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THE LAND GIRLS Send This Review to a Friend
THE LAND GIRLS harks back to World War II when Britain was under Nazi air attack and gripped by food shortages. Into the breach stepped the Women's Land Army, comprised of volunteers from various segments of society who were assigned to help farmers grow their crops so that their sons would be free to fight. Angela Huth wrote a novel recalling those days and director David Leland, who with Keith Dewhurst wrote the screenplay based on the novel, has created a richly romantic saga built around three winsome young ladies who arrive at a farm to do their duty as "land girls."
Life isn't all drudgery down on the farm. The chores are alleviated by the presence of the farmer's son Joe (Steven MacKintosh), who yearns to be a pilot but meanwhile provides the women with other services, and falls in love with one of them. One land girl is brassy and flirty, one a virgin in need and the other engaged to an upscale naval officer seeing action.
Leland has cast three compelling actresses who are deservedly gaining prominence-- Catherine McCormack, Rachel Weisz and Anna Friel, each of whom is interesting and enjoyable to watch. The film glows with the authenticity of a romantic period novel and re-creates the live-for-today feelings that were an outgrowth of wartime desperation. "The Land Girls" also gains from dealing with what, at least on this side of the Atlantic, is an all but unknown historical part of Britain's war effort. A Gramercy Pictures release.
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