The Real Dirt on Farmer John – Movie Review
We recently viewed the movie, The Real Dirt on Farmer John. All we knew before watching it was it was supposed to be the inspirational, true-life story of a successful, independent farmer. Excellent – a movie about the farm that doesn’t involve a talking pig!
However, the beginning of the movie made us wonder if we had been duped – what did this man wearing a pink boa riding a tractor, talking about being “different” have to teach us? We seriously pondered grabbing the remote and watching a talking pig movie instead. Fortunately, we didn’t. By the second half of the movie our connection to Farmer John began to flourish.
Personally, coming from a family who filmed my life in 8mm and super 8mm, I appreciated the use of John’s family film footage. The downfalls and realizations that brought the story full circle – from the farm chores of a child to the successes as a young farmer to the loss of the family farm to foreclosure auctions and, finally, to a successful CSA farm birth – was the most magical part of the story. We are grateful for Farmer John’s mother’s foresight and his own for documenting the whole story and sharing it. It takes courage to show the world your eccentricities and failures.
We highly recommend this film to everyone – whether you are an old scandanavian farming family or a city farmer wannabe, you’ll appreciate it. As odd as the beginning of this movie is – the lessons of tolerance, sustainable living and environmental awareness are well played out in this docudrama. 4 Pea Pods out of 5! 🙂
-Jen