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The Homesman

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The Homesman
Theatrical release poster
Directed byTommy Lee Jones
Screenplay by
  • Tommy Lee Jones
  • Kieran Fitzgerald
  • Wesley Oliver
Based onThe Homesman
by Glendon Swarthout
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyRodrigo Prieto
Edited byRoberto Silvi
Music byMarco Beltrami
Production
companies
Distributed byRoadside Attractions
Saban Films[1] (United States)
EuropaCorp Distribution (France)
Release dates
  • May 18, 2014 (2014-05-18) (Cannes)
  • November 14, 2014 (2014-11-14) (United States)
Running time
123 minutes[2]
Countries
  • United States
  • France[3]
LanguageEnglish
Budget$16 million[4]
Box office$8.2 million[4]

The Homesman is a 2014 Western historical drama film set in the 1850s Midwest and directed by Tommy Lee Jones. Jones, Kieran Fitzgerald, and Wesley Oliver based the screenplay on the 1988 novel of the same name by Glendon Swarthout. The film stars Jones and Hilary Swank and also features Meryl Streep, Grace Gummer, Miranda Otto, Hailee Steinfeld, John Lithgow, Jesse Plemons, and James Spader.

The Homesman competed for the Palme d'Or in the main competition section at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival[5] and got a North American limited release on November 14, 2014, by Roadside Attractions.[6][7] The Homesman has received mostly positive reviews from critics. Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a rating of 81%.

The title refers to the task of taking immigrants back home, which was typically a man's job.

Plot

[edit]

In 1854, Mary Bee Cuddy, a 31-year-old unmarried teacher from New York, came to the Midwest for more opportunities. In the small farming community of Loup in the Nebraska Territory she owns sizable property and is financially secure. Though she seems strong and independent, she suffers from depression and feels isolated. She invites her neighbor Bob Giffen for dinner and proposes marriage, but he turns her down, saying she is plain-looking and too bossy. He leaves to find a wife back east.

After a harsh winter, three women in the community show signs of prairie madness. Arabella Sours has lost three children to diphtheria, and Gro Svendsen, a Danish immigrant in an abusive marriage, breaks down after her mother dies. Theoline Belknap kills her own child after a poor harvest. Reverend Dowd calls upon one of their husbands to escort the women east to Lady's Aid Society Methodist Church in Hebron, Iowa, which cares for the mentally ill. Theoline's husband Vester refuses to participate in the lottery to decide who will escort the women; Cuddy takes his place, and the lot falls on her.

While preparing for the trip, Cuddy encounters George Briggs, a claim jumper, who has been left on horseback with a noose around his neck for stealing Bob Giffen's land in his absence. Scared to make the trip alone, she frees him, on the condition that he help escort the women. He immediately casts doubt on the job and insists he be free to abandon her at any time. To persuade him, Cuddy tells him she will mail $300 to await his arrival in Iowa, but she secretly keeps it with her.

The group crosses paths with hostile Pawnee. Briggs bribes them by giving up Cuddy's horse. Later, Arabella is kidnapped. Briggs gives chase, and the two men scuffle before Arabella kills her kidnapper. Eventually, the group reaches the grave of an 11-year-old girl which has been desecrated by Indians. Cuddy insists they stop and restore it, but Briggs vows to push on, so Cuddy stays behind, saying she will catch up with them. After restoring the grave, Cuddy sets out on horseback but loses her way. After riding all night she finds herself back at the grave and realizes she has gone in a circle.

Finally catching up to Briggs after another night of riding, Cuddy, distraught over having to wander the prairie, suggests they marry. Briggs declines, saying he "ain't no farmer". Briggs finds Cuddy dead, having hanged herself. Briggs chastises Sours, Belknap, and Svendsen, blaming their illness for Cuddy's death as he buries her body. He finds the $300, takes a horse, and abandons the three women. However, the trio follows him on foot, and Arabella almost drowns while chasing him across a river. Briggs saves her and decides to go on to Iowa.

They reach an empty hotel. The proprietor, Irishman Aloysius Duffy, says they have no rooms available as a group of 16 investors are expected shortly, and the women would sour the establishment. Briggs lashes out at Duffy, whose men pull out their guns, resulting in a brief stand-off. Briggs leaves, but returns that night alone on horseback. He sends away the young cook, sets the hotel on fire, and shoots Duffy in the foot. Briggs takes a suckling pig to feed himself and the women and leaves all inside the hotel to be burned alive.

