Angel City

The man who wrote the book on which Angel City was based - Patrick Smith - was the PR director at a community college in Florida, and I worked for him for a year. To research the story, Pat went undercover in a camp and lived in the horrible conditions for himself, so he could tell the real story.

It's been so long since I've read the book and seen the movie, I don't remember how they compare, but Pat's book was based on things he really experienced, and I believe the movie was fairly true to that. People who feel the movie wasn't realistic might want to reconsider, or do some research for themselves.

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.

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.

Ralph Waite is best known for his role as the father on The Waltons tv series. He plays a similar character here, a good decent man with simple values of love and family (watch the scene where his family and him pray over their dogs grave). He is a good decent salt of the earth type who unwittingly stumbles into hell! Mitchell Ryan plays the plantation owner who is a real wolf in sheep clothing. He offers him a job and then he and his family are held prisoner in a virtual concentration camp. Paul Winfield gives a fine performance as a fellow inmate and this was one of Jennifer Jason Leigh's first roles as well. I remember the scene where they were picking cotton in the fields and started singing a spiritual, it reminded me a lot of Gone With The Wind. Waite and his family are such wonderful people that you feel so angry and sad at their terrible prediciment. The ending of the film is what I enjoyed the most where they revolted against Ryan. I loved the scene where Waite beat the *$#@ out of him with that pistol and was going to shoot him! It was as if this good man was pushed to the brink and finally backed down. I hated Ryan's character so much that I wanted him to shoot the son of a bitch, after all he had raped his daughter and kidnapped his baby! He sort of reminded me of Jim Jones. Maybe this is a parable about the importance of family love and staying together against all odds, and about the importance of freedom and what would happen if it were suddenly taken from us. Angel City is a first class tv film and it has got a great and satisfying ending that leaves you feeling wonderful. When it comes down to it, what more could you ask of a film!

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.