Starring: Annabeth Gish, Bill Raymond, David Ducey, Mac Pirkle, James Cromwell Directed By: Gilbert Cates Average Rating: Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated) Binding: DVD Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Full Screen, NTSC Label: Pbs Paramount Number of Items: 1 Region Code: 1 Release Date: June 07, 2005 Running Time: 90 minutes Theatrical Release Date: 2002
Description: An adaptation of James Agee's Pulitzer Prize-winning classic about a man's death and its impact on his family. Set in 1915, the film recreates Agee's small, painstakingly drawn world of domestic happiness and shows how quickly it can be destroyed.
A Death in the Family A Death in the family is an awesome movie with great actors/actresses. The actors/actresses did an outstanding job with presenting the characters as the novel did. I felt that the movie was 100% better than the novel!
Life in 1915 For A Knoxville Family. Produced as a Hallmark Hall of Fame production on PBS, this re-creation of James Agee's novel was filmed in Franklin, in Middle Tennessee, just South of Nashville. The book was set in Knoxville, so it riled a few of the locals for this well-documented production to be filmed away from here. In the Seventies, there was a movie made called "All The Way Home" about this very same book. Eddie Sisk, a lawyer I worked for in Pulaski, was a student at UT-K at the time and had the 'stand-in' slot for Robert Preston. Jean Simmons played wife Mary.
In the PBS Special, David Alford had one of the lead roles and was perfect for the part of the artist brother. I knew him when he was but a lad, growing up in Pulaski, where his dad was Dean at Martin College. The other actors were all superb and followed the play as it should be presented. Rufus was darling as he craved an 'older-boys' cap.
Agee had an obsession about Chaplain (a new book is out about this fact) and so, in the book, he had Jay to take son Rufus to see a Chaplain movie at the Majestic Theater near the Roxy. On the way home, they stop by the bar, as Agee was a drinking fellow. This story is the last he wrote and it was autobiographical -- said it was killing him. All the while, it was the liquor.
When they visited the relatives in LaFollette, they were the same as mine in Knoxville -- a strange old aunt who was so fierce it scared the children. The wrong member of the family dies, and causes a tragedy for everyone, especially six-year-old Rufus who had to grow up suddenly.
The setting in Franklin was so much like Knoxville in the earlier film that it would not be noticeable had no one made an issue. As the artist, David Alford, excelled as an actor. Of course, I am being partial.
After thirty years, it was a privilege for Tennessee to be honored with this British performance which was kind enough to use local actors. It is a superior film and worth watching for Agee fans and those who want to know something about him.
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