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Tommy Lee Jones in new controversial movie about U.S. history

Shaka Zulu

Shaka Zulu

Commodore
Commodore
The movie's called The Homesman, and it's based on a novel by Glendon Swarthout about a woman (Hillary Swank) who hires a 'homesman' (Jones) to help her take three mentally ill women back to Iowa for treatment. Jones was the prime mover in getting this movie made, and he says it will touch on American imperialism, in particular the concept of Manifest Destiny that was prevalent in the mid-19th century America of the story's setting. No surprise, because of the film's content, he couldn't get backing from a major or minor U.S. studio, a detail that the article focused on; he had to get it from a French company called Europa Corp.

Tommy Lee Jones in new controversial movie about U.S. history

Personally, I will be seeing this movie just for the story as much as for what the article mentions, if not more.
 
Wait, this is controversial? The US has a very dark past. It's wrong to ignore that, especially since the thinking pattern is still prevailing to this day.




And it's wrong to take a movie as history lesson.
 
There are plenty of US studio films and television programs dealing with the crimes committed during western expansion under Manifest Destiny either peripherally or as the main subject, so I don't really buy the idea that it couldn't get made here solely because of that being the subject matter.
 
I saw the trailer a while back and didn't think there was anything controversial about it. Make Russell Crowe and Jennifer Lawrence the leads and bigger studios would've gone for it.
 
I'm pretty sure the reason it was passed by American studios is because it just sounds boring more than any so-called "controversy" about it.
 
Locutus of Bored said:
There are plenty of US studio films and television programs dealing with the crimes committed during western expansion under Manifest Destiny either peripherally or as the main subject, so I don't really buy the idea that it couldn't get made here solely because of that being the subject matter.
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According to the article, Jones did have problems in getting the move made here; no domestic studio/distributor would touch it, so he had to go to Europa Corp to have it made and financed. As for the other past movies mentioned, all that can be said is that those were different days, and different companies with a different mindset; for example, Soldier Blue wouldn't likely be green-lit today (even by smaller companies like Lionsgate and E1) for reasons related to profitability and subject matter; obviously, that's what's happened to Jones and this movie. BTW, many people in the article's comments section have implied that the making of sci-fi/fantasy/superhero movies, popular youth-orientated comedies, remakes and the not making films like this one by the domestic studios are one and the same:

lardheppus • 11 hours ago
Hardly surprising Hollywood wasn't interested. They're more interested in comic book adaptations for the kiddies.

P J Evans-->lardheppus • 11 hours ago
Remakes of previous films.

lardheppus-->P J Evans • 11 hours ago
God thingy forbid it should be anything original, or cater to an audience with an IQ above room temperature...Celsius.
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sojourner said:
Wait, so how did Dances with Wolves ever get made?
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As I said above, probably different time and mindset (in that case, Kevin Costner being a big young bankable star with the power to make the film he wanted and being able to make that film at Orion, which was known for taking chances much like United Artists did, helped considerably.) These days, Hollywood doesn't seem to want to make movies that question American values with regards to the mentioning of Manifest Destiny (even E1/Summit probably turned him down.)
 
Shaka Zulu said:
As I said above, probably different time and mindset (in that case, Kevin Costner being a big young bankable star with the power to make the film he wanted and being able to make that film at Orion, which was known for taking chances much like United Artists did, helped considerably.) These days, Hollywood doesn't seem to want to make movies that question American values with regards to the mentioning of Manifest Destiny (even E1/Summit probably turned him down.)
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Yeah, not really. Then there's Hell on Wheels.

More than likely the major Hollywood studios turned it down because westerns in general aren't that popular/money makers.
 
^Take it with the grain of salt that the article's bias is left-wing in nature, and that the writer believes that the movie industry didn't ever want to make movies that question U.S. society or history.
 
sojourner said:
More than likely the major Hollywood studios turned it down because westerns in general aren't that popular/money makers.
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This.

When even a Johnny Depp "superhero" Western, directed by the guy who made "Pirates of the Caribbean" bombs, Hollywood is going to avoid the genre like the plague.
 
What I want to see that would be super-controversial is an honest film about Christopher Colombus.

We got a couple films kind of like that from Herzog over the years, such as Cobra Verde and Fitzcarraldo, but nothing directly about Colombus.
 
Shaka Zulu said:
^Take it with the grain of salt that the article's bias is left-wing in nature, and that the writer believes that the movie industry didn't ever want to make movies that question U.S. society or history.
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That writer isn't very knowledgable about the movie business then.

Hollywood would make a movie that questions US society or history, if they could make money from it.

There's a reason why studios prefer to make big blockbusters, even though they are more expensive, they bring in a TON of cash. In the US, overseas, there's merchandise, etc.

There's no merchandise for this movie.

The movie didn't get backing because there's not enough money in making it. That's probably the prime reason.
 
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