Why Netflix’s ‘Godless’ is the Western you’ve been waiting for - video

By Rob Lowman

“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 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...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. The entire series – which plays like a seven-hour 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...more

Here is the official trailer:

 https://youtu.be/mMUiRYoc76A