The Homesman (2014)

I love this movie so much

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

What do actors do when they are bored yet want to indulge their passion. They produce a movie that no one else would touch because it offers no real storyline, no pleasantness, no hope; in fact this movie is a journey into the abyss. There is nothing outstanding about anyone's performance in this movie. Don't waste your life watching.

I don't doubt that there is an important message of history in this film. But, I couldn't get past the disturbing imagery to see it. Within the first fifteen minutes or so, a woman is raped by a man who commands her to give him a son as he violates her, then another woman throws a live crying infant into the toilet to die.I have a capacity for empathy, so that all really bothered me to see. I wonder if they aren't playing to a number audience, resorting to such forceful means to get a point across. Speaking personally, they wouldn't have needed such force to move me. As is, I had to stop watching. It made me wonder what the value might be of a film's message when it's presented in such a disturbing way that people don't want to see it. I mean, if I were in a theater, I would definitely have walked out. There's no question about that. Whatever message this has to impart is not worth disturbing myself so much to reach.Perhaps this was intended for another audience? That's all I can think. To those like myself who are moved by things without the need for such graphic imagery, this would be one to stay away from. From what I've read, it doesn't get better later on in the film.

I honestly thought the pair of them did pretty good performances as their characters. Mind you, I thought this movie was really sad because their characters were bringing three women who weren't able to look after themselves anymore and Swank's character commits suicide. The fact,Tommy Lee Jones' character got a customised grave head from the town he bought the three women in and then an ignorant man pushed it through the river, made it really gut wrenching. I wish that wasn't including in the ending, I would've rathered if we saw him jump into the river and got it even if he was suppose to be drunk. That would've been a better ending than that to be honest.....At least he got the three women safe and sound with Meryl Streep's character despite their horrible journey.This movie was well done but very very sad, I give this a rating of 8/10!!!!!!!!!!

Released in 2014 and directed by Tommy Lee Jones, "The Homesman" stars Hillary Swank as a single pious woman living on the Nebraskan prairie. After saving a drifter from the gallows (Jones) they team-up to escort three mentally ill women to Iowa. Can they survive the journey? The three crazy women are played by Grace Gummer, Miranda Otto and Sonja Richter. James Spader and Meryl Streep have glorified cameos.This is NOT a rousing Western in the least. It's a bleak portrayal of the hard life on the plains during the 1850s, similar in tone to 1972's "Bad Company" and 2015's "The Revenant, but without the latter's breathtaking mountain cinematography.The story's engaging despite the mandatory mundaneness, but it loses points for being so dismal and occasionally nigh shocking (you'll know what I mean), but it's not always downbeat. The movie's acutely realistic, but mixed with an almost surrealistic episode that takes away from the believability, but this can be overlooked on the grounds that what happens is a type of hellish perdition of the arrogant.The theme is the contrast of the primeval West and the civilized East. The West is so harsh that it drives some people mad and they must flee back East for succor. Survival in the West takes everything you have whereas the East is so comfortable that pompous pettiness manifests as a social staple (e.g. the women gossiping in the Iowa town). The Mississippi River (or Missouri River) is the separation point of the two worlds. See below for further commentary.I did find it hard to believe that Mary Bee (Swank) would have a hard time finding a husband. Sure, her face isn't conventionally beautiful, but she has a smoking body (and she ain't even my type).The movie runs 122 minutes and was shot in New Mexico and Lumpkin, Georgia.GRADE: Borderline B/B- (6.5/10 Stars) SUBTEXTUAL INSIGHTS *** SPOILER ALERT *** The ferry boat is a transition from West to East and explains Briggs transition from primitive carnal man to civilized man with a conscience when he crosses over. Notice that he doesn't do the same thing to the gambling house that rejects him that he did to the hotel when he was on the other side.The wooden tombstone he intends to put on Mary Bee's grave as he crosses back to the West is kicked overboard as a symbol that, in returning to the West, he was returning to his old self and would not continue with the idea to make Mary Bee's grave "proper," as she did for a stranger's child.Mary Bee was a strong woman, but she didn't belong in the West because she was too civilized with her strong Christian moral code; and that's why it ultimately killed her.