Briggs reaches Hebron, passing the women into the care of Altha Carter, the reverend's wife. He informs her of Cuddy's death but does not disclose the cause. Guilty about having rejected her proposal, he has a wooden slab engraved with her name, planning to mark her grave with it. He discovers that his $300 is worthless, the Bank of Loup having failed since they left. He gives a pair of shoes to Tabitha Hutchinson, a hard-working young maid at the hotel where he is staying, and then proposes to her, after advising her not to marry some young man going west, but to stay in town. She replies, "Maybe." He then boards the open-decked river ferry heading back west, where he sings a rowdy song with two musicians on deck. Briggs fires his pistol and shouts at people on the pier who complain about the noise. Eventually, one of the bargemen kicks Mary Bee's wooden grave marker off the edge of the deck into the river; unnoticed by Briggs, it floats away.

Cast

[edit]

Themes

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The film shows the unsparingly harsh and difficult life of early settlers of the American Midwest in the 1850s. The Homesman has been called a "feminist western".[8] A critic and interview with Hilary Swank noted that the lives of women during this time are rarely explored, as opposed to men, while also commenting on today's societal pressures for women to be married and have children and to be perfect wives and mothers.[8][9]

Music

[edit]
Main article: The Homesman (soundtrack)

Critics have praised Marco Beltrami's music. The score emphasizes the use of wind sounds to show how early settlers had to endure the constant wind without solid shelter, which imitates the character themes of being mentally undone by the elements that surround them. Beltrami used inventive measures such as using a "wind piano" and recording outside. Beltrami said the goal was to take the "warmth" out of the sound to dissipate the air.[10]

Release

[edit]
Director and cast at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival

The Homesman premiered on May 18, 2014, in competition at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival. The film also was screened at the 2014 Telluride Film Festival, and the AFI Film Festival, among others. Saban Films bought the film after Cannes for release, with Roadside Attractions joining to distribute the film in the U.S. EuropaCorp distributed the film abroad.[7][11] The film had a limited release in the United States on November 7, 2014.[12][13][1][14]

Critical response

[edit]

The Homesman received mostly positive reviews from critics, with particulars standing out being Swank's performance, the cinematography, score, and costumes. Rotten Tomatoes gave the film an 81% approval rating based on 148 reviews, with a rating average of 7.1/10. The site's consensus: "A squarely traditional yet somewhat progressive Western, The Homesman adds another absorbing entry to Tommy Lee Jones' directorial résumé".[15] Metacritic gives the film a score of 68/100 based on 43 critics, indicating generally favorable reviews.[16]

Betsy Sharkey of the Los Angeles Times wrote: "Swank and Jones, in particular, are a very good odd couple, playing saint and sinner, sometimes reversing the roles. What the directing side of Jones does best is to cede the spotlight to his star. He builds a strong platform for Swank to take on yet another woman who refuses to be bound by gender conventions".[17]

Andrew O'Hehir of Salon wrote: "Swank gives a magnificent performance as a woman whose calm and capable exterior cannot completely conceal her worsening desperation. In its unsentimental poetry, its stripped-down imagery and its unforgettable lead performances, 'The Homesman' is a ruthless Western classic ... cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto’s harsh, horizontal landscapes—like the haunting, unsettling score by Marco Beltrami—are anything but picturesque and reassuring, and serve to support a strikingly bleak portrait of life on the 19th-century American frontier".[18]

In contrast, Claudia Puig of USA Today wrote: "Set on the Great Plains in the mid-1800s, 'The Homesman' aims for a story that's poignant and told sparely, but comes across as mawkish, tedious and self-indulgent. Swank brings a gravitas to her character that is undermined when some of her antics are played for laughs. In a 10-minute cameo, Meryl Streep's character is more fully developed than any of the leads' roles. The story attempts to show how hard it was for women in the Old West, but it ends up being Jones' surly show".[19]

Accolades

[edit]
List of accolades received by The Homesman
Year Award Category Recipient(s) Result
2014 2014 Cannes Film Festival[5] Palme d'Or Tommy Lee Jones Nominated
Phoenix Film Critics Society Awards[20] Best Actress Hilary Swank Nominated
Best Actor Tommy Lee Jones Nominated
Boston Society of Film Critics Awards[21] Best Actress Hilary Swank Runner-up
San Diego Film Critics Society Awards[22] Best Actress Nominated
Women Film Critics Circle Awards[23][24] Best Movie About Women Nominated
Best Male Images in a Movie Nominated
Best Actor Tommy Lee Jones Nominated
Courage in Acting Award Hilary Swank Nominated
The Invisible Woman Award Nominated
Best Ensemble (Women's Work) Won
World Soundtrack Awards[25] Film Composer of The Year Marco Beltrami Nominated
International Film Music Critics Association[26] Composer of the Year Nominated
Best Original Score for a Drama Won
2015 Western Heritage Award Outstanding Theatrical Motion Picture The Javelina Film Company and Itacha Films Won
Spur Award[27] Best Western Drama Script Tommy Lee Jones, Kieran Fitzgerald, Wesley A. Oliver Won
Gradiva Award (NAAP) Best Film Director Tommy Lee Jones Nominated

