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Country (1984)
Rate:
4
Viewed:
7/21
7/21:
Out of the three "Save the Farm" pictures during 1984 (the other two being
The River and
Places in the Heart), Country is the dullest.
Not being informed of what happened, it's difficult to pass judgment on Ivy's family. Had I been allowed to
see the big picture going back by maybe five years in regard to their financial situation, I would be able to
figure out whose fault it was. Hence, I can't sympathize with them and think they should move on because of
their inability to pay off the loans.
Given that there are four able-bodied people in the family, why not each of them get a job to make at least
eight grand during the year so that way they can contribute $32,000 toward the loan? Heck, the little girl can
take on babysitting jobs for twenty dollars a day.
As for the cast, the acting is all right. Jessica Lange's Oscar-nominated performance is overrated, failing to
do anything for me. Any chance of redemption for Sam Shepard's character is impossible after he beat up his
wife and son. If standing outside in the freezing cold will make him look better, he has another think coming.
What really happened is: after the boom of the 70's that saw consecutive record harvests which led to greater
amounts of money borrowed by farmers for expansion, they went bust during the early 80's after the prices
of their land and crop had gone down significantly because of high surplus due to grain embargo against
the USSR. Hence, they couldn't make their loans, and in turn, there were many bank failures which was a record
since the Great Depression. In 1962, total farm debt was $60 billion, but it ballooned to $216 billion after
thirty years. The government tried to scale back its support for farmers as the interest rate increased
too much in order to slow down the rate of inflation.
Elsewhere, Levi Knebel, who played Carlisle, was sentenced to ten years in prison for manufacturing meth in
2012, and there's a mugshot of him online sporting a black eye. He had been arrested in the past for
drug-related offenses. Country was the only film he did, and he was 17 at the time. Playing the
intellectually disabled son of Arlen, Jim Ostercamp of Waterloo, Iowa, died in 2014 at the age of 60.
All in all, Places in the Heart has fast pace and terrific acting
while Country and The River are long and plain.