1984: Year of the Heroic Farm Wife
Wednesday, August 24, 2016 at 2:00PM As we look back at 1984, please welcome new contributor John Guerin to talk about a famous Oscar triple...
In 1984, 60% of the Best Actress category was farm wives
In May 1985, after scoring Oscar nominations for playing distressed farmwives in Country and The River, Jessica Lange and Sissy Spacek testified before the U.S. House of Representatives and urged senators to help aid farmers during a devastating agricultural crisis. After a toxic combination of faulty economic policies, mounting debts, high interest rates, and a declining Midwest population, American farmers were experiencing financial hardship unseen since the Great Depression. Both Country and The River offer visions of farm families under such pressures, pitting family and community against unyielding forces of nature and government.
Can you remember the last time an actress testified before Congress after starring in a politically-minded film?
Granted, today’s film industry is barely recognizable from that of 1984, and the Internet now offers countless ways to be an advocate without stepping onto capitol hill; still, this plucky move rarely happens. Republican senators chided Lange, Spacek, and Jane Fonda – she too played an impoverished farmwife, in the 1984 TV movie The Dollmaker – for confusing their Hollywood entertainment with reality. Yes, these actresses are not farmwives. They are famous, successful, and rich; they are stars. They don’t stand with the working class, but they can speak for them. They secure backing for unglamorous films and lend their stardom to noble causes. This blend of political positioning, de-glam techniques, and feminist authority yields performances worth considering.
In The River, Mel Gibson and Sissy Spacek are Tom and Mae Garvey, tireless Tennessee farmers whose land keeps flooding by the bordering river. Crop prices are dropping, loans have piled up, and the water keeps running. Tough and resolute, Tom refuses to be bought out by Joe Wade (Scott Glenn), a local mill boss who wants to build an electric dam in the valley. Spacek is not really performing here but working; she milks cows, bakes pies, plows fields, and labors tirelessly in her scenes. Farmwives spend a lot of time washing dishes and driving tractors, and Spacek makes this work visible, especially when Joe goes to work in an iron mill, leaving her responsible for managing the farm. A terrifying episode where Mae’s arm is caught underneath her tractor becomes a showcase for Spacek’s taciturn, resourceful talent. When she isn't working, Mae tries urging Joe to abandon his timeworn ideals. The film works hard to champion the farm, a saccharine John Williams score does some heavy lifting, and Spacek's smart pleads are too often framed as a soft or weak counter to Gibson’s stubborn resolve. An asset to any film, Spacek gives a small, sturdy performance, capably hitting marks we knew she already could. She lends her wise, graceful presence to an easily forgotten Supporting Wife role, but it’s not enough to warrant a nomination.
The film lionizes hardworking farm families like the Garveys, but strikes more anxious chords than I had anticipated. Your farm is everything, home and work, yet it is governed by natural and economic forces largely outside your control. Foreclosure becomes the ultimate failure. Your life is sold off to neighbors who can't afford much anyway, each auction a specter into your possible ruin, each one closer to your own. Like most Reaganistic 80s Americana, The River soon becomes a tale of a little – but strong – guy battling a cold, bureaucratic government. Never mind that Wade’s electric dam is pragmatic planning, or that the river will probably soon flood again, one’s resilient heritage and rugged individualism are more valuable than smart problem-solving. Against all odds, the Garveys hold back the river and hold onto their land, but this fantastical end undercuts the film’s more somber suggestions.
Jessica Lange was originally cast in The River, but instead pursued her own vehicle, a farmwife role not resigned to the background. Country, like The River, is a film about a farm couple facing foreclosure. Jessica Lange and Sam Shepard are Jewell and Tom Ivy, grandchildren of farmers now saddled with skyrocketing loans and impending poverty. While The River sheepishly indicts the weather and “big-government”, Country looks squarely at the shady bank practices that caused this disaster and offers a more distressing conclusion. Lange – I’ll proudly name her a personal God – gives a relaxed, spirited performance, refusing to yield to unfair policies while testing the limits of her own valor. Seemingly animated by the film’s initial lightning bolts, Jessica Lange summons anger like few other actresses, channeled here into articulate fits of rage and measured moments of frustration. But Jewell is not a destructive, unhinged volcano, and rather than become a lone warrior, she realizes the value in working together. “No sale!” she shouts during her farm’s auction, animated by the crowd and then soon shouting above them. In Lange’s quivering hands, Jewell is neither an extraordinary activist nor a background farmwife. Like her film, she is smart, enraged and attuned to her own melancholy. The film’s last half-hour is a doleful close and poignant reminder that poverty and political neglect are not easily resolved.
And then there’s Edna Spalding.
