Americans, being great patriots of their not very long history, have always loved to shoot a topic about the history of their states, demonstrating how their residents, even years later, were able to preserve their long-standing traditions, adapting to modern realities. Somewhere directors and screenwriters paid attention to just private cases from the lives of the inhabitants of the States, such as the case of many years of enmity, reconciled by love, in the film “Kentucky”.
Synopsis At the height of the Civil War, a wealthy farm owner, Thad Goodwin, was killed by Captain John Dillon after he refused to provide his best horses. This tragic episode happened in front of little Peter. Many years pass, and Peter, being an old man, is again forced to face the Dillons, but in the person of John’s grandson Jack Dillon, who fell in love with Peter Sally’s charming niece.
Speaking of acting, I was pleasantly surprised because I did not come across the ostentatious sweetness and sentimentality seen in acting in old Hollywood films. On the contrary, the actors involved in the film embodied vivid and unique images in their own way. Loretta Young plays Sally Goodwin, a young, charming and businesslike girl who strictly divides her life between family, work and personal feelings. Richard Greene played the role of Jack Dillon, an enterprising young man who gave up the family business, promising him great prospects, in order to fulfill his dreams. Finally, a really strong game was distinguished by Walter Brennan as Peter Goodwin, a man who experienced a terrible tragedy in the past that left an imprint on his soul and sowed seeds of irreconcilable hatred and resentment.
David Butler directed a multifaceted drama, in which he immediately touched upon the history of Kentucky, the spirit and customs of its inhabitants, the theme of love, the theme of rivalry and the theme of the sins of fathers, for which their children are forced to pay. And he jumps from one topic to another, then smoothly, then sharply so that you hardly have time to catch the general wave of the film, which at one point became a historical drama, at another - a sports one, at the third - a melodrama. The director everywhere wants to have time to pay attention, and the result is a complex mixture of different genres and subgenres.
Scenario The plot begins in 1861 at the height of the American Civil War, when the authorities and the population of Kentucky, being a border state, decided to take a neutral side. However, this did not prevent the army from confiscating for military purposes state horses from local farmers, including the horse breeder Thad Goodwin, who, having demanded from Captain John Dillon, who was carrying out the order, to leave his land, received a deadly bullet in response. All this happened in front of Goodwin's youngest son Peter. It's 1938. Peter, being a grumpy old man, continued his father’s work and successfully breeds some of the best horses in the state along with his niece Sally. Since Sally's father failed to invest in the cotton business, after which he died of a heart attack, the bank threatens to confiscate all of the Goodwins' property, including the farm. Circumstances develop in such a way that one of the leading managers of the bank is Jack Dillon, the grandson of the same John who falls in love with Sally and decides to help her and her family solve their problems. However, he immediately meets the resistance of old Peter, who has not forgotten what a wound Dillons inflicted on his family.
Result In general, Kentucky is not bad, but at the same time a very ordinary family drama, in which history, love and sports passion intersect. The film can catch the play of actors, the lack of melodramatic sentiments and ostentatious idyll. Therefore, you can safely recommend to view.
7 out of 10