Raggedy Man

I just caught this film again on a cable channel and remembered how much I like it. Most people will consider this a "small" film because it doesn't have a lot of action, but there are some suspenseful moments - especially near the end. During World War II, Sissy Spacek plays a small-town phone operator raising her two sons on her own. In fact, the switchboard is in the home where they live. Many of the townspeople have no phone of their own and come to Sissy's home to make calls and sometimes to receive that dreaded call informing them that their husband/son, etc. has been wounded, killed or is missing in action. Oft-seen character actor R.G. Armstrong turns in his usual strong performance as Sissy's manipulative boss. Sissy's philandering former husband is played well by Sam Shepard in a small but pivotal role. Playing their usual (but this time creepy!) Southern "good ol' boys" are Tracey Walter (seen recently as the provider of "insider" evidence in ERIN BROCKOVICH) and William Sanderson (perhaps best known as Larry with his brother Darryl and his other brother Darryl on T.V.'s NEWHEART or for his role in BLADERUNNER). They make great troublemakers in this film. Henry Thomas plays Sissy's older son and reveals the strength of character and sensitivity that he will later show as Elliot in E.T. But the leads, Sissy and Eric Roberts, are my favorites. They are terrific together but also great when apart onscreen. Sissy has a fun moment alone singing and dancing as "Rum & Coca-Cola" plays on the radio while she is housecleaning. She's also good when she tries and finally succeeds at standing up to her boss. And she's definitely believable as the boys' "Mom". Eric, as a young sailor on a short leave, has a great early scene talking on the telephone and is absolutely wonderful in his scenes with the two boys. I love it when he tries to make the boys feel better as he leaves to go back to his ship - he names his two shoes after them so that they will always be with him, calling out their names with each step as he walks off down the street. And then there are the scenes with Sissy and Eric together - tender, sweet and romantic. If you have forgotten like I had, this film will remind you what a beautiful young man Eric was, before the ravages of time and how ever many broken noses he has had, changed him into the more rugged but still handsome man he is today. A few more films (STAR 80, RUNAWAY TRAIN, to name but two) have also shown us what a fine actor he is, but unfortunately, most A-list directors and producers tend to ignore him so that he has become a B-movie regular. I saw him on Broadway about 10 years ago as the lead in BURN THIS, and he was amazing. Come on, somebody, cast him in a really good role in a really good film! He deserves the role and movie-goers deserve to see him at his best. In the meantime, we can enjoy this film.

Sissy Spacek followed up her Oscar-winning performance in "Coal Miner's Daughter" with this similarly affecting work in this small-scale film. It's set in a small Texas town called Gregory in 1944. While the Second World War is going on, Nita (Spacek) is working hard to raise two young boys by herself. A divorced woman, Nita has a job as a telephone operator, but yearns for something more. A potential romance with nice-guy sailor Teddy (Eric Roberts), who currently is on a few days leave, takes things out of the ordinary for her. But the ultra-creepy redneck brothers Calvin and Arnold (top character actors William Sanderson ('Deadwood') and Tracey Walter ("Repo Man")) are determined to have their way with her, and since Teddy is not going to be around for long...

"Raggedy Man" is an utterly absorbing, if not great, slice of rural American life circa the 1940s. Debuting director Jack Fisk (Spacek's real-life husband) gives the proceedings some real heart and sensitivity as well as an authentic look. (Fisk is normally an art director and production designer for the movies.) Admittedly, the finale does get melodramatic and a little ugly, but overall the film does have some charm going for it. The characters hold your attention - protagonists and antagonists alike. There is some humour as well as drama, and a lovely Jerry Goldsmith soundtrack to add to the basic effectiveness of the presentation.

