Despite being considered something of a failure at the box office, this Mel Gibson and Sissy Spacek film received several Academy Awards nominations, including for Best Actress, Best Sound, Best Cinematography, and won the Special Achievement Award for sound effects editing at the 1985 awards ceremony. The story of a down and out farmer and his family who are struggling to keep their home and land due to a series of bad harvests and flooding from the river adjacent to their property, Gibson is forced to start working at a local steel mill to keep money flowing into the farm and finds himself in the midst of a labor dispute where he unwittingly becomes a scab against similarly struggling working class folks. Add in an exploitative businessman who is also conspiring to make life on the farm hard, and steal Gibson’s wife, and you have yourselves an epic struggle between David and Goliath, and all set against the backdrop of natural disaster. But thanks to Gibson’s gritty determination, he overcomes both the natural and manmade forces stacked against him, and all while keeping his crops alive and family together. Although primarily filmed in Tennessee, some of Birmingham’s steel manufacturing plants provide most of the backdrop for the industrial scenes, and highlight what a unique setting, prop and resource they are when it comes to moviemaking. Featuring shots of a rundown Sloss Furnaces, as well as lots of sequences filmed at Clow Valve Company in Tarrant, the movie provides a rare glimpse into the workings of the steel industry here at the time of its filming, making it an invaluable piece of civic and business history while also highlighting some of our distinctive regional assets.
FUN FACT: The film was scored by legendary composer John Williams (Star Wars, Jaws, E.T., Jurassic Park) and was nominated for multiple Academy Awards, including Best Music and Original Score, but unfortunately lost in all categories.
Trailer Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fzExjAHQ2Q