Three women who have been driven mad by pioneer life are to be transported across the country by covered wagon by the pious, independent-minded Mary Bee Cuddy, who in turn employs low-life d... Read allThree women who have been driven mad by pioneer life are to be transported across the country by covered wagon by the pious, independent-minded Mary Bee Cuddy, who in turn employs low-life drifter George Briggs to assist her.Three women who have been driven mad by pioneer life are to be transported across the country by covered wagon by the pious, independent-minded Mary Bee Cuddy, who in turn employs low-life drifter George Briggs to assist her.
- Awards
- 5 wins & 14 nominations
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaGlendon Swarthout's novel was published in 1988. Paul Newman owned the rights, and wanted to direct the film himself. After several failed scripts, he gave up.
- GoofsDuring the Indian attack, every shot of the carriage has mountains in the background. The road from Nebraska to Iowa is nowhere near any mountains.
- Quotes
Tabitha Hutchinson: Who is Mary Bee Cuddy?
George Briggs: Mary Bee Cuddy was as fine a woman as ever walked. You'll never know her.
Tabitha Hutchinson: Well then, so what?
George Briggs: Oh. You are the living breathing reason she will never be lost. That's what I'm talkin'.
Tabitha Hutchinson: You're a strange man.
George Briggs: I expect I am. Why don't we marry?
Tabitha Hutchinson: Maybe.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Film '72: Episode dated 19 November 2014 (2014)
- SoundtracksRosalie The Prairie Flower
Music & Lyrics by George Frederick Root (as George Fredrick Root)
Performed by Hilary Swank
The Homesman is an emotionally and powerful, idea-rich, almost humorless story -- with an immense amount of humor. It has very tight, economic tale telling with no fat on the bone; in which much is implied, historical accuracy hits its target by nuance, and the story itself is deeply respectful of an intelligent audience.
The Homesman is not "entertainment" in the haha, shoot-'em-up Western sense. It's realism committed to a moral cause -- criticism of the disenfranchised, the homeless, the people who cannot make it no matter how hard they try. It has a brilliant sense of time and place that tells the life stories of dozens of hard-enduring, long-suffering "forgotten men" -- the women no less than the men.
The key heartbreaker is Hilary Swank's character of Miss Mary Bee Cuddy. She's born into a Western frontier world where she and everyone else believes and practices that "No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God." Hard workers and decent people. But tragically that is not enough. Why? The Homesman leaves that question deliciously unanswered. Life is not fair. God is not just.
Beautifully The Homesman does -- kind of -- answer life's problems with the value of sheer vitality and gutsiness itself. Thus that key visual motif in the movie that comes from: George Caleb Bingham, "The Jolly Flatboatmen". We must dance the dance of life, however mad.
- jdeureka
- Jul 19, 2014
- How long is The Homesman?Powered by Alexa
Details
Box office
- Budget
- $16,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $2,429,989
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $45,433
- Nov 16, 2014
- Gross worldwide
- $3,819,421
- Runtime2 hours 2 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 2.39 : 1