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b Fleming, Mike (February 18, 2014). "Saban Films, Roadside Take Cannes Pic 'The Homesman'". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on July 5, 2014. Retrieved June 21, 2014.
  2. ^ "The Homesman (15)". British Board of Film Classification. August 26, 2014. Retrieved November 19, 2014.
  3. ^ "LUMIERE : Film: The Homesman". lumiere.obs.coe.int. Retrieved September 24, 2017.
  4. ^ a b "The Homesman (2014) - Financial Information". The-numbers.com. Retrieved May 29, 2017.
  5. ^ a b "2014 Official Selection". Cannes Film Festival. April 17, 2014. Archived from the original on May 2, 2014. Retrieved April 17, 2014.
  6. ^ McClintock, Pamela (May 22, 2014). "Cannes: Tommy Lee Jones' 'The Homesman' Goes to Saban Films in U.S." The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved May 29, 2017.
  7. ^ a b Tartaglione, Nancy (May 22, 2014). "Cannes: Saban Saddles Up North American Rights To Tommy Lee Jones' 'The Homesman'". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved May 29, 2017.
  8. ^ a b Adams, Thelma (November 16, 2014). "Interview: Hilary Swank stands tall, dives deep discussing 'The Homesman'". Thelmadams.com. Retrieved May 29, 2017. Ultimately (Jones) made a feminist movie and it shows his heart and how multi-faceted he truly is
  9. ^ D'Alessandro, Anthony (November 20, 2014). "The Biggest Outdoor Wind Harp In Malibu". Los Angeles Weekly. Archived from the original on November 29, 2014. Retrieved May 29, 2017.
  10. ^ Greiving, Tim (November 22, 2014). "In 'The Homesman,' Wind Is The Sound Of Insanity". Npr.org. Retrieved May 29, 2017.
  11. ^ "CANNES: How Tommy Lee Jones Financed 'The Homesman' (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. May 13, 2014. Retrieved December 30, 2023.
  12. ^ "The Homesman". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved December 30, 2023.
  13. ^ Chang, Justin; Keslassy, Elsa (April 17, 2014). "Cannes Film Festival: Official Selection Lineup Announced". Variety. Retrieved June 21, 2014.
  14. ^ Brueggemann, Tom (May 14, 2016). "Arthouse Audit: 'Foxcatcher' Strong, 'Rosewater' So-So, 'The Homesman' Modest". IndieWire. Retrieved May 29, 2017.
  15. ^ "The Homesman (2014)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved May 19, 2019.
  16. ^ "The Homesman Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved May 29, 2017.
  17. ^ "Review: Harsh land and raw, maddening emotion test 'The Homesman'". Los Angeles Times. November 13, 2014. Retrieved May 29, 2017.
  18. ^ O'Hehir, Andrew (November 14, 2014). ""The Homesman": Tommy Lee Jones and Hilary Swank are unforgettable in a ruthless, classic western". Salon.com. Retrieved May 29, 2017.
  19. ^ Puig, Claudia (November 13, 2014). "'Homesman' is a bunch of malarkey". USA Today. Retrieved May 29, 2017.
  20. ^ "Phoenix Film Critics Society nominees for 2014". AZ Central. December 9, 2014. Retrieved December 30, 2023.
  21. ^ Thompson, Anne (December 7, 2014). "'Boyhood' Picks Up Five Boston Film Critics Awards". IndieWire. Retrieved December 30, 2023.
  22. ^ "2014 San Diego Film Critics Award Nominations". sdfcs.org. December 11, 2014. Retrieved December 30, 2023.
  23. ^ "Women film critics hail 'Still Alice,' 'Selma,' 'Homesman' as 2014's best". UPI. December 14, 2014. Retrieved December 30, 2023.
  24. ^ "'The Homesman' leads 2014 Women Film Critics Circle nominations". Uproxx. December 14, 2014. Retrieved December 30, 2023.
  25. ^ "Nominees for World Soundtrack Awards". World Soundtrack Awards. August 12, 2014. Retrieved December 30, 2023.
  26. ^ "Marco Beltrami receives IFMCA Award for The Homesman". filmmusiccritics.org. July 24, 2015. Retrieved December 30, 2023.
  27. ^ "The Homesman screenplay Wins WWA Spur Award". PR Newswire. March 12, 2015. Retrieved December 30, 2023.
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