Amber Waves (1980)

Highly Overrated But Still Good

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties. It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

Amber Waves (1980) is one of those little miracles of television that appeared at a time when so many low-quality TV movies were being produced. With a strong cast that includes Dennis Weaver, Kurt Russell and Mare Winningham, this poignant story is only superficially about American patriotism during the Vietnam war era--its true strength is in the humanity of the characters and the essence of their struggles to find meaning in an often heartless, random world. Kurt Russell is a vain, self-absorbed and angry male model who gets stranded in Kansas after a photo shoot and is helped out by a passing farmer (Weaver) who has learned that he has terminal cancer. Bridging the divide between the honest, hardworking farmer and the selfish young man is Mare Winningham, the daughter of the farmer, who is attracted to Russell's character but is also disappointed at his lack of character and work ethic. The farmer hires the young man to help with the urgent harvest work, and the young man only takes the job so he can have enough money to go home again.Weaver plays his role without any bombast or melodrama...you can just feel his mortality slipping away from him, yet he knows he must set his fears aside to be able to get the harvest done on time and save his farm and his daughter's future. Russell's character is seething and confused, looking for something meaningful to give him a sense of purpose. Part of his attraction to Winningham's character is that she represents something more real and more beautiful than anything he has known before.Amber Waves is a highly underrated and moving story about people and their core values that holds up well even more than 30 years after the movie was made.

Kurt Russell is a womanizing, irresponsible male model who is both full of himself and improbably on a shoot in the wheat fields of the Midwest, while aging Dennis Weaver works nearby with the barely profitable wheat harvesting company that he owns. Each man is having the worst day of his life, as Kurt is beaten up in a bar then fired for his now un-photographable looks and he ends up headed back to NYC with no money to get there. Meanwhile, Weaver's credit is caput at his bank, he can't find a buyer for his troubled firm and his doctor has just told him he has terminal cancer. Weaver picks up a young hitch-hiker, who happens to be Russell and when Weaver drops him off in the city the cops pounce on the young man for hitch-hiking and vagrancy, which will no doubt net him a term on a chain gang.Weaver bails out the young model and at first his motive appears to be altruism, but his agenda becomes clear when he announces he's short of labor and that he's shanghaiing Russel to be a part of his crew. A duck out of water at first, the arrogant young pretty-boy/model gradually toughens up physically and even begins to develop character, thanks to the hard work and the good example set by straight-arrow Weaver. Against all odds Russell turns into a valuable member of the crew. Enter Weaver's daughter, played by Mare Winningham, who ends up falling for Russell, who discovers a noble streak he never knew he had, as he tells Winningham to save her love for "somebody who deserves it." This is a simple, beautiful film that puts to shame the noisy, head-rattling and cartoon-ish drivel that graces our movie theaters these days. The fine script features realistic parts for Weaver, Russell, Winningham and Wilford Brimley, who deliver uniformly fine performances. After watching this you will feel you've experienced a part of America you've probably never seen and gotten to know some people who speak and act straight from the heart.

Who would have thought that a TV movie about wheat-whackers would be this good? (See other reviews for detailed description.) Dennis Weaver, Kurt Russell, and Mare Winningham are uniformly excellent in their roles in a dramatic (but never melodramatic) script by veteran television series writer Ken Trevey ("Gunsmoke," "The Big Valley," "Lou Grant," et al.). It might sound like a snooze-fest, but you won't regret watching this one.

I have looked for this movie on TV, satellite, and rental. It has not been shown in our area in over six years. I would like to see it released or at least shown on TV so I can copy it. It's a very good family/romance type movie. That also deals honestly with life, love, growing up, facing responsibilities and the hardship of farming during wheat harvest.