One of the most acclaimed TV movies of 1981, it's rather slow moving and not really triumphant in spite of a good cast and an intriguing storyline. Dennis Weaver has a wheat crop to get in and finds out that he is in need of an operation for lung cancer. Not really having the strength to do it all, he comes to depend on the arrival of a stranger played by Kurt Russell, and soon finds that his dream could come true.
Lots of twists and turns and good performances, especially by Emmy winning Mare Winningham as his daughter, but some of the plot elements (such as the arrival of a son uninterested in the crop and a fire that comes out of nowhere) it to a nearly dead crop that at times it seems much ado about nothing. There were better films in the 1980's about rural folk in the country having struggles, and while this one is noble in its efforts, it doesn't really stand the test of time as anything extraordinary.
Lots of twists and turns and good performances, especially by Emmy winning Mare Winningham as his daughter, but some of the plot elements (such as the arrival of a son uninterested in the crop and a fire that comes out of nowhere) it to a nearly dead crop that at times it seems much ado about nothing. There were better films in the 1980's about rural folk in the country having struggles, and while this one is noble in its efforts, it doesn't really stand the test of time as anything extraordinary.