Product Details

• Actors: Jessica Lange, Sam Shepard, Wilford Brimley, Matt Clark, Theresa Graham
• Directors: Richard Pearce
• Writers: William D. Wittliff
• Producers: Jessica Lange, William Beaudine Jr., William D. Wittliff
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Studio: Walt Disney Video
• DVD Release Date: December 9, 2003
• Run Time: 105 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00008L3V9
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #25,057 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Country" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

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.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Jessica vs the Government, December 18, 2005

By 

Movie Mania "DVD Collector" (Southern Calfornia) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Country (DVD)

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

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Jessica Lange's vision is brought to the screen!, July 26, 2002

By 

ryan cole (murfreesboro, tn United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Country [VHS] (VHS Tape)

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

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Life On The Farm, March 16, 2007

By 

Diana Moon (Sedalia, MO USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Country (DVD)

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.