The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Get to work streaming ‘Godless,’ the Western you’ve been waiting for
Netflix’s ‘Godless,’ available now, is the Western you’ve been waiting for
For “Godless,” executive producers Casey Silver and Steven Soderbergh took Scott Frank’s screenplay, which was originally written as a film, and expanded it into a seven-part limited series for Netflix.
The series is a wild ride, an old-fashioned Western with a contemporary edge. It carries the sweep and breadth of a grand tale with the larger-than-life ornery characters you expect to find living and dying in that rugged, lonely land.
There are also surprises, such as when the local schoolmarm publicly confesses her love for Mary Agnes.
Wever is terrific, as is the rest of the cast. Dockery’s and O’Connell’s characters give the story some heart, while Daniels brings his own take on the philosopher outlaw. He quotes the Bible and the Greeks and Burma Shave. Along the way, flashbacks provide the background of Frank and Roy’s relationship.
The entire series — which plays like a sevenhour movie — was directed by Scott Frank from his screenplay. He keeps the tension throughout without over-hyping scenes. Death is bad enough. Using natural light, the cinematography from Steven Meizler, who has filmed for Steven Spielberg and Steven Soderbergh, infuses the scenes with the unease of vulnerability.
“Godless” is the Western you’ve been waiting for.
“Godless” begins with five horsemen riding out of the windswept New Mexico landscape of 1880 into an old West town. Where everyone’s dead. We then see a lone rider approaching a ranch cabin. A woman, Alice, (Michelle Dockery) points a rifle at the approaching man, tells him to stop. He doesn’t; she shoots.
Later, outlaw Frank Griffin (played by Emmy Award winner Jeff Daniels) shows up at a doctor’s house in the dead of night, his arm shot up. The doc has to amputate.
After Frank recovers, he rides into the local church and warns parishioners not to hide outlaw Roy Goode (Jack O’Connell), who fled his former gang with some stolen money. Roy is the man Alice shot, and though she is nursing him back to health, she wants him gone.
Meanwhile, when word reaches the town of La Belle that Frank and his gang are headed their way, the town sheriff Bill McNue (Scoot McNairy) sets out to stop him. McNue leaves his very young deputy, Whitey (Thomas Brodie-Sangster) in charge.
But it isn’t long before Whitey, Alice and McNue’s tough sister, Mary Agnes (Merritt Wever) realize they must band together to defend themselves against Frank’s gang. The town’s women — and the town is mostly women — need to rely on one another.