Ti West began his career as an independent filmmaker in the early 2000s, slowly climbing the industry ranks to become more mainstream. Although firmly steeped in the low-budget horror genre early in his career, West has graduated to bigger-budget commercial projects, including cable TV shows The Exorcist, The Resident, and most recently, the X trilogy. While steeped in the horror genre, the most off-brand movie West has made thus far in his career is the 2016 western In A Valley of Violence, starring Ethan Hawke and John Travolta.
Although In A Valley of Violence is inspired by several movie westerns, in 2014, West professed his undying admiration for a little-known western called The Homesman, directed by and starring Tommy Lee Jones. To trace the dramatic roots of In a Valley of Violence, it’s worth exploring what drew West to The Homesman, why he feels it’s such a great must-see movie, and perhaps most importantly, how movies about frontier life must return to making audiences feel uncomfortable like The Homesman is unafraid to do.
Who Is Ti West?
Ti West is an American filmmaker who has cut his teeth in horror since the early 2000s. After a pair of horror shorts, West made his feature film debut with the stylish creature feature The Roost in 2005. In 2009, West’s profile was raised considerably with the release of House of the Devil, a retro slow-burn Satanic cult outing, and Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever, a hyper-gory sequel that he eventually removed his name from following studio interference. In 2011, West made the underrated haunted house film The Innkeepers before helming multiple segments in various horror anthologies.
In 2015, West transitioned to television and away from horror. Episodic stints on South of Hell, Wayward Pines, Outcast, Chambers, The Passage, Soundtrack, and Tales From the Loop, followed suit. In 2016, West made the Western revenge film In a Valley of Violence before returning to the horror genre with the X trilogy, including X, Pearl, and MaXXXine. Despite being known for horror, West’s affinity for Westerns, and Tommy Lee Jones’s The Homesman, in particular, inspired him to become a better and more mature filmmaker.
What Is The Homesman About?
Adapted from the Glendon Swarthout novel, The Homesman is a historical Western drama written and directed by Tommy Lee Jones. The title refers to the transportation of immigrants back to their homes, which, in the 1850s, was deemed a man’s job. However, the story follows Mary Bee Cuddy (Hilary Swank), a childless teacher from New York venturing to Nebraska for better living conditions after she is rejected for marriage. In the Midwest, Mary encounters three immigrant women suffering from madness and mental illness and agrees to escort them back to their homes, braving the harsh winter, bleak conditions, and rough land.
Before the pilgrimage, Mary meets George Briggs (Jones), an outlaw who agrees to assist her in escorting the three women in exchange for $300. A prickly skepticism between the two slowly grows into a mutual trust, with George vowing to protect Mary and ensure she completes her task. Alas, the movie delivers a brutal blow to viewers when Mary and George argue over giving a proper burial to a slain child whose grave was desecrated. George disagrees, forges ahead with the immigrant women, and leaves Mary behind.
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After getting lost for two nights, riding in circles on horseback, Mary reunites with George and asks him to marry her. George declines, saying he “ain’t no farmer” who can provide the life she desires. The next day, George finds Mary dead in a shocking act of suicide via hanging. George blames her death on the immigrant women and briefly abandons them, only to realize what a disservice he is doing to Mary’s memory and returns to complete his mission.
Without spoiling the emotionally moving resolution, Jones’ decision to kill off what audiences believe is the main character is as bold a move as a filmmaker can make. It calls to mind Hitchcock killing off Janet Leigh in Psycho halfway through the movie, forcing audiences to align themselves with a new protagonist. Despite its bleak subject, The Homesman is throwback filmmaking at its finest. While Ti West has additional praise for The Homesman, the gritty, unflinching realism of 19th-century prairie life inspired his own brutal western.
How The Homesman Inspired Ti West
When promoting the cult-suicide film The Sacrament in 2014, West penned a lengthy essay extolling the virtues of The Homesman. The first thing West praises about The Homesman is its approach to “reality filmmaking,” which is less interested in opening weekend box office success and more interested in telling honest and authentic stories. According to West via Talk House:
“The Homesman
reminds us of the unpleasant, oppressive challenges men and women faced in our country’s history, but also that most modern filmmaking does not usually look to engage an audience beyond their basic threshold of ‘entertainment.'”
West admires how the Tommy Lee Jones movie is unafraid to make viewers uncomfortable, putting them into a vicarious bind that fosters empathy rather than fun, escapist entertainment, adding:
”
The Homesman
is the type of American filmmaking we should be celebrating. Filmmaking that does not conform to current trends.
Filmmaking that focuses firmly on the story and the characters it represents, and does not attempt to make extra appeals to its audience
. Respectfully, Tommy Lee Jones is not looking for an easier way to tell a difficult story. For better or worse, these are the people, places and situations this film is about — and the audience can deal with that as they see fit.”
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In West’s estimation, The Homesman‘s “traditional moviemaking, where cinema is art, and where deliberate storytelling is the most important,” is the “type of American filmmaking that we should be celebrating.” Not just for its honest approach to its dramatic storytelling and for treating audiences as mature adults, but for the melancholy Jones elicits in foreshadowing the role of women in American society. West says:
“Things will get better for women in American society, but for those depicted in the film, and for many generations following, they will suffer and, sadly, never see the results. This is par for the course whenever history is viewed without rose-tinted glasses, but
the sense of melancholy with which the film is infused feels pertinent
.”
While West’s In a Valley of Violence features a different story and depiction of women along the American frontier, casting for the film was completed in July 2014, four months before West wrote about The Homesman. Given the same approach to telling an uncompromising story and the timing of the movie’s production, it’s easy to see how The Homesman inspired West to explore his version of the American frontier. The real question becomes whether Ti West will remain in the horror realm or return to the Western genre.
The Homesman is available to stream on Starz & In a Valley of Violence is available to stream on AppleTV.
