Review of The Homesman (2014) by Tom F — 14 Dec 2014

Americans (with the help of that French dude Luc Besson) make the awesomest movies sometimes. Homesman is packed with american stars, and a lovely story that I don't even know how to describe;.

Plot: Cannot be quantified intellectually; but the theme or the hidden moral creeps into your soul starting with amazing static shots of some New Mexico weed strewn horizon, the hills and clouds seems to shout; sit back and wait for this little page-turner. HOMESMAN, soooo classy and quirky and brave! Hilary is mysterious, inspired, bossy, heroic, and not even tragic but hungry for the truth-even to slump over her horse all night to sees herself again, as through a mirror, a film within a film: a child she buried, probably the actual climax of the movie.

Theme: As we watch in our goofy 21 century clothes, (a very grateful audience by the way-awkward and spooky-laughs at the right times, and utter quietness in the theatre) It is almost like we are flipping through pages, a family album of our own; ancestors are eking out the pain, crying out, the under-story of sexual abuse,slavery, "natives lost" wearing a women's dress, and painted as ghosts- a foreshadow of ghost dance to come as spoken of in wounded knee, Black Elk Speaks etc... Faith in the country, Faith in God, or faith in the dirt, our ancestors walked on:

My take: "In my case my Danish Grandma Seena and her two sisters came out in search of mormanism, is how my own written story goes, a straggler in the group was kidnapped by indians..." the family history-1862 reads, HOMESMAN has these "Bergmanesque" Virgin Spring type flashbacks, of a Norske fAMILY of one of the battered, bruised women being saved by T Lee Jones character. I just hope I had Swanks honesty and compassion, heroes like that in my past... Her face carries the Pain of Native american and beauty that is inexplicable. No makeup required, even M Streep is makeup-less and in one instant she is severe, and all forgiving-just like a disease that takes the living spark from an iris in my eye. Like I have died and gone to heaven already...

Summary: It is a lovely and painful true-story of our past, as narrated by some surviving amoeba, the way Darwinian dice land on the hard pews of a English/western propped up-church-like too bad for you, life is tough, or alien no-name silent film director, a director that is saying, "Respect our past, and those that came West, the trail is paved in blood, and a noose waits for you, and a sleazy salesmen pawning off women, poker, and land, and a fat pig with a cooked apple in it's mouth".

Recommendation: I know my ancestors cried through me, and through the beautiful face of HS, and T Lee Jones wild heel kicking interpretation, shooting, dancin, and hollerin' across the Missouri... I would see this movie again and again.