Taraparain Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

Griff Lees Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

Freeman This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

headhunter46 I grabbed this off the shelf at the rental store just because it had Tommy in it.It is NOT your typical western. It is NOT a feel good movie.I really had to think about what to write here, it was hard for me because this movie is so different. At one point I said, "Forget it".The movie opens with a woman plowing with two mules. We are introduced to a hardy single woman named Mary Bee Cuddy. She has a very nice homestead with sturdy buildings, a secure home and several animals. I still am curious why it didn't tell us how she managed that but it is not critical to what follows. Life on the prairie can drive you mad. The harshness, the lack of rain so no food grows, the animals you depended on die, what's a person to do? For some, it meant a broken spirit and just retreating into a catatonic state. For others it became lashing out and snarling like a wild animal.Three of the wives in the vicinity have gone mad and need to be transported to a place where they can be cared for. Mary Bee Cuddy steps up and offers to make the 4-5 week trip over harsh terrain and God knows what kind of weather or hostile people one might meet in 1850's Nebraska. This being since none of the men were willing to do it.She finds Briggs on a horse, noose about the neck left for dead by vigilantes. She convinces him he must help her transport the three women or she will leave him where he is. Thus begins a strained, unusual partnership. They endure cold nights and run out of food. It is not explained why they didn't pack more food, so that is a bit of a plot hole but it adds to a situation later on. Briggs is rebuffed by the owner of a hotel where he pleads for mercy on the woman, just some food and one nights stay. But they have wealthy investors coming so no, they must leave. Briggs goes back for food late and night and wreaks a horrid vengeance on the heartless owner.Briggs mentions he was the army, talks of Kiowa raids that ran off about 300 horses. So they tracked the Kiowa down, killed all of them and stampeded the horses through the Kiowa village most likely killing women and children. Briggs doesn't mention women and children but we suspect it happened. Later we learn he stole a horse and deserted. Even though he is a crusty, rugged man, we are left wondering if the stampede was too much for his conscience. Later he risks his life approaching a band of Native Americans who have rifles and bows. Knowing they are greatly out numbered he walks toward them with a horse and offers it in the hope they will leave satisfied. Prior to that, he gave his six shot pistol to Mary and told her to get in the wagon with the three women. If the native people do not accept his offer, she is to shoot the other women and then herself to spare them from possible torture. You seldom see that in a western. But it is another reminder of how harsh life was back then.They have numerous trials, ups and downs, and after a situation hard to comprehend, Mary Bee Cuddy hangs herself. As Tommy is digging her grave he is constantly ranting at the three "crazy women" which gives us a bit of insight as to what happened to Mary. It really jolts the viewer to have such a turn of events. Mary was so strong, so independent we came to imagine her going home to become an exceptionally successful lady.Briggs finally makes it to the place in Iowa where he leaves the three women. He buys a very nice tombstone for Mary which demonstrates his deep respect for her. The early Briggs would have ridden away with no thought, the same as he ripped the buffalo hide off the dead Native American who was wrapped and placed on a platform. He buys a pair of shoes for a barefoot young lady who works at the hotel where he was staying. As he heads back across the river on a raft, his tombstone for Mary gets pushed off and disappears. We see him dancing to banjo music and the movie ends.We are left with so many questions. Did he chase after the tombstone? Not likely, it was dark the odds of him finding it are slim.Did he return to her homestead? Not likely, he said he had no patience for farming. Then it occurred to me he left the mules with the pastors wife.But there he was dancing away as if he had not one care in the world. Did he simply return to being a vagabond? We'll never know.Again it is NOT a feel good movie, it makes you ask questions, it shows you how hard life was in the early days of the west. Some people will shut this off after only a few minutes because it doesn't fit the usual pattern, but if you are patient and keep watching, waiting for the plot to develop you just might gain some insight into the human mind and why people do the things they do.

elissamoeller This is literally the worst movie I've ever seen. If you want to see babies and godly women dying, definitely watch this. Women are getting raped. Babies are thrown down the toilet. Horses are eaten. The only reasonable woman hangs herself. This movie is 2 hours of "shock value", and by that I mean desperate for attention, IQ lower than room temperature. I will say that this is the best I've ever seen Hilary Swank do. But I will actually never ever watch another movie by or starring Tommy Lee Jones. The old man just had to write in himself getting laid by a 20 something, before having her kill herself. He is just a sick, perverted old man looking for attention before he dies. Also, why do I have to write 10 lines? First time I've ever reviewed a movie, but this was so terrible I just had to.

alan-nutter This is a short comment to warn of a very disturbing scene in the first 15 minutes of this movie. It's a scene that'll stay with me for the next few days at least, I suspect and one I'll always think of if the subject of this film ever comes up going forward. If you can get past this, however, there is an otherwise decent, if mostly bleak, movie to be found. I say mostly because there are also some uplifting messages here if you look for them. Personally, I'm glad I watched it, but it certainly won't be for everyone. I marked these comments as a spoiler to be safe, although I've deliberately tried to write them so as not to give too much away.

Wuchak 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.