Country **** (1984, Jessica Lange, Sam Shepard, Wilford Brimley) – Classic Movie Review 7059

Director Richard Pearce’s 1984 drama Country provides a great showcase for Jessica Lange, who was deservedly Oscar-nominated as Best Actress for this moving, bucolic tale of an Ohio family having trouble surviving and making a living.

In an acting tour-de-force, Lange is charismatic and strong as Jewell Ivy, the woman who keeps things going when the banks foreclose on their loan and her husband Gil (Sam Shepard) dithers. Lange, reunited with her then real-life partner Shepard from Frances, also co-produces. Hal Ashby was to have directed but was replaced by co-producer/ writer William D Wittliff, who in turn was replaced by Pearce after the start of shooting.

Also in the cast are Wilford Brimley, Matt Clark, Theresa Graham, Levi L Knebel, Jim Haynie, Sandra Seacat, Alex Harvey, Stephanie-Stacy Poyner, Jim Ostercamp, Robert L Somers, Frank Noel Jr, Warren Duit, Conrad Doan, James N Harrell, Dean French, Betty Smith and Vern Porter.

Country is directed by Richard Pearce, runs 109 minutes, is made by Far West, Panagea, Touchstone Pictures and Walt Disney, is released by Buena Vista, is written by William D Wittliff, is shot in Technicolor by David M Walsh and Roger Shearman, is produced by William D Wittliff and Jessica Lange, is scored by Charles Gross, and is designed by Ron Hobbs and John B Mansbridge.

It was Touchstone Pictures’ first release.

Oddly two similar films, Places in the Heart and The River, were made simultaneously and the star of the first, Sally Field, beat Lange to the Oscar as Best Actress. Lange is an Oscar winner for Tootsie (1982) and Blue Sky (1994).

Lange cohabited with Sam Shepard from 1982 to 2009. They had two children. Shepard died on 27 July 2017.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7059

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