The Homesman
When three women living on the edge of the American frontier are driven mad by harsh pioneer life, the task of saving them falls to the pious, independent-minded Mary Bee Cuddy. Transporting the women by covered wagon to Iowa, she soon realizes just how daunting the journey will be, and employs a low-life drifter, George Briggs, to join her. The unlikely pair and the three women head east, where a waiting minister and his wife have offered to take the women in. But the group first must traverse the harsh Nebraska Territories marked by stark beauty, psychological peril and constant threat
Director:
Tommy Lee Jones
Cast:
Tommy Lee Jones, Hilary Swank, Grace Gunner, Miranda Otto, and Meryl Streep
Screenplay:
Tommy Lee Jones and Kieran Fitzgerald
Screening Date:
Nov 08, 2014
Studio:
Roadside Attractions
Running Time:
122 min.
| Excellent | Very Good | Good | Fair | Poor |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 38.7% | 22.6% | 17.7% | 16.1% | 4.8% |
“This beautifully acted film turns the genre of Road Movies to a highly emotional and spiritual level. Our hearts go out to all the characters.”
“One of the best films of the year! A brilliant examination of the role of women in the pioneer west that is at times horrifying, at times silly, never takes itself too seriously yet the message is incredibly profound. Bravo!”
“Tommy Lee Jones should keep his day job. The script is one I would expect to see in a Lifetime TV film. Total waste of an impressive cast.”
“Sooo depressing! How hard life was. Can I have survived? Probably not. What attracted Tommy Lee Jones to this project? Feminism? Did these women not menstruate? And a tour de force for Hillary Swank making her homely! Missed more of Streep, Tim Blake Nelson and James Spader.”
“Awful! This was a total vanity piece by Tommy Lee Jones. I’m surprised Meryl Streep agreed to be associated with it.”
“Not bad. A tad too long but the pace was imitative of the pace then.”
“Interesting idea. Real vs. imagined, Spiritual vs. material. Serenity vs. Confusion.”
“Interesting storyline. Did not see her suicide coming.”
“If mentally ill folks and bad guys could really be redeemed in two hours the world would be a better place! Unconvincing, an uninspiring story. But a bit of an adventure.”
“A powerful, sad story based on true-to-life circumstances. Glad I wasn’t born a pioneer.”
“Really a quite remarkable film, notable especially for it’s artifacts and imagery – the wagon not much smaller than the houses they were trapped in for years, the cameo of a perfect woman, an ideal of womanhood never to be even partially realized, her tombstone, like the brave but often sad women of the time, lost and forgotten.”
“James Spader and the Fairfield Hotel was something out of a Fellini film, part fantasy, part mythical, and yet it works!”
“How can anyone call this sexist? It’s like watching 12 YEARS A SLAVE and saying that was racist?!?!?! This was perhaps the most feminist film in recent memory, and how many feminist westerns are there?”
“A brutal depiction of a hard life. Two unlikely good Samaritans set out on a journey and Mr. Briggs finds redemption in completing it. As for me, I would have been one of the women in the wagon if I lived then.”
“Life was so difficult, so violent and so lawless.”
“Mr. Briggs – like Ethan Edwards (Ed note: The lead character played by John Wayne in John Ford’s THE SEARCHERS) could not handle civilzation, could not stay in the ‘East,’ and is condemned to roam back on the other side of the river, the untamed ‘West’ full of whiskey and gunfire.”
“At certain points the dialogue was too modern for the time being presented.”
“Atmospheric, gritty, real for the times. A lot to discuss. Beautifully shot. (Yes, evokes John Ford Westerns.) About time a western showing the effects of the hardships of living as a sodbuster in the territories on women. Agree with some of the audience about the sexism in the film.
Problems: How did and why did she go there in the first place? How did Grace Gummer (Arabella) escape? Where did she get a knife? Was she alert enough to shoot the man fighting Mr. Briggs? (How did she get to be such a good shot?) Civilization vs. uncivilized west. Music worked so well. Homesman=Homeswoman.”
“An amazing experience of sadness, hilarity and thoughtfulness.”
“Tommy Lee Jones could give lessons in how to tell a story with meaningful, masterful imagery to the director of THE BETTER ANGELS and he had Abraham Lincoln as subject matter! These women were better angels.”
“Ridiculous! Sexist! I guess a strong woman can’t be allowed to survive in filmland. As for the crazy women TAMING OF THE SHREW.”
“The wailing of the sad women in the wagon was reminiscent of coyotes screeching on the plains. How sad she came so far, yet so near the civilization she craved. She became the sad cargo she was trying to save.”
“Her suicide was both the major point of the film – that a woman who wasn’t pretty and didn’t conform couldn’t survive in the pioneering west - and also the major flaw of the film, for she was much too caring of the three ‘crazy’ women to have deserted them in such a selfish manner.”
If you'd like to know more about the film...
An indepth review from which the film was based on.
ttp://areadersramblings.blogspot.com/2014/02/my-ramblings-on-homesman-by-glendon.html
Rodrigo Prieto, the famed cinematographer of such films as "Brokeback Mountain" and "The Wolf of Wall Street" tells of his involving working with Tommy Lee Jones and his use of both film and digital.
It's both interesting and horrific how mental illness was treated back then. And the church surely played a strong part in tyring to help. Here, Amy Simpson tells her story how she used the church to help treat her mother.
http://qideas.org/articles/mental-illness-what-is-the-churchs-role/
Its ineresting how even today's society we can find hints of sexism in society, the media, and even film. Zoe Margolis of "The Guardian" gives an interesting point of view in the sexism in film today and its use.
http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/jul/22/movie-industry-sexist-sexual-harassment-studios-rife
