One of the great summer pastimes, for millions of midwestern Americans, is the county fair.
Throughout the summer and early fall there are fairs and festivals on a weekly basis. Whether you love the animals, the agricultural products, the carnival rides (and vendors) or the food, there is something for every taste.
On occasion, Hollywood has stood up and taken notice of playtime in rural America and the plight of farm families. Let’s examine a few of our favorite films about fairs, carnivals and the people who live on their land.
Take One
In 1932, Phil Stong’s best selling novel “State Fair” was published and Fox Films wasted no time in turning it into a hit movie. “State Fair” (1933) was a straightforward comedy (with dramatic elements) starring Oscar-winning actress Janet Gaynor and the internationally famous social commentator and humorist Will Rogers. In 1945 the story was remade as a musical by the legendary Broadway team of Rodgers and Hammerstein (“Oklahoma,” “South Pacific,” “The Sound of Music”) starring Jeanne Crain and Dana Andrews. The score included the Oscar winning song “It Might As Well Be Spring.” This was the only R&H musical score created for a movie. Finally, in 1962, an updated musical adaptation appeared (based on the 1945 score) starring teen idols Pat Boone, Bobby Darin and Ann Margret. A television non-musical rendition aired in 1976 starring Vera Miles. “State Fair” finally made it to Broadway in 1996 for a limited run. All four filmed versions are available on Amazon Prime and YouTube. For my money, the 1945 version is the best, although the chance to see Rogers in 1933 is worth the investment.
“Minari” (2020) is a thought-provoking examination of cultural assimilation by a Korean family in rural America in the 1980s. Jacob Yi (Steven Yeun) and his wife Monica (Han Ye-ri) move their family of four to Arkansas to raise Korean vegetables for a growing Asiatic market. Monica is skeptical of the move and must deal with multiple problems at home and working the farm, not the least of which is their 7 year-old son David with a heart defect, and Monica’s irascible mother, Soon-ja, portrayed in an Oscar-winning performance by Youn Yuh-jung. Grandma is a chain-smoking inveterate gambler who has never been outside her hometown in Korea. The family endures while facing one hardship after another. This indie film was a critical and box office hit and garnered six Oscar nominations including Best Picture, Director, Actor and Screenplay, along with Yuh-jung’s win as Best Supporting Actress.
Take Two
Although the fair is often associated with the happiest days of summer, it can also be twisted into darker narratives. Take, for instance, Edmund Golding’s terrifying adaptation of William Lindsey Gresham’s “Nightmare Alley,” the original 1947 version. The film is centered on a mysterious figure who improbably rises through the tenuous performing ranks of a traveling carnival in spite of his unclear past. The plot then takes sweeping turn after turn, involving itself in the elite world of big-city psychology, premonitions of ghosts and outright deception. But, as with all “good” things, “Nightmare Alley” understands that its star’s journey must end, and insists on dragging its characters back down through the muck on their journey out. This fever dream of a movie is highlighted by blazing performances from Tyrone Power, Joan Blondell and the little known Helen Walker. It was remade a few years ago by Guillermo Del Toro in a faithful and respectful manner, yet failed to capture the sheer mystery and illusion of the original.
2009’s “Adventureland” will set a different tone. Made by the under-appreciated director, Greg Mottola, with a knockout cast helmed by Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart, the film was marketed as a raunchy comedy to help appease the late 2000s craze of sex comedies, but the film has little in common with the genre itself. A gentle, contemplative, and at times, quite funny, character study set in a small theme park in Western Pennsylvania that is full of great local atmosphere that will be familiar to Ohioans and other small town dwellers of every stripe. Stewart shines in one of her first non-”Twilight” roles and Ryan Reynolds steals the show as a pretentious poser who is called out by Eisenberg in his fraud.
Finally in 1984 Hollywood caught farm fever. Three thought-provoking films based on the travails of farming were produced with generally wide acclaim. “Places in the Heart” featuring Sally Field’s Oscar-winning performance as a widowed Depression-era farm wife,”The River” with Sissy Spacek (also Oscar nominated) and “Country” starring the husband-and-wife team of Jessica Lange and Sam Shepard.
(This column is written jointly by a baby boomer, Denny Parish, and a millennial, Carson Parish, who also happen to be father and son.)
