In Country
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For the Kikki Danielsson album, see In Country (album).
| In Country | |
|---|---|
 Film poster for In Country |
|
| Directed by | Norman Jewison |
| Produced by | Norman Jewison Richard A. Roth |
| Written by | Frank Pierson and Cynthia Cidre (screenplay) Based on the novel by Bobbie Ann Mason |
| Starring | Bruce Willis Emily Lloyd |
| Music by | James Horner |
| Cinematography | Russell Boyd |
| Editing by | Antony Gibbs Lou Lombardo |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. Pictures |
| Release date(s) | September 29, 1989 |
| Running time | 120 min. |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
In Country is a 1989 American dramatic film produced and directed by Norman Jewison, starring Bruce Willis and Emily Lloyd, a British actress who underwent training to speak with a Kentucky accent in the film. The screenplay by Frank Pierson and Cynthia Cidre was based on the novel by Bobbie Ann Mason. The original music score was composed by James Horner.
Willis earned a best supporting actor Golden Globe nomination for his role.
Contents |
[edit] Plot summary
Recent high school graduate Samantha Hughes, 17, lives in fictional Hopewell, Kentucky with her uncle Emmett Smith, a quiet laid-back Vietnam War veteran suffering from post-tramatic stress disorder. Samantha's father, Dwayne, was killed in Vietnam at 19 after marrying and impregnating Samantha's mother, Irene, who has since remarried. Samantha finds some old photographs, medals and letters of her father, and becomes obsessed with finding out more about him.
Irene, who has moved to Lexington, Kentucky with her second husband, wants Samantha to move in with them and go to college. But Samantha would rather stay with Emmett and try to find out more about her father. Her mother is no help, as she tells Samantha, "Honey, I married him for four weeks before he left for the war. He was 19. I hardly even remember him." Finally, Samantha, Emmett and her grandmother got to visit the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. Finding her father's name in the memorial releases cathartic emotions in Samantha and her family.
[edit] Main cast
- Bruce Willis - Emmett Smith
- Emily Lloyd - Samantha Hughes
- Joan Allen - Irene
- Kevin Anderson - Lonnie
- John Terry - Tom
- Peggy Rea - Mamaw
- Judith Ivey - Anita
- Daniel Jenkins - Dwayne
- Steven Tobolowsky - Pete
- Jim Beaver - Earl Smith
- Richard Hamilton - Grandpaw
- Heidi Swedberg - Dawn
- Ken Jenkins - Jim Holly
- Jonathan Hogan - Larry
- Patricia Richardson - Cindy
[edit] Trivia
- Many scenes were shot in Mayfield, Kentucky. The walk-in doctor's office seen in the film is actually a dry cleaners which was renamed "Clothes Doctor" following its appearance in the film.
- The veterans in the dance sequence are all actual Vietnam veterans, and their real family members accompany them.
- Of the five major characters who are Vietnam veterans, only one, Earl, is played by an actual Vietnam veteran, Jim Beaver.
- Ken Jenkins, who plays Jim Holly (the organizer of the veteran's dance), is the father of Daniel Jenkins, who plays Samantha's father Dwayne in the Vietnam flashbacks. Their casting in the film was purely coincidental.
