`LAND GIRLS' MILKS TRIVIAL SIDE OF WOMEN IN WARTIME.Byline: Bob Strauss Daily News Film Critic English women farming. Not the most exciting of movie concepts. But a serious, convincing look at Britain's World War II Women's Land Army The Women's Land Army (WLA) was a British civilian organisation created during the First and Second World Wars to work in agriculture replacing men called up to the military. Women who worked for the WLA were commonly known as Land Girls. would have been preferable to the insipid romanticism that fertilizes every frame of ``The Land Girls.'' Supposedly a paean Paean (pē`ən), Paean was an epithet for Apollo, the healer. The paean, a hymn of praise to Apollo and often to other gods, was sung as a prayer for safety or deliverance at battles and other important occasions. to the plucky pluck·y adj. pluck·i·er, pluck·i·est Having or showing courage and spirit in trying circumstances. See Synonyms at brave. pluck lasses who tilled the fields and milked the cows while the men were off fighting Hitler, ``Land Girls'' comes as close to trivializing an honorable endeavor as any movie of recent vintage has. As this movie would have it, the vital task of filling the national breadbasket was nowhere near as empowering for city girls as learning the proper way to roll in the hay. The story is set in picturesque, rural Dorset in the winter of 1941-42, though it takes a Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor, land-locked harbor, on the southern coast of Oahu island, Hawaii, W of Honolulu; one of the largest and best natural harbors in the E Pacific Ocean. In the vicinity are many U.S. military installations, including the chief U.S. announcement and Christmas party to confirm that; birds sing, foliage blooms and verdant green Verdant Green is a fictional undergraduate at Oxford University, as featured in the Victorian novel The Adventures of Mr. Verdant Green, by Cuthbert M. Bede (a pseudonym of the clergyman Edward Bradley). He was a student at Brazenface College, a fictional college. meadows are plowed by people wearing nothing warmer than light sweaters throughout the picture. Three lovely young women report for duty at the Lawrence farm - which resembles the writings of D.H. in name and its air of preoccupied, bucolic eroticism Eroticism Aphrodite novel of Alexandrian manners by Pierre Louys. [Fr. Lit.: Benét, 783] Ars Amatoria Ovid’s treatise on lovemaking. [Rom. Lit. , if not in intelligence. Promiscuous, working-class Prue (Anna Friel), ultra-educated virgin Ag (Rachel Weisz) and classy catch Stella (Catherine McCormack) instantly bond into the best of buds. Farmer Lawrence (Tom Georgeson) hides his heart of gold with mildly gruff statements, to which his nice wife (Maureen O'Brien) is forever saying ``John, please.'' The girls take him in stride, but they are separately and collectively more bothered by the Lawrences' sulky sulky horse-drawn, ultra-lightweight, single-seater, two-wheeled vehicle used by Standardbreds in races. Called also bike, gig. son Joe (Steven Mackintosh), a 4-F case who is so angry over being rejected by the RAF that he just has to bed every female in a thousand-acre radius. Prue's the first to give Joe a try, of course. Ag eventually seeks him out for instruction. He doesn't mean much to either of them, mind; he's a drip, and besides, they know he's engaged to a local girl who was actually accepted into the air force. Fine and dandy; nothing wrong with a little release of wartime tensions, even if it takes time away from what the movie should really be about. But the film is irretrievably ir·re·triev·a·ble adj. Difficult or impossible to retrieve or recover: Once the ring fell down the drain, it was irretrievable. ir lost when Stella and Joe truly, ludicrously fall in love. Not only is this hound unfit to lick her mud-encrusted boots, she has a perfectly fine fiance of her own, a bit of a twit (like her), but a thoroughly decent naval officer NAVAL OFFICER. The name of an officer of the United States, whose duties are prescribed by various acts of congress. 2. Naval officers are appointed for the term of four years, but are removable from office at pleasure. Act of May 15, 1820, Sec. 1, 3 Story, L. stationed not so far away. (Indeed, judging by the parties and parades the supposedly hardworking Land Girls find time to attend, there's an ample supply of young blokes billeted nearby, which makes Joe's astonishing a·ston·ish tr.v. as·ton·ished, as·ton·ish·ing, as·ton·ish·es To fill with sudden wonder or amazement. See Synonyms at surprise. romantic success even more of a mystery). If they were going to take the insulting tack of turning ``The Land Girls'' into a soap opera, director David Leland, his co-scripter Keith Dewhurst and source novelist Angela Huth at the very least should have made it a persuasive one. But even then, the absence of the least bit of political context or gender consciousness in this alleged tribute - some 100,000 women joined the Land Army during the war, so it obviously had significant social impact - this pretty piece of fake nostalgia would still be preposterous. THE FACTS The film: ``The Land Girls'' (R; sex, language, mild violence). The stars: Catherine McCormack, Rachel Weisz, Anna Friel, Steven Mackintosh. Behind the scenes: Directed by David Leland. Written by Leland and Keith Dewhurst, based on Angela Huth's novel. Produced by Simon Relph. Released by Gramercy Pictures. Running time: One hour, 52 minutes. Playing: Goldwyn Pavilion, West L.A. Our rating: Two Stars. CAPTION(S): Photo Photo: With men away at war, Prue (Anna Friel), left, Ag (Rachel Weisz) and Stella (Catherine McCormack) report for farm duty in Britain. |
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