Milagro Beanfield War (1988) – Farmers in a small southwestern town fight for their way of life against a developer that is slowly buying up both their land and water rights.
Directed by Robert Redford Starring Ruben Blades, Sonia Braga, Daniel Stern
Why You Will Like It: Great characters make up for an unfocused script.
This was Redford’s next directorial effort after picking up the Oscar for “Ordinary People”. I don’t know if the eight-year layoff had an effect or if he didn’t put in the time to do this movie right. Either way, we end up with a movie with a lot of untapped potential.
The story, based on John Nichols’s novel of the same name, is a standard “little guys fighting the corporate baddies”. There are no surprises here. Which is fine, there are plenty of movies that manage to make this trope interesting. Add in a solid cast, and Redford would seem to have all the pieces needed to create something worthwhile. But it all falls short. The cast does what it can, Redford’s direction is adequate, if unspectacular. The fault is in the script.
The writers never decide whose movie it is going to be. There has to be a focal point and they can’t decide who they want it to be. Is it the sheriff? The rebellion leading farmer? His radical writer love interest? How about the spooky old man? Or the idealistic young researcher? Any of these choices would have turned this into a much more interesting movie than it is. But they never make that choice and the movie suffers because of it. The story wanders back and forth, never drawing the viewer into the story. There’s not even a good villain to root against! The corporate baddies are the worst kind of cardboard stereotypes. They are the least interesting part of the movie. And this trope does best when there is an antagonist with some depth.
There’s a “Spot the Stars” element in this movie. In addition to the three listed above, you can watch for Melanie Griffith (in a terrible role), John Heard, Christopher Walken, Freddy Fender, and M. Emmett Walsh. It would have been nice if they’d been given more to work with in the script.
And it’s all too bad. I wanted to fall in love with this movie, to care. Instead, I got something that was just “OK”.
Rating – *** Worth A Look
Stories Are My Life 
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