The film follows these full events behind a set of secrets where women become heroes but also victims of darkness and mystery. It is a different and unique experience without any director, so kindness is so frightening that people compare it to abstaining from the forgotten folk song that resonates everywhere.
A stubbornly uncommercial and richly challenging inversion of Americana, this time with an eye towards the pioneer women pushed to the margins of our history books.
A fair portion of Tommy Lee's life has been dedicated to telling stories about schlepping variously incapacitated or dead people long distances through the Wild West.
With his sophomore effort, The Homesman, Jones gives us a revisionist Western that defies expectations at every turn. It's a genuine art film in the vein of Aussie productions like The Proposition.
As the protagonists near their final destination, The Homesman offers a critique of civilization that's almost as pessimistic as its critique of frontier life, suggesting that in every corner of America there have always been more losers than winners.
If Jones wants to become a great director of a dying genre, he cannot simply hope to mimic what the masters did. He must instead explore the meaning of each image he creates.
Swank, an Oscar winner for "Boys Don't Cry" and "Million Dollar Baby," is outstanding, getting to the essence of Mary Bee's pride and pain. And in the showier role, Jones impressively peels away layers of rambunctiousness to reveal George's humanity.
If 'The Homesman' proves anything, it's that there's no movie that can't get a shot in the arm from a couple scenes of Tommy Lee Jones hollerin' and dancin'.
Parts of The Homesman are a slog to sit through, but the movie ends on a note of absurd comedy that also breaks your heart, suggesting that some people, no matter the circumstances, are incapable of change.