Farmers’ struggles in the USA
4 December, 2024 -
AT THE MOVIES
4 December, 2024 -
Author: John Cunningham
WORKERS LIBERTY
Jessica Lange (who appears as Jewell Ivy in the film) thought of Country as an update of Grapes of Wrath (see Solidarity 727).
Jewell and her husband Gilbert “Gil” Ivy (Sam Shepard) have worked their family farm for years but a combination of mounting debts, rising costs, low prices and a poor harvest brings the farm to its knees and they are threatened with foreclosure. Gil has to go out and find work but Jewell stays behind on the farm and fights to keep it alive.
Ronald Reagan thought the film was “a blatant propaganda message against our agri programme”. The farming crisis of the 1980s devastated the US Mid-West. The town of Waterloo, Iowa lost 14% of its population. Between 1981-83 farmers’ debts in the USA came to a staggering $125 billion and government aid was piecemeal and slow in coming. In 1935 there were 6.8m farms in the USA; by 1990, 2.1m.
Two other films from the same year also depict the struggles of farmers in the USA: The River and Places in the Heart. The latter is set in the 1930s and stars Sissy Spacek.
• Watch Country here
Jessica Lange (who appears as Jewell Ivy in the film) thought of Country as an update of Grapes of Wrath (see Solidarity 727).
Jewell and her husband Gilbert “Gil” Ivy (Sam Shepard) have worked their family farm for years but a combination of mounting debts, rising costs, low prices and a poor harvest brings the farm to its knees and they are threatened with foreclosure. Gil has to go out and find work but Jewell stays behind on the farm and fights to keep it alive.
Ronald Reagan thought the film was “a blatant propaganda message against our agri programme”. The farming crisis of the 1980s devastated the US Mid-West. The town of Waterloo, Iowa lost 14% of its population. Between 1981-83 farmers’ debts in the USA came to a staggering $125 billion and government aid was piecemeal and slow in coming. In 1935 there were 6.8m farms in the USA; by 1990, 2.1m.
Two other films from the same year also depict the struggles of farmers in the USA: The River and Places in the Heart. The latter is set in the 1930s and stars Sissy Spacek.
• Watch Country here
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