In Country is a 1989 American drama film produced and directed by Norman Jewison, starring Bruce Willis and Emily Lloyd. 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.
Plot
Recent high school graduate Samantha Hughes, 17, lives in fictional Hopewell, Kentucky. Her uncle Emmett Smith, a laid-back Vietnam veteran, suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. Samantha's father, Dwayne, was killed in Vietnam at 21 after marrying and impregnating Samantha's mother, Irene. 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 a month before he left for the war. He was 19. I hardly even remember him." Finally, Samantha, Emmett and her grandmother 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.
Cast
Bruce Willis as Emmett Smith
Emily Lloyd as Samantha Hughes
Joan Allen as Irene
Kevin Anderson as Lonnie
John Terry as Tom
Peggy Rea as Mamaw
Judith Ivey as Anita
Daniel Jenkins as Dwayne
Stephen Tobolowsky as Pete
Jim Beaver as Earl Smith
Richard Hamilton as Grandpaw
Heidi Swedberg as Dawn
Ken Jenkins as Jim Holly
Jonathan Hogan as Larry
Patricia Richardson as Cindy
Production
Casting
To prepare for her role, Emily Lloyd stayed with a lawyer and his family in Paducah, Kentucky. In order to get into the mindset of a girl whose father has died, the young actress thought of the death of her paternal grandfather, Charles Lloyd Pack, a British actor to whom she was very close. Lloyd underwent training to speak with a Kentucky accent in the film.
The veterans in the dance sequence are all actual Vietnam vets as well 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. The commencement speaker was played by Don Young, the minister of a large Baptist church in Paducah, Kentucky. In an interview with The Paducah Sun, he said the speech had been written for him but joked that it was so good, he might "borrow" parts of it in future sermons.
Filming
Much of the film was shot in Kentucky's far-western Jackson Purchase, where the original author, Bobbie Ann Mason, grew up. Her home of Graves County, specifically its county seat of Mayfield, was the location for many scenes. 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. Several other scenes were shot in the Purchase's largest city of Paducah, particularly the scenes inside Emmett's home.
Release
In Country had its world premiere on September 7, 1989 at the Toronto International Film Festival, which Bruce Willis attended and dedicated to Canadian war veterans who fought in Vietnam.
Box office performance
The film was given a limited release on September 15, 1989 in four theaters grossing $36,505 on its opening weekend. It was given a wide release on September 29, 1989 in 606 theaters grossing $1.3 million on its opening weekend. It went on to make $3.5 million in North America.
Critical reception
In Country was generally well received by critics. It has a 68% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 28 reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.