annevejb
This tries to look at some details of the story content, together with some detail in related films. I use those words rather than saying spoiler. For some this could detract from the story, others not. I purchased this DVD, together with In The Blink Of An Eye of 1996, because they are the first and second of the three features in which Randi-Lynn Strong has acted, so far. The last is A Kid Called Danger of 1999, which is also dreamy. Blink does not attempt to be dreamy. There are undercurrents to this story. They are underlined by way of several simple devices that would sound too fake if mentioned here, they would be spoiler stuff, but that simplicity might make it simpler for considering the issues as a family if some are rather young, which is what the Feature Films For Families seems geared to support. On the surface this has the charisma and dreamy qualities of A Kid Called Danger and could easily appeal to anyone who rates that a lot. All appear to be from the Utah film industry. * Lynn appears well down the alphabetically ordered IMDb cast list, as little Jane, aged around 9, so I had not expected her to have a big role. Except she is the first to appear on screen. The family are farmers. She is helping her dad to move some things into the attic and she finds a box precious to her mum, Ira. Among the stuff is something that dad calls a story which only mum can tell properly, so Jane heads out into the farm's fields and mum tells the story by way of flashbacks. So Lynn is fairly central to the plot, even though she only appears on and off. The lead, Ira at age 11, played by Kate Maberly, is also way down on any alphabetically ordered cast list. A visible feature of the plot is the harsh way that the Mexican migrant farm workers are understood by many of the locals. The farm run by young Ira's parent is very different, but when the migrants' understanding of good ways puts them outside of the rules of the immigration authorities they are not in tune enough to help them move to a solution that would allow them to continue as migrant workers. Meantime, Ira has big identity issues and no good solutions, either. Jane is called after big sister Jane, who Ira considers to have no sense at all, girlie. Except that on some issues Jane even gains respect from the guys at Ira's school. I understand the flashback parts of the story to be during a mid sixties summer. That is Jane's loves in music. 1960ish for the fashion. The mention of Nixon would put this between 1969 and 1974. Etc. The parts with Lynn could be 1990ish. I show that I know not much. The story was filmed in the Salt Lake City area and at the main Idaho valley, Rockies, American Falls, that baby level symbolism. As a male to female, for me the main issue is Ira not being Jane's dad. For me, the main flashbacks are about two boys, Ira and Oscar, during a last summer of freedom. Memories of George of the Famous Five. Tomboy feels a good word for how such was understood back then. * A Kid Called Danger centres on four boys, aged 13ish, who are trying to catch an escaped convict and solve the crime that got the man in jail. Said like that it does not sound dreamy, but I find it so. They notice Lynn – Kristi as she lives in the house they are staking out, but they understand her to be a 13ish boy who plays with teddy bears. They are not impressed. By the end of the story, Danger has given her a miniature bear and she now has Danger as her first ever live teddy. Real love. This feature was also filmed in the Rockies, it starts at the upper Colorado River or an impressive visual substitute, but most is around Utah cities: Salt Lake City and Provo and Orem. * Blink is different, it is the Salt Lake area possibly pretending to be Florida. It is a made for TV film rated PG-ish. It is about a woman, Sunny or Sonia, who was wrongly jailed for 16 years for murdering two policemen. Her childhood friend Micki plays a big part in getting her released. Lynn is mentioned in the IMDb cast list, but at Sept 2007 is one of several whose role is not given. The few above Lynn appear in the front screen credits, where the role is not stated. Those below her are not listed in the screen credits. The only time I recognise her is right at the beginning, scene setting by way of girl versions of the two main characters, then later in flashbacks to this. She is listed in the end credits as Micki at age 11. At the start there is a real potential for a dreamy story, just the main theme soon appears and it is a different sort of dream. * Ira – Kate of Friendship's Field occasionally looks like Cammie Belle. She very occasionally seems like her too. In Blink, Lynn looks a bit like Daveigh Chase. The song in Friendship's Field reminds me of The Dog Who Stopped The War, also dreamy. * I find Friendship's Field and Danger to be more okay than many Disney, Ice Princess and Get A Clue among the exceptions, though I consider the issues to be not as stated in the Friendship's DVD background notes. Updated, April 2008.
lightninboy
This is one of the Feature Films for Families, which are usually worth watching with your family. The setting is a sugar beet farm in Idaho. The farmer has three daughters, who are expected to hoe sugar beets upon reaching the age of twelve if they want any help with financing their college education. The youngest daughter, Ira, doesn't have to hoe beets yet, and she can run around doing what she wants. The farmer hires transient Mexican farm laborers to hoe sugar beets too. The girl makes friends with a young transient boy. It seems some teenage boys from town pick on the transient Mexicans. One rich boy in particular has a Buick convertible. Ira tells this story to her own daughter after she has grown up.
astra-4
Young Kate Maberly shines as Ira, the tomboy daughter of a farmer, in a story of friendship overcoming prejudice. Set in 1965, 11 year old Ira finds her first true friend in Oscar, a young Mexican son of migrant workers. Touching story of friendship, love and respect, told from Ira's perspective.
