PIERCE CELEBRATES HIGHER GROUND
Former Bond stars as rancher in new western series
The Son
Debuts Saturday, AMC I believe in something I call the “universal jerk theory.” If we accept that all people from around the world are created equally, then that encompasses both the good and the bad. So what percentage of people do you think are, inherently, jerks? Let’s say that in any group it’s reliably 17 per cent.
My long-standing “universal jerk theory” came front-of-mind, in a good way, while I was watching The Son, a new historical-fiction drama series starring Pierce Brosnan that debuts Saturday on AMC.
The Son, based on a novel of the same name by Philipp Meyer, jumps back and forth in time to tell a panoramic story of a harsh era along the simmering border between Texas and Mexico.
In 1915, Eli McCullough (Brosnan) is a family patriarch and successful cattle rancher who is trying to transition into the newly developing oil business, despite uncertainty, threats, violence and doubters, some of whom live in his own household.
But in 1849, we see what happens to the young Eli (Jacob Lofland) and how it has shaped his harsh and cutthroat world view. While I’m not going to reveal anything that will ruin significant surprises, I’m about to discuss general plot details, so I’ll issue a SPOILER ALERT here.
Early in The Son, we see how the young Eli’s settler family is massacred by Native Americans. Eli is taken prisoner, essentially to work as a slave. And this is where I actually was glad to see my “universal jerk theory” coming to life.
Some of the Native Americans are quite cruel to the young Eli. Why? Because they’re human beings. And when any group of human beings has power, a percentage of those human beings will be jerks. They’re cruel because they can be.
I was pleasantly surprised to see The Son veering away from the simplifications of standard, modern, historical storytelling, which tends to portray practically every white European as a horrible person, and practically every Native American as a noble hero, with nothing in between.
“That’s Dances with Wolves,” said The Son’s executive producer, Kevin Murphy. “That’s wonderful to hear that you got that. We really wanted to make it clear that there are no good guys and bad guys. We’re much more interested in exploring Western civilization. Yes, largely (the United States) because it’s a very American story, but I think it’s also a wider North American story, a South American story, both continents.”
And if you boil it all down, it was about one thing, according to Brosnan.
“All over land,” Brosnan said. “Land and boundaries. What you have, I want, and this is how I’m going to get it.
“It was brutal times, and Eli is borne out of brutality and savagery. By the time we meet him (as an older man), he has lost three families. So they went hammerand-tongs at each other, the white folk, the Mexican folk, the Indian folk.”
Brosnan, of course, is the name that initially will draw the most eyeballs and attention to The Son. Having spent the past several decades concentrating on movies — including his tenure as James Bond — the veteran actor hasn’t been a regular on a TV series since Remington Steele, which aired from 1982 to 1987.
“I had been actively looking to go back to TV, because it’s such potent, fertile ground now,” Brosnan said. “Last summer came along, and I thought I was going in one direction, to make a movie in Russia, which fell apart. And I said to my agent, ‘I don’t want to sit on my ass all summer, I want to work.’ He said, ‘Well, you’ve just been offered this role, Eli McCullough in The Son.’”
Sam Neill originally had been cast, but he dropped out, citing personal reasons.
“The book was such a rich Bible of story and nuance,” says Brosnan. And the western has always been appealing.
The Son also stars Henry Garrett, Sydney Lucas, Jess Weixler, David Wilson Barnes, Zahn McClarnon, and Elizabeth Frances.
In some ways, The Son is about the history of human nature and what we traditionally fight over.
“Barbed wire,” said Pierce Brosnan, shaking his head. “As soon as barbed wire came on the landscape, you put up barbed wire, it’s savage, it hurts, it rips the skin.
“And it says, ‘Stay out, I’m here, you’re there.’”
We really wanted to make it clear that there are no good guys and bad guys. We’re much more interested in exploring Western civilization.