Sissy is the glue to hold all of this together, as she plays a strong and independent-minded woman with the guts to stand up to her cranky boss (who's played by the always amusing R.G. Armstrong, another top character actor). Roberts is extremely likeable, delivering one of his best performances. It really is too bad he never became a true A-list star. Henry Thomas of "E.T." fame and Carey Hollis Jr. make their film debuts as Nita's two boys. At first, the film would seem to be a real waste of writer / filmmaker / actor Sam Shepard (who plays mysterious, scar-faced character Bailey), but the part is paid off in the final portion of the picture. Adding flavour to the supporting cast are such familiar faces as Bill Thurman ("The Last Picture Show") as the Sheriff, Jessie Lee Fulton ("Don't Look in the Basement") as Miss Pud, and James N. Harrell ("The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2") as the ticket taker.

Overall, "Raggedy Man" is well worth seeing for any fan of the various cast members.

Seven out of 10.

"Raggedy Man" is not a perfect film. It has a lot of good things going for it, making the unnecessary sideroads seem unlikable with their constant insistence. But as a straightforward drama, it is only just short of wondrous. The cinematography is absolutely breathtaking. Ralf Bode makes this as stunning to look at as other great midwest dramas of the period like "The Stone Boy", "Tender Mercies" or "Country". The performances by the leads - Spacek, Roberts, and young Henry Thomas (in his first role before E.T.) - are all excellent. The main story itself is also believable, and the dramatic arc is well conceived by William D. Wittliff.

But as I mentioned, that's if "Raggedy Man" was a straightforward drama. Unfortunately, it isn't. Building up throughout the film, and culminating in a grandly ill-advised finale, it has aspirations of being some sort of domestic thriller. The reasons for this are beyond my comprehension. Perhaps someone wanted a little unneeded excitement interjected into the film? That's not something I'd generally be opposed to if it weren't so poorly put across. It's a similar mistake made in a film called "The River Rat", which insisted on turning a low key father-daughter drama into a adventure movie for kids.

I have to say, though, that in spite of its sometimes misguided nature, the overwhelmingly well made aspects shine through. The vast majority of "Raggedy Man" is emotionally raw, pure and understated. It holds a convincing humanity and purity of heart. And that means something in a film that's just a bit too schizophrenic for its own good. I recommend it.

The most glorious scene of the film - a lovely and loving sequence in which Sissy Spacek dances with her broom as she sweeps the house, singing along with the Andrews Sisters' "Rum and Coca-Cola" - has been brutally excised from the video - I assume due to rights restrictions -and it's enough to make you cry. That sweet, simple scene is one of those priceless film moments that will haunt you always - if you were lucky enough to see the film before it was raped. Still, even a ravaged "Raggedy Man" (inside joke) is a marvelous film - especially for the honesty in Spacek's and Eric Roberts' portrayals, the surprise redemption delivered at the end, and the charming presence of a pre-"E.T." Henry Thomas.

As a dyed in the wool Yankee I must confess to a certain weakness for things Southern. They seem to do everything larger than life down there, possessing a daring and a sense of style a million miles away from us hyper-rational northerners, who, though we won the Civil War, seem to have lost the culture war. Anyone ever heard of Yankee fried chicken? In the movies the South can lay claim to not only the most acclaimed movie of Hollywood's "golden age" (Gone With the Wind) to its credit, but a lot of fine little ones as well. Indeed, since the early sixties, around the time To Kill a Mockingbird, there has evolved a genre which for want of a better term one might call the Southern Art Film, which is generally a modest though not B picture with high artistic aspirations, featuring first rate actors playing believable, for the most part un-stereotyped characters (Tomorrow, Sounder, Conrack, The Great Santini, Driving Miss Daisy, The Apostle, to name just a few). Raggedy Man falls more or less into this category, as it tells its modest tale of an abandoned wife and a footloose sailor, their love, the time they spend together, how this affects her children. Not a very eventful film, its slow pace and fine acting saves it. The music, alternately jaunty and wistful is of the sort that has become a cliché, and I wish they hadn't used it. The actors are outstanding, however, with Sissy Spacek and especially Eric Roberts both in peak form. Roberts is an enigmatic presence, which works for this film. Almost too pretty to be credible at times (not his fault), his work here makes me wonder why he never became a major star. In any case, the movie is well worth catching for some very good moments and a story that pulls at the heartstrings, but in a gentle, uninsistant way, with an ending that's sad but not depressing.