If Country and The River are about communities banding together against a common enemy, Places in the Heart is instead a tale of a community coming together for one woman’s improbable comeback. Inspired by his own childhood in Texas during the Great Depression, Robert Benton makes Places in the Heart a more personal endeavor than the other farm films. Sally Field is Edna Spalding, a broke widow who must raise enough cash to keep her home. With the help of Moses (Danny Glover), her Magical Negro, Mr. Will (John Malkovich), a blind veteran, and a group of African-American workers, Edna grows forty acres of cotton and saves her farm.
If you’re maybe looking for a nuanced survey of three unprivileged people forming a bond against great stigma, look elsewhere. We don’t spend any alone time with Moses or Mr. Will, or share any glimpse into the relationships between these characters. It’s all about Edna, rendered by Sally Field as a woman confused by everything. Edna Spalding is somehow both naïve enough that she can’t write a check and savvy enough to grow forty acres of cotton. The script is pockmarked with gaps in each character’s backstory, and Field more than anybody surrenders to a broad mime. Her harried expression remains locked into her signature clenched, flustered stare. She furrows her brow, rolls up her dirty apron, and turns suffering into an Olympic sport. She’s kind but almost out of stupidity. She respects Moses but calculates his advantages. She’s not as prejudiced as the Klan, but probably because she isn’t thinking of anyone but herself. It’s the kind of histrionic, dress-up acting that believes overcompensating for one emotion allows you to forget any of the rest. Field never summons the tough grit and tenacious will of her character, and instead creates an embarrassing, waifish shtick, inexplicably laureled in its time.
Varying quality aside, Field, Lange, and Spacek all hold it down. Although this isn’t a box-set I’ll reach for, the Farmwives trio champion women persevering over disparate circumstances, and feature actresses sticking their necks out for causes that matter. Edna, Mae, and Jewell are the valiant working-class women movies constantly evade, and the heroes our contemporary films lack.
Reader Comments (32)
My memory is that all of these films are pretty boring. Lange, in particular, I find dreary or overly melodramatic as a film actress (apart from Tootsie, where she had a minor role). She could not sustain a movie career, and TV seems to be a better fit for her.
Sally Field is similarly not cinematic (for me).
That said, I would probably watch the Sissy Spacek one again, because of her and Mel Gibson.
As for stars testifying before Congress, you are right. It's not really embraced anymore, unless he or she has a personal connection regarding a disease, etc. But didn't Bradley Cooper do it a couple of times?
Spacek & Lange felt like the wives of farmers,somehow Field seemed too girly,i'm not sure what the word is,I can see why she won though.
Lange's great in the "NO SALE" scene,Spacek for me is quietly wondrous and out of the 3 films I prefer The River.The cinematgraphy is glorious.
I liked Sissy far more than Lange. She had an elegiacally presence
Throughout and more realistic as a farm wife.
I strongly resent the Farmwives trio but this was a fabulous read.
Helen Mirren testified before Congress recently about retrieving works of art stolen by the Nazis. And it wasn't tied to a film role, but Kerry Washington has testified about government funding of the arts and Seth Rogen has testified about Alzheimer's funding.
Peggy Sue. Why?
I think (?) Bradley testified about The Elephant Man disease (neurofibromatosis).
My nominees
Spacek,Redgrave,Bujold,Lange,Field.
My nominees:
Judy Davis (Passage to India)
Julia Migenes Johnson (Carmen)
Mia Farrow (Broadway Danny Rose)
Eszter Balint (Stranger Than Paradise)
Kathleen Turner (Romancing the Stone)
Sorry gals, but your cow milkin' and cotton pickin' were all for naught
Places of the Heart is one of the most racially problematic movies ever made.
I wasn't fond of these films,I'm with Peggy Sue - you made them more interesting to read about than watching them was.
My nominees
Gena Rowlands, Love Streams, winner
Judy Davis, A Passage to India
Mia Farrow, Broadway Danny Rose
Kathleen Turner, Romancing the Stone
Linda Hamilton, Terminator
This is such a great year. Two of my top 20 ever are from 1984, Love Streams and Once Upon a Time in America.
This is a case where I love the actresses nominated (Davis, Field, Lange, Redgrave, Spacek) but do not support really any of the performances aside from Redgrave who is an actress I find captivating in all her performances. Her being the only one I'd nominate is a reason I support a Redgrave win from the nominees.
However there are four greater performances that I wish happened
Mia Farrow, Broadway Danny Rose
Carmen Maura, What Have I Done to Deserve This?
Vanessa Redgrave, The Bostonians
Gena Rowlands, Love Streams
Kathleen Turner, Romancing the Stone
Gena is my winner
John, I too worship in the United Church of Lange. She is by far the best of the farm trio--she resonates with a palpable outrage but let's the quiet moments shine. This is a good Oscar lineup, though Kathleen is sorely missed.
