Women take turns in giving thanks innJessica Lange’s Country, significantly,nsince the men in the movie are eithernold or broken by their lack of capitalistnsuccess. In River Sissy Spacek has hernchildren thank Sun and Earth for theirnfood, the single phoniest scene in anmovie reeking with phoniness. A list ofnreasons for success and failure couldnbe lengthened, but in the end Rivernand Country fail to give us a satisfyingnpicture of the American farmer becausenthey lack a simple and sincerenpicture of his religion.nThe inadequacy of River and Countrynmay best be judged by contrastingnthem with the rural vision portrayed innthe Australian Peter Weir’s Witness. AnPennsylvania Dutch Amish child witnessesna brutal murder in Philadelphia’snThirtieth Street Railroad Station.nHarrison Ford, a detective,nreturns with the child and his widowednmother to the Amish country wherenthey hide out from the murderers. ThenAmish have removed themselves fromnhedonistic, capitalist America. Theynare thrifty and hardworking pacifists,nand they occasionally suffer from violentnteenagers and rude tourists. Theynare free, however, and their freedom isnrooted in community and religion.n(They are also the one part of ruralnAmerica unequivocally praised bynWendell Berry.) Again, saying grace isnsignificant. Ford has taken mother andnchild to a downtown fast-food jointnand is literally biting into his hamburgernas the two bow their heads innsilent prayer. He is frozen in embarrassment,nmouth agape, staring atnthem. It is a funny and beautifulnscene, and we are reminded of how farnthe urban American is from the naturalnresponse of most people, who thanknGod for what He has given them.nAre the rural worlds of Witness andnPlaces in the Heart Rousseauistic fantasies?nI did not find them so. They arenneeded reminders that our culture’snfuture must be rooted, that the land,nlovingly used and cultivated, can createnculture as well as cultivation, characternas well as crops. True productivitynis rooted in a way of life and a way ofnlife must have community and religionnas well as family and personalnsuccess. The farmer enjoyed a shortlivednsuccess on the silver screen as thenlatest addition to our nation’s pantheonnof victims. It is not an honor henneeds, just as he does not need hisnersatz “rights” protected or the laws ofneconomics turned upside down fornhim. We all, farmers and not, need tonremember that all culture and allncreativity—I do not speak ofnproductivity—are rooted in family,nwork, community, religion. To feelnthem as alien, as many film people do,nis to hate the human. We need tonadmire less our Audubon Society Magazine,nwith its lovely scenes of naturenempty of human presence, and appreciatenmore our Grant Wood AmericannGothic. The businessman engaged innstrip mining and the environmentalistnzealously protecting empty spaces arencloser than they think. Against themnstands the farmer, user of the land,ncultivator of it, worshiping and workingnwith friends and family. It is anmodel of the truly human, and wencannot see it too often.nE. Christian Kopffis professor of classicsnat the University of Colorado andnan editor of Glassical Journal.nMUSICnSelling the Farm:nCountry Music innthe 80’snby Janet Scott BarlownIf it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.nFor 30 years country music has alternatelynignored and embraced thatnsmall truth, always bouncing betweennthe apparent threat of extinction andnlast-minute rescue. And now, after andecade of “evolution” and “transition,”nthe country music industrynagain is surprised that the real thingnwas good enough all along; that, indeed,nthe real thing may be the onlynthing. In spite of losses (Ernest Tubb isngone; Tammy Wynette hasn’t had a hitnin years) and distractions (countrynmusic videos), the line separating traditionalnand contemporary music isnobvious once more.nA path of musical influence andnaffection and homage can be followednbackward from John Anderson tonGeorge Jones to Hank Williams; fromnEmmylou Harris to Kitty Wells to thennnCarter Family; from Ricky Skaggs tonBill Monroe; from Merle Haggard tonLefty Frizzell; from Willie Nelson to anwhole lot of people. But a trip backwardnfrom Barbara Mandrell ends upnat Wayne Newton. Kenny Rogers is anNashville version of Perry Como, andnAlabama is a rock group for peoplenwho don’t like rock. This is the Too-nEasy Listening School of countrynmusic, and its popularity has givennnew meaning to the term crossover,nobscuring the essence and function ofncountry music with a mechanicalnblend of down-home showmanshipnand uptown talent. While there is nonlaw against success, there is somethingnsad and ridiculous and pointiess aboutngeneric country music. It is enough tonknow that Kenny Rogers’ songs arenplayed in public elevators.nThe blurring of distinctions, thendilution of definitions, the confusionnof the organic with the synthetic arennothing new to country music. Whatnstarted in the 50’s as a stopgap to rockn’n’ roll—which, it was feared, madencountry music vulnerable to its ownnhillbilly constrictions—took off in earnestnduring the 60’s. It was then thatnthe powers that be in Nashville, GhetnAtkins first among them, discoverednthe formula. They found that by dullingnthe edge of the traditional countrynsound they could broaden their currentnmarket while recasting their hokeynimage. Guided by the questionablenpremise that a progressively more homogenizedncountry audience naturallynexpected a progressively more homogenizedncountry sound, these mennbegan to define the music by someonenelse’s terms and play the game bynsomeone else’s rules.nThe result was some overdressed butnstill recognizable country music.nNashville was turning out hits thatnforced fans to listen around the violinsnto get to the good stuff, which wasnirritating but not impossible. ButnNashville, already hooked on the ideanthat you can’t have too much of a goodnthing, was prepared to make it irritatingnand impossible.nBy the late 70’s, the country musicnindustry had grown so aggressively cosmopolitan,nso purposefully “relevant,”nthat it turned out songs that didn’tnsound like country songs, to be performednby singers who didn’t soundnlike country singers, on records thatnJULY 1986/45n