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List Price: $14.99 | | Label: Walt Disney Video
Salesrank: 27754
Released: April 22, 1998 |
| Our Price: $5.96 |
| Used Price: $4.49 |
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Academy Award(R)-winner Jessica Lange (Best Actress, 1995, BLUE SKY) and Michelle Pfeiffer (ONE FINE DAY) join Jennifer Jason Leigh (GEORGIA) and Oscar(R)-winner Jason Robards (1977, Best Supporting Actor, ALL THE PRSIDENT'S MEN) in this widely acclaimed motion picture about silence and betrayal ... rivalry and revenge! When an aging father retires, he passes the thriving family farm on to his three daughters. But this generous gift ignites an exposive series of events that threaten to tear the family apart forever! This powerful story of shocking secrets, unspoken rivalries, and hidden desires is a film you must see ... with performances you'll never forget!
Description of A Thousand Acres:
Jessica Lange and Michelle Pfeiffer are quietly dazzling in this underrated adaptation of Jane Smiley's best-selling modern version of King Lear. The two play sisters of a stubborn, alcoholic Iowa farmer (Jason Robards), who decides to leave his fertile farm to them and their youngest sister (Jennifer Jason Leigh). It is a decision that rends the family, setting siblings against one another and forcing long-held secrets out of their guilty closets. The family dynamics become ever more destructive, and the refuge of sanity the two older sisters have created may be their only salvation. It's a tragedy not quite on a Shakespearean scale, but anyone who appreciates the difficulties of a dysfunctional family will relate to the heartbreak--and the promise of redemption. Pfeiffer especially is breathtaking as the good housewife Rose, whose rage at her father and her husband is never far from her placid surface. --Anne Hurley
A Thousand Acres Reviews:
1000 ACRES: KING LEAR in Iowa or a family betrayed 
2007-11-17 - Once again, I have found it wise to revisit certain films to see if I have changed towards the picture.Well,I saw A THOUSAND ACRES in 1998 in the theatre and left feeling ehh...dry,not impressed.Now,nearly ten years later,I was riveted to the screen for the story and the outstanding performances.Why the change? I now have experienced a lot that happened in this film and only time has revealed to me that what happened in this film happened in my life.
Harold Cook (a surly Jason Robards) is the richest and most powerful man with his 1000 acres that has been in his family for three generations.He has been widowed and his three daughters have been there for him,tending to his needs and putting up with his drunkenness,abuse and control.He decides to will the 1000 acres to the three daughters and two of their spouses,setting up a corporation.Jessica Lange and Michelle Pfeiffer are the two eldest daughters married,and Jennifer Jason-Leigh, the youngest,a lawyer,is not certain that she wants to do this deal.When she expresses doubt,her father cuts her from the deal and decides to divide the farm in half.This sets up a division in the family, and as Cook starts to lose his mind, the girls start remembering long suppressed memories that start to leak out.Daddy sexually abused them and this is the whole crux of this very tense and sad story of family secrets.Lange and Pfeiffer are so equally compelling in their roles as the two eldest sisters.Pfeiffer is the driving force in blowing up the whole charade.Lange, the ever dutiful daughter is the one who has to come to the realization that her father was a monster and embrace the anger and betrayal.Leigh, the youngest daughter sides with the mentally decaying father,not having either experienced the abuse or simply not remembering, and the family is destroyed permanently.The revelations of the characters and the great performances of Lange and Pfeiffer show what magnificent actresses they are.
Director Jocelyn Moorhouse has done three other films that have greatly impressed me;PROOF (with Russel Crowe 1991 Australia),HOW TO MAKE AN AMERICAN QUILT,and MURIEL'S WEDDING (also Australia).Ths fact that Laura Jones wrote the screenplay concerned me.Having seen her other book adaptations,OSCAR AND LUCINDA,ANGELA'S ASHES,PORTRAIT OF A LADY and AN ANGEL AT MY TABLE,I was not hopeful as I had not cared for any of these adaptations,BUT,with Moorhouse directing Jones' screenplay this time, the film had a fluidity and great character development,which I had found wonting in the other films.
Inheritances,family secrets and a tyrannical parent are a bitch.I know it!If this is your story,you will readily embrace A THOUSAND ACRES and till the land.If not, you will probably bypass this film until this happens to you.The fact that Jane Smiley's novel A THOUSAND ACRES is an update of William Shakespeare's KING LEAR adds much weight as a great piece of source material that seems to be timeless. It is this particular retelling, though, that resonated in my soul.The DVD print is flawless and letterboxed widescreen with no extras.
Underrated family drama with sizzling work by Pfeiffer and Lange
2007-08-23 - BEWARE SPOILERS!
One of the Message Boards threads at IMDb had two women talking about Colin Firth, how they watched the movie only because of him. Obviously these were two young women; but what struck me is how little this movie has been appreciated by audiences generally. The brilliant, and I mean brilliant, performances by Michelle Pfeiffer and Jessica Lange were hardly noticed, not only by audiences, but by the Academy and by most of the critics.
