Far North

Depending on what you like, you might need to be in the mood for this, as it isn't full of the fast-paced quick-cut bubble-gum junk that most of today's movies have. More to the point, I liked the mostly light-hearted with dark undertones screenplay, and thought the acting and soundtrack were quite good as well. It doesn't hurt if you've always liked Jessica Lange and Charles Durning. And while her role and acting here doesn't stand up next to her Cape Fear work, it does give Mr. Durning some stretching space. Sam Shepard's direction is more than adequate, and doesn't get in the way. I also liked the way this movie was edited to create tension where needed. It is well worth seeing. Oh yeah, the horse does a fine job too.

Sam Shepard's style of bringing out a piece of real American pie is sensitively portayed in "Far North". Acting is excellent portraying a woman (Jessica Lange) who rejoins her rural family after a buckboard accident puts her Dad in the hospital vowing revenge on his horse.

Back in the late 60's I attended a college in Superior, Wisconsin. I was from Philadelphia, Pa and had never experienced the cold and long winters near the small city of Duluth, MN. I met hard drinking people there (there's nothing else to do), blond as Jessica Lange with Scandinavian or Polish accents, many of them. There were good people and bad. The men worked the port ships or the railroad yards. The blizzards were like nothing I have ever seen.

Charles Durning gets a fat man's star turn. Dunning has been thrown by his farm horse and wants the animal shot by his daughter, Jessica Lange. She protests, but agrees to shoot the animal. She's back from the Twin Cities where she works as a professional woman with one in the oven. The old man is in the hospital with wild delusions about the horse, his Alzheimer wife, and life on the farm and it's bitter cold. The drunken Uncle sidekick doesn't help either. Also, there's the younger daughter, unmarried with a teen daughter. The teen, blond as her sisters, is soon to get it on with as many young hockey players as possible.

This is Sam Sheppard's first directorial film with plenty of farce, which gets heavy handed, so the viewer never really gets a grip on the emotional lives of these crazy folks. Maybe that's it. Their lives by Lake Superior are so harsh, they cannot communicate a sensible thought. Nevertheless, Far North is a snapshot of an out of the way, beautiful place that will interest the curious.

For folks like myself who have lived in the area for a while, this is an interesting little episode. For those who've never been here, it does give a pretty good feel for the ambiance of the Northwoods of Wisconsin.

In fact, I may actually know Charles Durning's character from my youth. The town I'm from is south of Ashland but had more than its share of characters... one of them built an early version of a go-cart with a 12HP, two-man chain saw motor and forgot to put brakes on it. He said it was scary going down the road, waiting to run out of gas but the looks on motorist's faces when he passed them made it worth the risk.

Thank you, Mr. Shepard for such an outstanding job of displaying what is humorous about us without insulting us.

"Far North" is a great film. Filmed in the fall of 87 in and around Duluth, MN, this movie gives a "glimpse" of Minnesota life for a (disfunctional) farm family of the north in the late 1980's. The scenery is magical and the music (played by the Red Clay Ramblers) certainly fits the scenes and story of the film. Starring Jessica Lange (She was born and raised near Duluth and now lives in Stillwater, MN), who does a great performance as ex-Minnesotan turned New Yorker, Katie (who easily taps back into her northern MN accent). Far North combines comedy, drama, scenery and emotion all in one. This is a great movie to watch if one wants to get a "taste" for some good ole Minnesota flavor!!