The Homesman Movie Blurb by Shale December 6, 2014 This weekend there were no new movies of interest to me until I noticed this strange indie Western staring Tommy Lee Jones and Hilary Swank with brief appearances of John Lithgow and Meryl Streep. I think it is in limited release in the U.S. right now but garnered some Palm d'Or nominations and has been well received by critics. The nearest comparison for the kind of movie it is would be True Grit, released in December 2010, showing the hardships of the mid 19th Century in the American West. (Actually Nebraska and Iowa - called the Midwest I suppose, but still a harsh place to live) The setting is Loup City, Nebraska, which seems to be a half-dozen buildings and mostly prairie farmland. Mary Bee Cuddy (Hilary Swank) is a spinster woman about 30 who is successfully running a farm by herself. She is from New York but adventurously homesteaded this land out west. She can't get married because her suitors see her as too bossy and too plain. (IDK what these guy's standards are but even without makeup, Hilary Swank is not plain). Mary's problems with this harsh environment are not nearly as bad as three other women in the community who have gone insane due to hardship, loss of children to diphtheria, rape and other abuse. Reverend Dowd (John Lithgow) calls a meeting of the small congregation to find a way to get these insane women back to a Methodist Church in Iowa that will take them in. He is looking for a Homesman, a guy charged with escorting women back home to civilization. There were no prospects so Mary Cuddy volunteers and gives her creds as a good horseman, shooter and as capable as any man. So, she gets a box wagon with locking door, barred windows and rings to tie up those needing restraint and gathers up the women and starts out on this hazardous journey. Mary Cuddy Starts Her Wagon Trip Short into her trip she comes across George Briggs (Tommy Lee Jones) a man who had bee squatting in a neighbor's house, thinking it was abandoned (the neighbor was merely going back east to find a wife less plain than Mary). He was about to be lynched by vigilantes who caught him there when Mary intervenes and saves him - on the condition that he accompany her on the trip getting the insane women to Iowa. Mary & George Heading East That is the setup and the rest of the movie is the relationship between the spinster and the drifter pressed into a mission together thru the perilous Midwest of the 1850s with bad weather, a few Indians, some drifters and a runaway crazy woman. Camping in the Winter Tommy Lee Jones plays the cantankerous old man with a possible decent side as well as always. Hilary Swank as the outwardly strong woman with her own inner weaknesses did a great performance. Again, if you liked True Grit (either one) or are into 19th Century American West, you will probably get into this movie. It is a character driven period piece.
I didn't look that closely but I think they were. It appeared to be cap & ball revolver and in the pic posted here she appears to be holding a muzzle loading rifle. One guy actually had a single shot pistol - probably cap firing.
