Cross Creek (1983)

Director:

Martin Ritt

Writers:

Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings (book)
Dalene Young (screenplay)

Release Date:

9 August 1985 (Sweden)

Genre:

Biography | Drama

Tagline:

The portrait of a woman who, at the edge of survival, found a world of meaning.

Plot Keywords:

Typewriter | Orange Grove | Florida | Deer | Author

Awards:

Nominated for 4 Oscars. Another 3 nominations

US TV Schedule:

Sat. Aug. 23	6:30 AM	SHOW
Wed. Aug. 27	6:00 AM	SHOW

Cast

Mary Steenburgen	...	Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
Rip Torn	...	Marsh Turner
Peter Coyote	...	Norton Baskin
Dana Hill	...	Ellie Turner
Alfre Woodard	...	Geechee
Joanna Miles	...	Mrs. Turner
Ike Eisenmann	...	Paul
Cary Guffey	...	Floyd Turner
Toni Hudson	...	Tim's Wife
Bo Rucker	...	Leroy
Jay O. Sanders	...	Charles Rawlings
John Hammond	...	Tim
Tommy Alford	...	Postal Clerk
Norton Baskin	...	Man in the Rocking Chair
Terrence Gehr	...	Store Keeper

Runtime:

127 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Colour:

Colour (Technicolor)

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Australia:G | Iceland:L | Argentina:Atp | Chile:TE | Finland:S | Sweden:Btl | USA:PG

Filming Locations:

Alachua County, Florida, USA

Company:

Thorn EMI Screen Entertainment

Trivia:

Cameo: [Malcom McDowell]Maxwell Perkins

Quotes:

[first lines]
Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings: [voiceover] My journey to maturity began in New York, in 1928. I was married to Charles Rawlings, the newspaper man and yachting enthusiast. I had been trying to write stories that I thought would be most likely to sell - gothic romances were extremely popular - and I had written dozens. I was desperate to express myself. Even as a child I'd been consumed with the desire to be a writer.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Making of 'E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial' (1996) (V)

Slight movie, saved by Rip Torn

This biography of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings (author of "The Yearling") covers her early career from her move to the rural Florida town of Cross Creek until she found her voice as an author and began being published.

I felt Mary Steenburgen was miscast. To survive the hardships that Rawlings had to overcome in getting her dilapidated house in order and turning her orange grove into a successful operation would imply that she was a pretty tough woman, both physically and mentally. When we see Steenburgen pitching in to clear tree roots and logs from a waterway she moves and acts more like a demure woman who would be more comfortable in fashionable society, and when she expresses anger one does not feel daunted by it in the least - it's like she is just reading her lines.

Steenburgen's slight performance is unfortunate since the entire supporting cast is quite good and Rip Torn is magnificent in his portrayal of Marsh Turner, a feisty and colorful local. Torn breaths such life into the formidable but kindly Turner that I found myself just waiting out the times between his appearances. A woman of equal power to match Turner (as I am sure the real Rawlings must have been) would have raised this film above the average. Someone like Kathyrn Hepburn or Judi Dench would have been good for this part.

The photography of rural 1930s Florida and the lush bayous was well done, as were the period details of dress and autos. There are memorable and touching scenes, like the one where Rawlings' housekeeper Geegee (Alfre in a fine performance) comes close to leaving. And the scenes involving the yearling in this movie are tremendously more powerful than they were in the movie "The Yearling."

Why certain real life facts were altered that would have made the story more believable and interesting is puzzling. In the movie we have Steenburgen announcing at an upscale New York party, seemingly out of nowhere, that she is going to move to Florida to manage an orange grove and, if her husband does not want to come with her, then that's the end of the marriage. In truth she purchased the land using an inheritance from her mother and her husband moved there with her. In short order her husband decided he could not take it and went back to New York.

All in all I did not get a feeling that I got to know the real Rawlings and, for that matter, the person Steenburgen was playing did not seem real to me.