‘In Country’ Director Has New Focus on War

Director Norman Jewison thinks of himself as a farmer.

“I am,” he said. “I really am a farmer. I live on a farm. We have 85 head of breeding cattle. When I’m not making movies, I’m back on my farm, shoveling real manure.

“What do I do--a film every two years? So most of the time I’m in Canada, taking care of the farm. It’s added years to my life.”

When Jewison isn’t farming, he does movies like “Rollerball,” “Jesus Christ Superstar,” “Moonstruck” and “In Country.” “Moonstruck” won several Oscars.

“I’m very pleased with the new film,” he said of “In Country,” which is based on the novel by Bobbie Ann Mason. “It really has no plot. It’s an American art movie. It’s about people. It sneaks up on you. When you get to the scene at the dance, it starts to move, and you end up being very involved. The film is the story of a Kentucky family’s odyssey, and when they get to ‘the wall,’ the Vietnam Memorial, it is truly touching.”

“There have been 52 films done on Vietnam,” Jewison said. “This one could only be made now, 17 years later. It isn’t about the conflict itself. One reason I wanted to make it is that it says something about Vietnam that none of the other films has. Of course, I liked ‘Platoon,’ and I liked ‘Full Metal Jacket,’ but I didn’t like ‘The Deer Hunter.’ It was a distortion of history. That business about the Viet Cong playing Russian roulette was simply silly. The film was too manipulative.”

Jewison was reluctant to do a film about Vietnam. “I was totally against the American involvement in the war,” he said. “I changed my mind when I was sent a draft of the script. I read it and wept.

“The war was as important to this century as the Civil War was to the last. We lost our confidence in our leadership and in ourselves. The American dream was in jeopardy. That’s why it won’t go away. ‘In Country’ is a healing film. Both the book and the film are healing. I like to think of them that way.”

In the film, Bruce Willis plays Emmett Smith, a Vietnam vet who hasn’t been able to put it all behind him. His niece, played by Emily Lloyd, had lost her father in Vietnam. She had never seen him, and she pumps her uncle to learn more about the war and her father. She, too, is having trouble putting it all behind her.