Northern Lights (1978) was written and directed by John Hanson and Rob Nilsson. The setting is rural North Dakota about a century ago.
The film stars Robert Behling as Ray Sorensen, a young farmer who works on his father's farm with his brother John, portrayed by Joe Spano. Susan Lynch plays the woman Ray loves, Inga Olsness. The rest of the cast are non-professionals. They're local people in North Dakota.
This is a powerful film about the hardships of crushing poverty, despite the strong work ethic of the farmers. Big business interests and conservative politicians conspired to bring the farmers into debt, which ultimately lead to the foreclosure of their farms.
As the movie progressives, we follow Ray Sorensen as he recognizes the injustices around him, and becomes an organizer for the liberal Nonpartisan League (NPL). In the early 20th Century, many NPL candidates were elected to government offices. The party enacted its progressive programs, including establishing state-owned banks, mills, and a railroad.
The film was amazingly effective in making us feel--not just see--the cold weather and the terrible predicament in which good people found themselves.
The absolutely brilliant b/w cinematography was the work of Judy Irola. Almost every frame could be enlarged into a great still photo.
If you can't see this film, you obviously can't appreciate it, and that's the problem. We found an unused VHS, which hadn't deteriorated too badly.
Previous reviewers have lamented the lack of this movie in DVD. No copies are available in DVD or VHS on Amazon or eBay. Some colleges own copies, so maybe you could get the film via interlibrary loan.
Northern Lights has an anemic 7.0 IMDb rating. I'm not sure why it's so low. It's much better than that.
This is a great movie. It would surely work better on a large screen, but it worked well enough for us on VHS. If you can find it, see it!
