Farming Movies

Seen a good “farming movie” recently? No, I didn’t think so. I don’t know why Hollywood has recently shunned the farming community when it comes down to movie plots? The closest we ever get to a movie usually involves over the top characters wielding axes, pitchforks and knives, and are generally raised or controlled by hellish evil powers to carry out tasks that are as stupid as they are illogical… “Children of the Corn,” anyone? We also had the likes of “Farmer Vincent” in the movie “Motel Hell” who would kidnap patrons from his “side of the road” hotel and use them for…well you will just have to rent that old early 80’s “classic” on your own and see. Usually though, I have noticed that movies made with farming or agriculture as part of the theme is merely just used as a “gadget” or backdrop for the “real” subject of the movie. Enter…“Pumpkinhead”, tons of mayhem and evil, but not much in the way of growing pumpkins. The 2007 movie “The Messengers”, quite a bit of “high strangeness” out on the farm, but pretty thin on the issues of growing sunflowers. I think you get the idea. However, there have been a few exceptions when agriculture can make for a good backdrop for a movie that actually has some merit to it, despite the fact that not a lot of farming is going on. “Field of Dreams” comes to mind. We’ll just knock out a few acres of corn for a baseball field and see what happens there. This one worked for me. But then again, the movie was actually well done with good acting and a well thought out ending, despite the fact that Kevin Costner was the star. Skip ahead a few decades and we finally get the foreign/indie film, “The Lemon Tree”. Unfortunately, the main character is depicted as having the misfortune of living in the wrong place at the wrong time. And when it comes down to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, history tells us that there has never really been a good time to be raising lemons in that part of the world. So what gives? Why the lack of “love” for the farm on the big screen? Why can’t there be a big movie about agriculture that really deals with the subject of agriculture? I think I get it. Why don’t the big movie people just come right out and say it…they think farming is boring! But damn it, if they can make abysmal, crude, juvenile movies about ping-pong tournaments with every bad reference to the word “ball” imaginable, then I say; what’s wrong with a movie about farming? Maybe it’s just because Hollywood people don’t know the real “rural drama” that takes place every day on farms across the nation. You want a good psychological thriller? Ever have the County Ag Commissioner decide whether or not you were in violation of some pesticide regulation? And you thought Hannibal Lecter was a spooky guy. And maybe to the regular moviegoer, unseasonably cold weather in December is no big deal. But ask an orange farmer about cold weather in December, and you get a whole other view about what that means. Everyone else doesn’t see the long hours and the restless nights looking at weather forecasts, and driving around the farm at 2,3,4,5,6, and 7 am reading thermometers, and checking wind machines wondering if by morning time you will still have a crop to sell for the rest of the season. When you have lived through a few of those years, you really come to understand the meaning of fear and drama; not to mention the relief when you realize you have survived another cold night. That’s real folks. No CGI or special effects needed there! I guess I will just have to do my own writing and come up with my own movie about a handsome and funny orange farmer in California (played by me) that gets trapped in an espionage ring only to find out that a new world order has come to take over his orange farm. Underestimating the resolve of a modern day farmer and his Massey Ferguson tractor, these global tyrants are in for the fight of their lives!

And for the best oranges on the planet (which is way better than popcorn), you can get them from us! Please visit our web site; www.pearsonranch.com. If you have any farming or any other questions please e-mail me anytime at, tony@pearsonranch.com

Thanks for reading!

-Tony