 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Philadelphia Forum
By DEREK DAVIS
This is the tale of Jeanne Jordan's family farm in Iowa. The tide comes from the meandering waterway at the back of their land; the subtitle is a play on the Western film genre and the family's good guy/bad guy relationship with the changing face of commercial farming. Jordan's brothers and father reinforce Midwestern stereotypes at the same time that they break them. Bright, good-natured people, they live steadfastly in the world, but they aren't fooled by its appearances. Jordan and Ascher's style suits their subject perfectly—clean, unadorned, so unassuming that it took a while for me to realize how all the little "incidental" details make a cumulative series of statements.
As the farm approaches foreclosure, Jordan's father, Russel, and wife Mary Jane devise a solution worthy of an epic novelist: They will sell their cattle, machinery and home furnishings—everything except house and land—move into town, and turn the management of the family farm over to son Jim, who will bring in his machinery.
Jordan and Ascher chose to chronicle, with quiet, personal, workmanlike devotion—much as Jordan's father and brothers pursue their farming—a way of life. Filmmaking doesn't get much better than this.