Amazon.com needs to allow a "starless" rating.
Added 10/20/2009
This film is truly pathetic. Both Jessica Lange's superb acting talent and Sam Shepard's writing talent were wasted on this film.
The one question which comes to mind is why would anyone waste
a second or a cent making this horrible movie.
Wanting to find something good to say about it, I'll add that
Jessica Lange and the scenery are beautiful...and Mel is a nice horse.
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Minnesota Moon Madness Misses Mark
Added 6/22/2007
What a debacle!!! This film directorial debut by Award winning playwright/actor Sam Shepard is a shameful waste of time and talent.
During the full moon cycle in The North Woods off of Lake Superior a family reunites when the patriarch,Bertram (Charles Durning) is thrown from his horse,Mel. Katie (Jessica Lange) comes from "the big city",pregnant and unwed to her father's side. He asks her to shoot the horse.......and it just plummets downhill rapidly after that!
This was the most unpleasant and painful 88 minutes that I have spent with a film in a long time.This film is essentially about the bizarre folk of Northern Minnesota who descend from the wild ancestor mongol hordes. The women have gone wild. They do not need men and have survived in spite of them.The men have worked their entire lives on Lake Superior and want things the way they "used to be." That's it! This film explores THAT theme.It is ridiculous.It plays very much like a stage play.The filming is static and lifeless. The actors, which include Tess Harper,Ann Wedgeworth,Donald Moffat and Patricia Arquette seem uncomfortable in their own skins.This is without a doubt one of the worst and most misconceived movies I have ever seen. It plays much like CRIMES OF THE HEART, but with none of the sensitivity and fondness for the characters or situations. There are continuity errors galore (the horse racing sequences that horse racing fans would instantly know were incorrect).
This film tries to be funny,but it misses the mark everytime. Bizarre and eccentric families have often been the fodder for film, but as many times as it has been done FAR NORTH cannot even begin to rank with any of them.
This film is ONE COMPLETE MISS (or MESS!)
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Blizzards Like Nothing I Have Ever Seen
Added 4/4/2006
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.
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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A country road film!
Added 2/13/2005
In the beauty Minnesota landscapes, a little familiar accident in which a horse is involved will open the gate to explore the conceptual differences and points of view around what will be the final destiny of the guilty horse.
A very simple drama which deserved a major and most elaborated treatment. By this reason, the cast is wasted in innocuous dialogues and common places.
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Homesick?
Added 2/11/2005
I grew up in Duluth and can say this movie is like visiting my relatives. I bought the laser disk when it came out and still watch it from time to time, just before I head up north to visit! It's hilarious! Sam Shepard made a classic here, although Thunderheart is better, I highly recommend this movie to those who have strayed away from home for better careers since there isn't a thing to do in Duluth, except watch the tourists come and go.
1 out of 2 people found this helpful.
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