to experience the hunt himself, so he agrees to fund gruff buffalo hunter Miller's (Cage) dream of traveling to a remote location where he's convinced that the buffalo still roam. What happens next is honestly best enjoyed without spoilers, but instead of romantic Old West action, the film leans heavily toward just about every flavor of Old West wilderness survival stories before the story reaches its conclusion. 

As with most Nic Cage movies, the main attraction in "Butcher's Crossing" is the Academy Award-winning actor himself. Here, he portrays the vaguely Captain Ahab-esque Miller with the brooding end of the patented Nicolas Cage Acting Tool Kit, and remains his recognizable self despite shaving his head and sporting a thick beard to fit the 19th-century outdoorsman archetype. Still, this is a very different Cage from, say, his 2024 performance in Oz Perkins' "Longlegs" — but it's honestly a good look, as is his comparatively muted performance in a movie that's so rife with beautiful and brutal imagery. 

"Butcher's Crossing" is available for streaming on Hulu.