The western has seen something of a resurgence in recent years with Django Unchained and True Grit. Now it’s The Homesman which is Tommy Lee Jones’s second film as actor and director based on the 1988 award winning book of the same name by Glendon Swarthout.
It casts Hilary Swank as a 31 year old strong, independent, pioneer, unmarried Mary-Bee Cuddy who draws the lot to take three women driven insane whilst living in a frontier town in Nebraska back to civilised Iowa and placed in the care of a Methodist preacher and his wife. Upon setting off with her load of three women she happens upon George Briggs, the homesman, played by Tommy Lee Jones who is sat on his horse with a noose around his neck as capital punishment for stealing another man’s property. In return for saving his life he agrees to accompany her on her peculiar odyssey back to civilisation.
This is not a Western like any other for a start it focuses on a woman and her strength of character settling in this frontier land and the loneliness of that life without a man even though she wants to get married and how hard life was. It is also part morality tale and social commentary of the time – the way to the West was won and a nation born: the lawlessness, cowboys, the violence, savagery, puritanism, racism, profiteering. Yet all of this is shown with a deftness of touch through sweeping landscape cinematography, moments of comedy and a very strong script with a most unexpected twist.
The film does feel like two distinct parts the first showing us what life on the ‘wild’ frontier land was like and the second half in civilisation and it is up to the viewer to decide which is better and which is worse,
Some themes were not really explored or issues dwelled upon but in a way that is part of the charm of the film gives allows the viewer the freedom to decide: what led the women to their madness and why did Mary Bee Cuddy decide to move West for the money, to escape a past and how did a lone woman manage to survive the lawlessness of such a place. My only criticism of the film is the length I found it a little long but maybe only by 20 minutes but even so it is a gem of movie.
The supporting actors also do a fine job Miranda Otto, Sonja Richter, Grace Gummer and Meryl Streep. However this film is really driven home by the performances of Hilary Swank, who is back to her Million Dollar Baby best, and Tommy Lee Jones.
Even if you are a fan of Westerns leave your doubts behind this film will surprise you.
It was shown as part of the Cannes Film Festival 2014 and will hopefully be released in UK cinemas later on this year.
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