Customer Reviews

After the Harvest

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

After The Harvest is a well done film with a lot of interesting characters. Sam Shepard gives an excellent performance portraying a complex and domineering man who completely controls his wife and four children.

The story begins when a young schoolteacher arrives in a rural area to live with a farm family. The mother and children of the family are distant and make very few overtures of friendship towards the teacher. The father lets her know that he will be watching her conduct and is responsible for her since she is living in his home.

Although the ages of the children are not stated. They appear to be in their late teens to early twenties. Their father works them all very hard and the girls labor along side their brothers. They tend the animals, mend fences, and plant and harvest the crops. Their mother is aloof and there is no love or affection shown by either parent towards their offspring. The teacher is the catalyst and becomes friends with the oldest daughter, Jude, who is a strong character and the one who usually stands up to her father; however, all of his children fear him.

When the teacher encourages Jude to socialize and date, things change for the entire family. Surprisingly, the mother becomes a key player when she makes a startling discovering and has to come to grips with her own past.

This film was made in Canada, and is really worth seeing.

My husband and I both enjoyed this drama set in rural Canada in the 1920s. The writing was good, as was the acting. The opening scenes were filmed particularly beautifully. I believe this was made for Canadian TV, making me think that Canada must have much higher entertainment values than America. The themes of love, tyranny, destruction, and survival were thoughtfully handled, and parents would not be embarrassed to share this film with (mature) older children.

I think the only reason have for saying "I liked this film" is that I know the author of the novel the film emerged from, and her family. The book is a much better story than the film. The screen version does not stick to the original storyline in the book; else I would have given it 4 stars.

Read the book. Wild Geese, by Martha Ostenso. It won a contest sponsored by Dodd, Mead, and Company for the best North American novel in 1925. Written in a mere six weeks.