I think I know why. First, the plot--or actually just the setup--is a kind of bastardization of Shakespeare's King Lear with the dying, crazy patriarch and the three scheming daughters who will inherit. Their names even begin with the same letters, Regan, Goneril, and Cordelia--Rose, Ginny, and Caroline. And I guess "Larry" (Jason Robards) works for "Lear." The apparent idea envisioned by Jane Smiley in her Pulitzer Prize winning novel was to tell a Lear-like story from the point of view of the daughters, and to tell it in a sort of late twentieth century realistic way not considered by the Bard. The problem is, in Smiley and Moorhouse's story, the two older daughters are very human with strengths and weaknesses while the father is a most despicable character without much in the way of redeeming qualities. His only strength is his ability to make a financial success of the farm; however, we can even discount that since his father and grandfather before him built the farm and he inherited it.
The second problem--and this is one I cannot personally attest to, not having read Smiley's novel--is that the movie is only a limited and partial interpretation of that novel. Still, it is almost always the case that an excellent novel, especially a long and ambitious one with many psychological nuances, cannot be faithfully transferred to the screen. The vision and audio demands of film drown out the subtleties of a narration while the time constraints don't allow for the full development of character and motivation achieved by the novelist. Given five or six hours, perhaps Moorhouse could have made a movie more in keeping with Smiley's novel.
A third problem is one that is perhaps Moorhouse's alone. She began her directing career with the very well done Aussie film Proof (1991) starring Russell Crowe. She follow it up with How to Make an American Quilt (1995) which celebrated women, especially women of a certain age. However it was a bit heavy-handed and clearly and determinedly a chick flick. In a sense A Thousand Acres takes off from there, showing us not only the point of view of women, but does so in a way that may seem politically motivated to some. Larry Cook is clearly a bad, bad daddy. He beat his daughters and he had carnal knowledge of them. He ran the household with an iron fist. Jess (Colin Firth's character) seduces the inexperienced Ginny and breaks her heart for nothing more than a bit of fun it would appear. And then he goes to Rose, who clearly is going to be the power behind the new ownership, and hooks up with her, while incidentally inducing her husband to end his life in a drunken accident. The rest of the men are one-dimensional characters without nuance, the way they often appear in romance novels. I think most audiences were put off by the heavy-handed incest, adultery and sexual betrayal that was woven into the story.
Having said all this, I think the critics and the public are wrong. I think the direction was biased against men, but in this story it needed to be. I think Moorhouse did a fine job of making an emotional and engaging film about family dynamics that were none too pretty. And the acting by Pfeiffer and Lange was nothing short of sensational. They seemed to feed off of one another in a way that I found absolutely authentic and deeply moving. In particular Pfeiffer was riveting as she projected her bent-up anger and hatred. The way Moorhouse allowed her character to be revealed to us gradually is a tribute to her ability as a director as well as to Pfeiffer's outstanding performance. And the skill with which Moorhouse guided the change in Ginny's character as she went from a "ninny," as she called herself, to someone with self-awareness and some understandable bitterness, was also excellent. The fact that she left her husband was as much out of shame as anything else. He needed to go get her and forgive her and bring her back. And Robards in his intensity and madness was also very good.
I predict that this film, which bombed in theaters, will be better appreciated in the years to come as people see it on DVD. My question is, whatever happened to Moorhouse? Her talent is obvious, but she has yet to director her fourth feature film. When she does I hope she remembers to go with what she believes but to be fair as well. I think, actually she was fair to the two lead character in this film, but didn't pay enough attention to the others. In addition to the unnuanced father, Jennifer Jason Leigh's Caroline was unfinished, leaving us to wonder about why she did some of the things she did. And the husbands needed to be something more than mannequins. They needed to be engaged and involved.
Very Dramatic, Great Performances, & Memorable 
2007-04-15 - This is one of those very dramatic dramas that seem to stay with you after you watch it. Three sisters have very conflicted feelings towards their father who is growing more and more disorientated as he ages and continues to be an alcoholic. What happened in the past to make this father resent his daughters so much and why do they feel the way they do? If you like family in distress movies then this is sure to peak your interest. Michelle Pfeiffer and Jessica Lange have a very good on screen chemistry.
EXCELLENT MOVIE
2007-03-30 - Not a big box office success this is really a very good movie. Great performances from Michelle Pfeiffer, Colin Firth, Jessica Lange and Jason Robards.
Subtle and thoughtful drama with a powerhouse cast
2005-09-22 - I wish this hadn't bombed at the box office because this was an excellent film adaptation of one of my favorite contemporary novels by Jane Smiley. I guess the themes are a little tough--incest, madness, marital infidelity, ugly family secrets, cancer and the corrupting power of sex and money aren't exactly pick-me-ups. But the actors are superb--Jessica Lange really captures the essence of her trapped-in-girlhood character as does Michelle Pfeiffer as her feisty younger sister who masks her pain behind anger. Jennifer Jason Leigh, Keith Carradine, Jason Robards and my favorite, Colin Firth (complete with Midwestern accent--check out how he tries to say "farm" like an Iowan!) complete this stellar cast and everyone is terrific.
The story is a slightly different take on the story of King Lear, with Robards as an aging farmer who decides to leave his one-thousand acre farm to his three daughters, sparking life-changing conflict for them all. The story is quietly told, with two of the sisters finally acknowleding the abuse of their childhoods and searching for new hope as adults. Mixed into the tale is a subplot of adultery and betrayal.
I looked for this film for years after reading the book and am glad to have finally experienced it. If you like the stuff of real-life drama, this is a compelling story that will hold your attention and make you think.
