Tommy Lee Jones made two things clear at a Sunday press conference that followed the first screening of his film “The Homesman” at the Cannes Film Festival:
Yes, as Sasha Stone suggested in her review for TheWrap, it has a subtext about America’s expansionist policies and the historic subjugation of women.
But really, he’d rather let the movie do the talking.
Also read: Tommy Lee Jones’ ‘The Homesman’ Is Haunted by How the West Was Won
“The Homesman” is an unusual Western, to be sure. Its main character, played by Hilary Swank, is a 31-year-old unmarried woman who teams up with a drifter and ne’er-do-well (Jones) to deliver three women driven mad by harsh conditions on the American frontier to safer environs in the more “civilized” East.