Country (film)

Country is a 1984 American drama film which follows the trials and tribulations of a rural family as they struggle to hold on to 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.

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". 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.

Country was one of three 1984 films, along with The River and Places in the Heart, that dealt with the perspective of family farm life "struggles."

Plot
Gilbert "Gil" Ivy (Sam Shepard) and his wife Jewell (Jessica Lange) have worked Jewell's family farm for years, and her father Otis (Wilford Brimley) does not want to see his family farm lost to foreclosure. However, low crop prices, interest on FHA loans, pressure by the FHA to reduce both the loan and operating expenditure, and a tornado all put pressure on the struggling family as they face hardship and the prospect of losing their home and livelihood.

Cast

 * Jessica Lange as Jewell Ivy
 * Sam Shepard as Gilbert "Gil" Ivy
 * Wilford Brimley as Otis
 * Matt Clark as Tom McMullen
 * Therese Graham as Marlene Ivy
 * Levi L. Knebel as Carlisle Ivy
 * Jim Haynie as Arlon Brewer
 * Sandra Seacat as Louise Brewer
 * Alex Harvey as Fordyce
 * Stephanie Stacie-Poyner as Missy Ivy

Production
Jessica Lange, who served as actress and producer, conceived the idea for Country citing a desire to make a contemporary version of The Grapes of Wrath based on her discussions with several mid-western farmers as well as several newspaper articles chronicling struggles farmers with dealing with in the 80s. The Ladd Company had initially been slated to finance Country but withdrew their commitment and after rejection from several other studios The Walt Disney Company acquired country for their relatively new Touchstone Pictures label. Hal Ashby had been slated to direct but left the project shortly after Disney's acquisition with writer William D. Wittliff briefly hired as director until creative disagreements between him and Lange regarding the look of the film, which Lange wanted quite gritty, led to Wittliff amicably leaving and being replaced by Richard Pearce. Much of Wittliff's screenplay had uncredited rewrites from Sam Shepard whom de-emphasized the sentimentality in favor of grittier realism.