"The Homesman" (2014) Trivia Quiz

Answer: Nebraska

The card reads: "Territoire du Nebraska".

The surnames of the many characters are Briggs, Cuddy, Sours, Belknapp, Svendsen, etc. The card is written in the French language. None of the names seem to hail from a French origin.

One could assume the card is written in French because the territory of Nebraska was originally part of the Louisiana Purchase.

Mary Bee and many others in the area are considered "sodbusters." They are early western farmers in a wild and untamed area.

Answer: Almost hanged

Briggs is tied to a noose on horseback and left for dead by other claim owners. He is accused of being a claim-jumper. He had assumed ownership of someone else's claim and squatted on their land, consumed their resources, and moved into their home. Briggs said he was just assuming ownership of an abandoned claim.

Mary Bee cuts him loose from the noose with an axe, under the agreement that he must fulfill a "job of work" for her.

Answer: Diphtheria

Mrs. Sours carried her three lost children outside and buried them in hay. After this tragic event, she secluded herself to a chair by a window and stared outside, unconscious of her surroundings. She has a blonde-haired doll she constantly holds and strokes.

We only hear her speak one word repeatedly throughout the movie: "Goodbye".

Answer: Buffalo Hide

Mary Bee accuses Briggs of defiling and desecrating the grave. He responds by saying: "I don't wanna be cold anymore when I'm trying to sleep. I need this buffalo hide. That dead Indian don't".

Later on in their journey, Mary Bee and Briggs are stopped by living Indians. They signal their interest in the wagon by playing dull tones on a bugle. The misplayed notes invoke fear and mystery into our travelers. Briggs offers Mary Bee's horse to the Indians as a buy-off. The Indians excitingly accept the offer and ride away. Mary Bee's curiosity of what will become of the horse is satisfied by Briggs' blunt answer: "They'll probably eat her".

Answer: "Why didn't you light a fire for me?"

She takes a horse, a saddle, and a shovel to tidy up the grave. She is willingly left behind by Briggs.

She, afterwards, is lost on the plains for at least one day.

Upon her return, Briggs asks: "Where's that shovel?".

She accuses him of being: "Insane!".

Briggs informs her that he is only interested in delivering the three women and getting his $300.

This small scene is probably the best acting in the movie, at least for Swank.

Answer: The three crazy women

He blames the completely unresponsive women. He tells them if they had not lost their minds, Mary Bee would still be alive in her own house, on her own land.

As Briggs digs Mary Bee's grave he does so with a bucket and pickaxe. The shovel could have come in useful after all.

Near the end of the film, Briggs purchases an engraved marker for Cuddy's final resting place.

Answer: False

Briggs tries to leave the women, but they follow him. Mrs. Sours almost gets swept away crossing a river. Briggs saves her with a lasso and the other two women join them midstream. It is quite a touching moment seeing the foursome tread up the river arm-in-arm.

From this moment on, Briggs is dedicated and determined to see their journey through to the end. He continues, knowing there is no paycheck for him at the end of the mission. He has already found money in Mary Bee's bag, including his $300 she said was mailed to Iowa for him to pick up at the end of their journey.

He, in a sense, becomes a father figure.

Answer: No

The owner, Aloysius Duffy (James Spader), says he cannot accommodate because he has potential investors coming in from St. Louis. The hotel is "full up", yet vacant. He uses snide language like: "milk of human kindness be damned". He also says: "lament you neglected my offering a whiskey".

The 'milk of human kindness' remark is taken from Shakespeare's "Macbeth". Briggs' request for accommodation requires too much care or compassion from Duffy, as was the same for Lady Macbeth in the context of the play.

Briggs curses Duffy and his men for their apathy.

Later in the evening, Briggs returns to the hotel and burns it down with the men still inside. He takes a baked pig with an apple in its mouth from the kitchen.

Answer: True Grit

Hailee Steinfeld plays Tabitha Hutchinson. Briggs buys her a pair of shoes and comically suggests they marry. He also tells her she should not leave the civility of a comfortable town and head west to work a claim that has not already been built.

Steinfeld played Mattie Ross in the Cohen Brothers' 2010 remake of "True Grit".

Mary Bee Cuddy's character is very similar to Mattie Ross' personality in her head-strong ways. She uses language similar to Mattie Ross when accusing Briggs of being "a man of low character." She awes everyone she talks to with her blunt language uncharacteristic of pious women living in this time. Briggs, at one point, labels her: "plain as an old tin pail" and "bossy".

Answer: Revisionist Western

This film is not a Contemporary Western since it takes place in the late 1800s.

It is not a Spaghetti Western since it was not produced or filmed in Italy or Spain.

It is not a Meat Pie Western because it was not produced or filmed in Australia.

It is a Revisionist Western because it depicts the women characters in very strong roles. The strength in Cuddy's character and the entire story spiraling from tragic events surrounding the three crazy women make it perfectly Revisionist. Meryl Streep's character exemplifies the religious strength of the era. She is the wife of a preacher, but assumes the role of caretaker for the women on her husband's behalf.

Briggs' character is depicted in the fashion of anti-hero (another element of Revisionist Westerns). He completes his task, but is in no way better off in the end, than he was at the beginning of the journey. Nor does he set right or avenge the tragedies seen early in the movie.

These types of themes are in contrast to themes depicted in a traditional Western.