I liked Places in the Heart best and Sally in it but none of the three thrilled me. I thought Sissy in particular was far better than the movie she found herself in. But I enjoyed the article.
I wouldn't have nominated any of the three. My list would run so:
Mia Farrow-Broadway Danny Rose
Molly Ringwald-Sixteen Candles
Kathleen Turner-Romancing the Stone-Winner
Lesley Ann Warren-Choose Me
JoBeth Williams-American Dreamer
i was never crazy about this lineup because Kathleen Turner should've won and wasn't even nominated. Crazy-making!
other good performanes they passed over
Bujold and/or Warren in CHOOSE ME
Keaton in MRS SOFFEL
Farrow in BROADWAY DANNY ROSE
Maura in WHAT HAVE I DONE...
Allen in STARMAN
and its sad that the Globes didn't nominate HANNAH (Splash) and RINGWALD (sixteen candles) in Musical or Comedy
***
I'm rewatching PLACES IN THE HEART this week for the smackdown and hoping it's as good as i remembered from 1984 but everyone today seems to hate it so perhaps i was the right age for it back then.
The only one I'm absolutely SURE I'd nominate from 1984 is Marita Breuer, the lead of Heimat, though I also can't imagine Heather Langenkamp isn't at least somewhere in my top 10.
PITH is a nice film a bit like The Cider House Rules with some great performances Glover Field & Madigan but that's all it is a nicefilm.
Streep testified against pesticides like Alar that she believed poisoned food. This was decades ago before the organic/foodie movement, and some people are still mad at her.
I love the alternate nominees.
Bubbling under this Oscar lineup would be, for me, Anne Bancroft for Garbo Talks and Diane Keaton for The Little Drummer Girl.
I think "Country" is among Lange's absolute best performances. She performs with enormous restraint, which is rare for her.
In addition to Mirren & Washington listed above, Geena Davis, Jada Pinkett Smith, Jennifer Garner, and Halle Berry have all recently testified before Congress.
rick -- They took all the air!
Are you all sure that Carmen Maura was eligible? According to IMDB the movie opened in 85
Peggy Sue: If you're going by year of Oscar eligibility/US Release? No. If you're constructing your ballots from an internationalist perspective? Yes.
john, fantastic article...thanks for the crazy reminder about farm wives year.
jessica lange is THE BALLS in country. while the movie rests uncomfortably somewhere between commercial and art-house, i still love it. the score of that film is glorious...all that george winston piano playing!
i think it's cool that field, lange, and spacek are all still working and occasionally getting roles worthy of them. while none of these are performances for the ages, to me they encapsulate 80s acting in three very different styles. i wouldn't hate seeing "vehicles" like this for more actresses nowadays.
Peggy Sue
I get it!!!!
Its really a shame tt Kathleen Turner din get nom for either Romancing the Stone (GG winner) or Crimes of Passion (LA film critic winner)!! She shld've gotten the spot taken by Spacek!
Among the nominees, I'll pick V Redgrave to win. The Bostonian may not be her best perf but she was v good as a repressed lesbian involved in a tug of war over the grooming of a young lady w Mr Superman. I guess the topic is too taboo for the Academy back in 1985 huh?? lol
My personal wish-list of 1984:
Kathleen Turner (Crimes of Passion OR Romancing the Stone) - Winner
Vanessa Redgrave (The Bostonian)
Judy Davis (A Passage to India)
Gena Rowlands (Love Streams)
Lily Tomlin (All of Me)
Not a fan of Field's winning performance. She joins Elizabeth Taylor in both my top ten and bottom ten Best Actress performances. She's just aces in Norma Rae, but what happened here?
Mike - the right question is "what happened in Norma Rae?"
Mike, I think Sally won by default. Field was wildly popular in the early 80s. She was one of only two of the nominees whose films were up for Best Picture. That provided extra clout. Lange and Spacek's films didn't get any other nominations and their terrific performances were not of the flashy variety. Redgrave was still controversial after her '77 win. And Davis was British and not very well-known in America.
brookesboy -- that is what happened. Sometimes who you're nominated against is just as important to your winning chances as the movie in the first place. Sadly i don't think Turner could have won even if she had been nominated because it would have been viewed as an "easy" performance. But that kind of star turn, so effervescent, funny, and sexy with idiosyncratic beats is not easy to pull off or else all actors would become superstars like Kathleen.
Nathaniel, very true. I think what hurt Turner most was she was in a genre film, and lead acting nods don't usually go to those. Supporting roles have a better shot. When you see something like Sigourney Weaver's Best Actress nomination for Aliens, it's pretty damn shocking. A sci-fi action movie AND a sequel! That's an Oscar miracle.