Packaging Back
Packaging Bookend Spine
Packaging Front

Country

Catalog Number
241V
-
Primary Distributor (If not listed, select "OTHER")
Release Year
Country
VHS | SP | Clamshell
109 mins (NTSC)
N/A | N/A | N/A
N/A | N/A
Second Distributor
Country (1984)

Additional Information

Additional Information
In this country, when the land is your life...you fight for your life

Released in the mid-1980s, this farm drama stars Jessica Lange and Sam Shepard as Jewell and Gil Ivy, who run a small farm in Iowa that has been in Jewell's family for several generations; her father Otis (Wilford Brimley) lives with them, along with their three children. While the work is hard and the earnings are slim, the Ivys have been able to get by, like most of their neighbors, until a one-two punch threatens to devastate the Iowa farming community. First, a tornado devastates the area, then the Farmers Home Administration calls in the loans on most of the farmers in the area, which they are in no position to repay. With thirty days to "voluntarily liquidate" their property, the Ivys, like most of their friends and neighbors, are desperate to find a way to hold on to their property, and when the stress causes Gil to buckle, Jewell must step in to keep the clan going. In addition to starring as Gil, Sam Shepard also contributed (without credit) to William D. Wittliff's screenplay; Wittliff was also slated to direct, but shortly after shooting began he was replaced by Richard Pearce. ~

Country is a 1984 American film which follows the trials and tribulations of a rural family as they struggle to hold onto their farm during the trying economic times experienced by family farms in 1980s America. The film was written by William D. Wittliff and stars real-life couple Jessica Lange and Sam Shepard. The film was directed by Richard Pearce and was shot on location in Dunkerton and Readlyn Iowa and at Burbank's Walt Disney Studios.
The film was Touchstone Pictures' second production, the first being Splash. Lange, who also co-produced the film, was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress and a Golden Globe award for her role.
Then-U.S. president Ronald Reagan stated in his personal diary that this film "was a blatant propaganda message against our agri programs."[1] Some members of the U.S. Congress took the film so seriously that Jessica Lange was brought before a congressional panel to testify as an expert about living on family farms. [2] Commentator Rush Limbaugh points out that the expert testimony from Lange (as if she really experienced life as a struggling farm wife) demonstrates that members of Congress have a difficult time distinguishing between stories portrayed in movies (and the actors performing in those roles) and reality

Comments0

Login / Register to post comments

4

0