This superb film tells the story of 'the Land Girls' as they were called during World War II. They were young women, generally single women, who in order to assist the war effort volunteered to go work on farms. So many men had left to serve in the military that food production was suffering. So 'the Land Girls' stepped in. Many of them had never set foot on a farm before, and there were many comical situations as they learned how to milk a cow, drive a tractor, and deal with manure. This story concerns three girls who go to live on a very rough farm indeed. The filming was done in West Somerset, near Dulverton, and it is all 'very very real'. This is no Hollywood fakery, this is the real thing. When there is mud, it is real Somerset mud, and when there is a primitive farmhouse, you can be sure that it had really been lived in recently. The film is thus drenched in authenticity. The three girls are played very well indeed by Catherine McCormack, Rachel Weisz, and Anna Friel. McCormack is the best. This film is so good that it deserved an Oscar nomination, but of course being a modest budget British film it did not 'fit' the expectations of the folks in California. This film has it all: love, romance, joy, tragedy, comedy, charm. And it also shows the ghastly side of old-style country life. Nothing is spared to show us what it was all really like then. Americans trying to understand can think 'pioneers'. The film is expertly directed by David Leland. He first came to widespread attention in Britain with his first film, WISH YOU WERE HERE (1987), but this film is far better than that one. The story is based on a novel by Angela Huth, whose step-grandson Frank is godson to my wife. In 2010 she published a sequel novel entitled ONCE A LAND GIRL. Between 2009 and 2011 there was a British TV series, THE LAND GIRLS, which was not based upon Huth's books but dealt with the same subject and was very poorly received and has some terrible reviews on IMDb. The subject of the Land Girls and their potential as subjects for a film has been around for a long time. I remember many years ago Charles Dance grumbling to me at his then house in Somerset (when his then wife insisted on boxing with me and nearly knocked me out) that he had wanted and tried very hard to set up a film about the Land Girls but failed to find the backing. And that was before this film was made. So it is not always the first to think of things who succeed in pulling them off. But no one can complain of this marvellous result, for frankly I find it difficult to imagine a better film on the subject.
Review of The Land Girls
