Product Description

Jessica Lange and Sam Shepard are Jewell and Gil Ivy. They work the land in America's heartland, on a farm that has bound their family together for generations. For Jewell and Gil, the land has always been their life. So when the government bureaucrats decide to take it all away, there’s only one decision the family can make ... the Ivys are staying.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #23683 in DVD
• Brand: Disney
• Released on: 2003-12-09
• Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 110 minutes

Customer Reviews

Jessica Lange's vision is brought to the screen!
Screen Star Jessica Lange was offered the role as a farmers wife in "The River", but she didn't feel it portrayed the farmers plight well enough, so she co-produced this film and starred in it. She gives a warming and heart felt performance as Ivy, a woman who is a fighter for her family and a sacrificing mother before she's a "farmer's wife". Sam Shepard portrays Gil as a weak man who can not face the troubles of his family until he realizes that he needs them more then they need him. This is one of the few films to portray the farmers plight with such truthfulness that it breaks your heart at every turn to know that this actually went on and is still going on.
1984 Academy Award Nomination:
BEST ACTRESS-JESSICA LANGE

Jessica vs the Government
County and The River came out virtually simultaneously. They have the same theme, farms in crisis. The main difference is Country is more political in nature.

Country is not a true story but is based on a number of true stories. This film is about a family owned farm that is in trouble. This trouble was not really their fault. It was a combination of changing economies and a pullout of government funding. During the 70's, the government threw loans to the farmers, encouraging farmers to overextend themselves. In the 80's, when crop prices plummeted, the government foreclosed on the farms. This made way for large corporate farmers to buy them for pennies on the dollar.

Real life husband and wife, Jessica Lange and Sam Sheppard, play the Jewel and Gil Ivey. They have a farm and government loans. When they can't make the harvest payment, the bank forecloses on the farm. Jewel is determined not to lose the farm.

This is tour de force performance by Jessica Lange. Wilford Brimley plays her curmudgeon father and gives a perfectly measured performance. This would become his signature character that he would be cast as for the remainder of his career.

Richard Pearce's direction and William Witliff's screenplay keep the film from getting to preachy or too sentimental. This is the best film made on the subject of the farm loan crisis.

DVD EXTRAS: None

Life On The Farm
This movie depicted what happened to so many farmers in the 1980's when interest rates went so high that it was impossible to survive if there was any debt against what you owned. Jessica Lange of course, was brilliant as the all-suffering farm wife and Sam Shepard as the husband who could not accept that there was no support from "the bank". It is the heart-warming, but flawed depiction of a family coming together in the hard times to save their way of life.