TV Pick of the Week: Godless - Review by Yvette Huddleston

The lengthy, mostly wordless opening sequence sets the tone. It lasts several minutes allowing the camera to take in the horrific aftermath of a massacre in the small railroad town of Creede, Colorado. A train has derailed, bodies have been flung from it and lay all around on the ground, a young woman in shock falteringly sings a hymn. The pace is slow and detail is everything. It turns out the death and destruction are a result of an attempted raid of the train’s safe by ruthless outlaw Frank Griffin (Jeff Daniels) and his gang. They are now on the look-out for one of their number – Roy Goode (Jack O’Connell) – who, sickened by the level of violence of the attack, has made off with the loot, and shot Griffin in the arm while he was at it.

It is 1884 and the West is unforgiving, lawless and tough. Over in LaBelle, New Mexico a mining disaster has left the town mostly without menfolk and it is now run by resilient, capable women. One of them is widowed farmer Alice Fletcher (Michelle Dockery) who lives on the outskirts of town with her son Truckee (Samuel Marty) and her mother-in-law Iyovi (Tantoo Cardinal). When the wounded and exhausted Goode turns up in the middle of the night, Alice takes him in, but not before shooting him in the shoulder when he doesn’t respond to her request to identify himself.

Also on the trail of Griffin and his gang is wise lawman Marshal John Cook (Sam Waterston) and, less enthusiastically, La Belle’s ineffectual sheriff Bill McNue (Scoot McNairy) who disappears whenever there is any sign of trouble. McNue’s feisty sister Mary Agnes (Merrit Wever), widow of the town mayor, practical and competent, is far more likely to deal with any difficulty or challenge that arises.

The script builds the tension, almost imperceptibly, delaying the confrontation between Griffin and Goode to allow other characters and relationships to be developed. Performances from the whole cast are authentic and believable, but Dockery and O’Donnell are particularly good. The cinematography by Steven Meizler is lyrical and luminous, beautifully capturing the stark beauty of the bleak landscape with lingering tracking shots – and for film buffs there are plenty of subtle references to iconic moments in the Western canon.