Godless 2017

 

I don’t know about you, but sometimes I crave a good western. The sound of the horse’s hoofs, the big skies, the good guys and the bad, the determined women trying to make a go of it in these God forsaken places. The cowboys and  the Indians. This brilliant 7 part series from Scott Frank who this year gave us “The Queen’s Gambit” wrote and directed this startling original take on the Western with many twists and turns but keeping lots of the  points and references of westerns both in  truth and fiction that have filled our movie and tv screens since film began.

There are the usual stereotypes but here they get a whopping with respect and love, especially Native Americans who are treated with admiration and awe. I can’t say that I’ve always love Westerns, certainly not as a kid, I was more into comedies and musicals along with Hitchcock and mayhem and the Indians always scared me which was the purpose and point of those mean and racist depictions in the first place. That’s what brought in the kids at Saturday matiness, a rip roaring cowboy movie with the slaughter of Native Americans followed by cartoons. How The West Was Torn.

 I didn’t even like them on the tube except for the leading young actors who wore tight jeans and nice hats. But again the Indians were mean and cruel and the women were flat, simple and useless. As I grew up I realized that some of the Westerns were worth seeing for their poetry mainly supplied by the great director of the genre John Ford, who usually brought a sensitive touch to his Westerns even though many were still tinged by racist prejudice. The debate about Ford continues to this day. The series is rich with references to many Westerns of the past including “The Searchers” “Shane” and even “Seven Brides For Seven Brothers” but Frank opens his tent to include not only strong women, but people of color including a small community of former “Buffalo hunters” ex slaves who fought during the civil war and who have now set up an isolated community that is not very welcoming to outsiders. The main setting for the show is the town of La Belle that has been void of most of their men because of a terrible mining accident and is now inhabited by their widows and other women folk including a former prostitute who is now the school marm and her occasional female lover played superbly by the great Merritt Wever who won an Emmy for her performance. Her brother is the local sheriff  acted with great charm by Scoot McNairy widowed with 2 kids and is slowly going blind but his love is not blind for a local widowed female rancher played by Michelle Dockery yes that Michelle Dockery of Downton Abby who shares her life with her Indian spiritual mother in law Lyoui  and her half native son Truckee  who is played by Samuel Marty and is also marvelous.  Dockery is rough, and wounded, lovely and vulnerable and has a perfect American accent. Also in the white hat group is the terrific Thomas Brodie-Sangster as the sheriff’s lovable but pretty much clueless deputy, and you might recognize him from his role in “The Queen’s Gambit”.

 

Now if you are going to have a western you have to have some villains, and this show has one  the likes of which we have never seen before who roams the wild western reigning down buckets of hell, murder and violent deaths that might be hard for some to take, much less watch. Played with brilliant flair by Jeff Daniels who won a supporting Emmy award he is a patchwork quilt of every horror that we have dreamed of and maybe even more. With his nasty gang of killers and thieves they roam the land killing and burning as they go. They are hunted and hated of course and the series opens with one of the most horrific sequences I think I’ve ever seen. Daniels complicated character also has compassion for the less fortunate and it’s not easy to get our heads, and indeed our hearts and souls around this. He is also hunting down his young protégé Roy Goode who turns the tables on him and steals a lot of money from him and runs and hides on the ranch owned by Michelle Dockery. The handsome young man is played by another Brit Jack O’ Connell who also has a perfect American accent and a strange past that slowly comes out in flashbacks. Daniels who lost an arm by getting it shot and amputated carries it around with him until it is rotten beyond belief, two of his young horrors are evils who massacre their own family. These two fucks are played by real life brothers Russell Dennis Louis and Mathew Dennis Louis, and these Devlin boys are the devil. You might also recognize them from The Queen’s Gambit. There are other abominations but you should see them for yourself along with a shoot out to end all shoot outs. The cinematography is breathtaking, has anything as beautiful as this series ever been seen on television?