Der Aufseher von Angel City

ANGEL CITY is a long-forgotten TV movie of 1980 which tackles the subject of modern slavery in a compelling fashion. Ralph Waite, a well known actor for his role as the patriarch in THE WALTONS, plays a guy who ends up living as a prisoner on a farm ruled by the tyrannical Mitchell Ryans, always an impressive actor since the days of DARK SHADOWS. This slow-burning production takes its time to build up the characters and their lives while punctuating the atmosphere with a subtle but shocking handling of violence. Paul Winfield, best known for his role as the cop in THE TERMINATOR, is excellent in support.

Made for TV movie about a dirt poor family who pack all they have into their beat up pick up truck and head out in search of something better. They find work as migrant farm workers picking crops. They also quickly learn that their employment comes with a cost. They are held as virtual prisoners on what could be described as a cross between a slave plantation and a concentration camp. The corrupt head honcho has also developed a system to keep his employees from fleeing.

Ralph Waite best known for playing yet another scratching to keep his family fed character John Walton from The Waltons is featured as the head of the down on their luck family. Mitch Ryan is cast as the sinister head of the migrant workers camp. Paul Winfield co-stars as another Angel City inmate and Elvis Presley buddy Red West as one of the camps Bulls. An interesting original thriller.

The plot can get questionable on this one, true, but it's worth seeking out just to see the early work of Jennifer Jason Leigh! Done before "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" (my favorite) this tv flick has young Jennifer as the daughter of Jennifer Warren, another face you may recognize. Their family goes off in search of work, and Ralph Waite from the Waltons is in it too. Fun to see, everybody is sooooo young!

This movie reflects (with dramatic license) the real thing, and still happened around the time the movie was made. In Zellwood, Florida, the same situation existed with the shanty homes and the company store,; where the migrants also cashed their paychecks. The only untrue part of this movie was the fence. The rest is true to life. You can go there now and see the shanty houses. Still occupied.

Does about as good of a job explaining the problem of migrant worker exploitation as a 1980 TV movie could do. My issue with this movie is with the casting. Mexicans were heavily exploited in camps like this but of course a white family is picked to tell the story. I could live with this if they had done a better job casting the parts. I mean I can buy Ralph Waite as the weary, down on his luck homesteader who leaves behind his home in the hills to look for work. His weather beaten face and persona as Mr Walton fits the role well but his family looks more like they belong on a 70's sitcom. Jennifer Warren is a capable actress who isn't given much to do here other than support her family and be really, really pregnant but she looks like a suburban soccer mom, not a woman who's been scratching out a hard scrabble existence in the hills of West Virginia in addition to the fact that she looks way too young to be Ralph Waite's wife. And the kids? Are you kidding. They look like 2 suburban teenagers who've never done a hard days work in their lives. This aside this movie is saved by the chemistry between Ralph Waite and Paul Winfield as you really sympathize with their plight. Reliable character actor Mitchell Ryan plays the sleazy camp owner Silas Creedy (That just sounds like the name of an evil plantation owner) who we can sense is a lowlife from the time he's introduced but we don't realize just how sleazy and depraved he really is until the movie's final act. Character actor and sometime stuntman Bob Minor and Elvis bodyguard Red West play his 2 camp thugs Jabo and Sud.