As an attempt to address the grand issues of the loss of rural life and adaptation to modernization, \Red Betsy"" brings an emotional account of the generation gap to the big screen.
Set in the '40s, the film follows the Rounds, a rural farm family in southern Wisconsin. Newly married, Dale (Brent Crawford) and Winifred (Alison Elliott) decide to sacrifice a bit of the present in order to save for the future. Dale enlists in the Army for a one-year term and Winifred remains on the farm with Dale's father, Emmet (Leo Burmester), while teaching in the local school.
Emmet symbolizes all that is left of rural farm life; he refuses to rely on electricity for fear of becoming dependent on it, he does not want to care about the war in Europe because it has no bearing on his daily life and he will not let his decisions be muddled by his emotions. Emmet resents Winifred's education and does not want to see Dale corrupted by what he feels are her ""high and mighty"" ways.
Predictably, Winifred becomes pregnant on her and Dale's wedding night and is almost to term when she and Emmet receive the news of Dale's death. Winifred's dreams of a modernized and progressive life are crushed as she decides to honor Dale's only request: to look after Emmet. She finds herself dealing with Emmet blaming her for his son's death as well as her own broken heart.
""Red Betsy"" adeptly delves into the deep emotions of the period while still managing to demonstrate the emotional reserve common to the Midwest. The effects of technological ""progress"" on human relationships and communities in the World War II generation can easily be related to more recent dealings with technology.
However, despite its moving portrayal of how life adjusts to uncontrollable events, the film shows weakness in plot. There are scenes where significant emotional power is needed but the actual events of the scene cannot carry the emotional weight necessary, at times making it more melodramatic than moving. In one example, there is extreme drama over Winifred's daughter venturing onto the roof and being rescued with a ladder. In reality, the event would seem to cause only a small fuss rather than the screaming and crying portrayed in the film.
Nonetheless, ""Red Betsy"" provides valuable insight into an era often overlooked and leads to reflection on what is gained and lost in the hurry to institute new technology.
Based on the short story by director Chris Boebol's father, who spent his childhood in Boscobel, Wisconsin, ""Red Betsy"" focuses on an area of the country as well as historical issues that are not commonly presented on screen. The Daily Cardinal recently spoke with Boebel about Wisconsin community life, rural electrification and Boebel's success with the film.
""Red Betsy"" addresses the conflicts between rural and urban life in the Midwest. How did you try and bring that out in the film?
Certainly there's the whole theme of rural electrification and, you know, Emmet's resistance to that. You know, I think I was kinda interested in how things like that sort of simultaneously, in a way, obviously provide opportunities for people to bring communities together but also, you know, can pull communities apart. And then the other thing is sort of the way technology, all technology, has sort of a good side and a bad side. I think I was definitely interested in just the two-sided, doubled-bladed aspect of technology and change.
How do these issues relate to you personally?
Well, you know, a lot of it's through the story and through my father. You know, my dad grew up on a farm just outside Boscobel, Wis., and a lot of the story that he wrote is based on reminiscences of growing up that way. He went to a one-room schoolhouse without electricity. They didn't have indoor plumbing.
It was really a way of life in this rural community and it almost had more to do with the 19th century than the way we live now, certainly, or even the way people were living 10 or 15 years later. So my dad, I think was really interested in trying to sort of capture, you know, a snapshot, if you want, of how he grew up and basically try to preserve it in a certain way and think back on how the world and his community had changed since he was a kid to now. Although certainly change doesn't stop. When I think about the changes in the last five or 10 years, I mean it's just sort of this ever accelerating process of technological change which really, really affects the community and it affects people in a lot unexamined ways.
What is the primary message you hope people will get from the movie, and do you feel that that message can be applied to today's society?
I was really interested in thinking about the way tragedies, wars, bad events affect people for years and years and years. You know, they're not just kind of things that happen and then, you know, there's a moment of catharsis and you're okay again, the way they are often depicted.
They hang around in sometimes surprising, sometimes unexamined ways for a long, long time. As I said, it takes people years to get over them and I think they get over them in very small moments, in very small ways, small comings together rather than very large melodramatic sort of breakthroughs or reconciliations or whatever. I guess that was kind of maybe the more primary thing I was interested in: looking at how people move on with their lives after these things happen. And then the other thing is certainly families and how, you know, there's no such thing as the typical family.
Have you been surprised by the success of the movie so far?
I'm just happy when people see it, and you know in terms of success or whatever, I mean it sounds stupid to say it but it is kind of secondary. I made it because I wanted to, because I liked the story and I felt like it said something I wanted to say and it was an incredible honor to adapt my dad's story just personally. You know, I had all of those reasons, so I feel like whenever people get the chance to see it, for me personally, it's a success.
