BEFORE: I could have watched this one last week, in between "Just Getting Started" with Tommy Lee Jones and "2 Days in the Valley" with James Spader - it would have fit fine there, and maybe I did have it scheduled there at one point. But moving it to HERE allows me to continue in a direction that gets me closer to my Thanksgiving film chain, which will start on Sunday, 2 films from now. Getting closer to the end of Movie Year 15 with each film, only 12 left on the docket after tonight.
Hilary Swank carries over from "Fatale".
THE PLOT: Three women who have been driven mad by pioneer life are to be transported across the country in a covered wagon by independent-minded Mary Bee Cuddy, who in turn employs low-life drifter George Briggs to assist her.
AFTER: There's stuff that they just don't teach you in U.S. History class, where 1800's America is portrayed as a land full of opportunity, manifest destiny and all that - as new states kept getting added to the Union, the chances for people to make their mark increased, or so we're told. John Jacob Astor made money from the fur trade up in Canada, other people invested in land where the railroads needed to be built, others found gold at Sutter's Mill in California, others later drilled for oil in Texas. Or you just needed to pick a location and get out there and work the land, surely good fortune would come your way, it's the land of opportunity, after all!
But there must have been a fair amount of losers along the way, too - you just can't have everyone being successful and rich, then nothing would have any value, plus who would work at the menial labor jobs, etc. Capitalism and the free market dictate that whoever got there first, like in the Oklahoma Land Rush, had the CHANCE to be successful - only the chance was guaranteed, not the success itself. So there must have been people who bought the land where the railroad DIDN'T go, people who made it out to Sutter's Mill only to find all the gold was already found, and people who drilled for oil in Texas and couldn't find any. History is written by the winners, and we don't ever think too much about the losers.
This is a film that definitely shows there WERE losers, people who left their cities on the East Coast to strike it rich in Nebraska (or Iowa, or Oklahoma, etc.) and things then just didn't go their way for whatever reason. You could buy up land for a farm, for example, but then you had no control over the weather, the availability of good farmhands, or seed, and then there were cattle rustlers or bandits or claim jumpers or other no-goodniks ready to mess with your success. And then even if you DID produce a bumper crop of something, how the hell were you going to get your crops back to the people in the cities that wanted your corn? Or maybe you grew corn and so did all your neighbors, and there's a glut on the market, so the value goes down?
So maybe you came all the way out to Nebraska and you find that it's a lot harder than you thought it would be. Or you can't find good help, anyone willing to work, or even someone to marry you just to make your life on the farm a little easier and more bearable. That's what happens to Mary Bee Cuddy in this film, the men will come to her house and eat dinner, but that's as far as they're willing to take things, to be platonic companions, because they don't happen to find her attractive, they'd rather import a wife from back East. Maybe Mary shouldn't propose on the first date, just saying, that's not really how you landed a husband back then. Or was it? I have no idea. Maybe they just found her weird because she played a piano that was not real, just a design on fabric - save that for the second date, that's all. Also, she's too bossy and independent for these men that she's proposing to - their words, not mine. But she's 31 and desperate, practically a spinster by 1850's standards.
Other women were having an even tougher time - one lost three children to disease, another killed her own child because her family was so close to starving, and a third was abused by her husband and had to deal with the death of her mother. Then on top of that, the isolation on the prairie and a very tough winter made all three mentally unstable - they can barely speak, and they all need a check-up from the neck up, so the local Reverend determines they need to be sent to a church in Iowa that cares for the mentally ill. The delivery job should have been done by one of their husbands, but Ms. Cuddy took one man's place in the lottery when he refused to participate. Her name gets chosen, but she'll only do it if she has help, and she finds it by rescuing George Briggs from a noose, he was sentenced to hanging for living in the house of the guy who wouldn't marry Ms. Cuddy. Hey, it's a small town after all.
Cuddy tells Briggs she's mailed his fee on to Iowa, so he has to make it to the end of the journey if he's going to get paid - and his fighting skills come in handy when one of the insane women gets kidnapped, and his knowledge of the Native American trails and customs also saves them along the way. They do make a good team, but Cuddy pulls out the old marriage proposal again, and Briggs also says no. You'd think she'd be used to rejection by now, but she doesn't take it well. Briggs didn't turn her down because of her looks, though, he just didn't see himself as the farming type. Still, that was apparently one rejection too many for Cuddy.
There are a few more twists and turns to the plot, but I'm going to stop there - you'll have to watch the film to find out if these travelers make it to Iowa or not. But just remember this is not necessarily a story about the winners in history, the focus here is on the people who couldn't cut it as pioneers. Look, I think this is 100% accurate, I know if I ever left New York City and moved to the Midwest, I'd probably go certifiably insane, too. Like, what do you DO in Nebraska, seriously, even today? Grow corn, watch college football, read books? It sounds horrible, I'm not going. I've visited Texas, Tennessee, Arkansas, Georgia and the Carolinas over the last few years, but after a few days down South, I can't wait to come home. Nice places to visit, and I dig the food, but I can also get good BBQ in NYC.
This film has a sizable cast, however most actors outside the two mains and the three insane women are only in the film for a few minutes each, so essentially everyone from Meryl Streep and John Lithgow to James Spader, Hailee Steinfeld and Tim Blake Nelson are in cameo roles. It sure makes my linking easier to deal with such a large cast, but if you're a Jesse Plemons fan, say, be aware he's only in the film for a minute or two, as nearly everyone is.
Also starring Tommy Lee Jones (last seen in "Just Getting Started"), Grace Gummer (last seen in "Jenny's Wedding"), Miranda Otto (last seen in "Downhill"), Sonja Richter, Meryl Streep (last seen in "Don't Look Up"), John Lithgow (last seen in "De Palma"), James Spader (last seen in "2 Days in the Valley"), Hailee Steinfeld (last seen in "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse"), Caroline Lagerfelt (last seen in "I'll See You in My Dreams"), Tim Blake Nelson (last seen in "Nightmare Alley"), Jesse Plemons (last seen in "Antlers"), William Fichtner (last seen in "Equilibrium"), David Dencik (last seen in "No Time to Die"), Barry Corbin (last seen in "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas"), Evan Jones (last seen in "Den of Thieves"), Jo Harvey Allen (last seen in "Tapeheads"), Karen Jones (last seen in "Boyhood"), Brian Kennedy, Rick Irwin, Richard Andrew Jones (last seen in "Bernie"), Austin Leonard Jones, Lila Brock, Jesi Mandagaran, Autumn Shields
RATING: 6 out of 10 buffalo skins
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