perkypops This multi-layered morality film is not as easy to watch as something with a romantic veneer, like Bonnie and Clyde for example, but it runs much, much deeper into the core of our nature than many others do. The story involves two brothers who are fighting to save the family farm for reasons that are never too obvious given the shrewd script, the carefully placed focus we have on the home, the community, the other players.Richard Gere as Frank Roberts gives a masterful display as the guilt ridden son letting down his father, his family, himself, and yet appearing, by the end of the film to be the only one with a soul, with warmth, with feelings, with an identity that hasn't to be etched out by someone else.The imagery is often raw as in the "beast of burden" being forced to pull more than it can, whilst an evil showman cracks his whip and the audience calls for the beast to pull. It seems only we and Gere can see what is going on. And a bank robbery where morality goes all over the place except where it should lie courtesy of such clever acting and script. And a final scene allowing us to make up our own minds about what we learned during this wonderful feast of images.This is drama to be admired for what it depicts rather than any thrills or spills or CGI. It is definitely adult and definitely compelling once the stage is set but I wonder if it was ever really commercial.Nine out of Ten.

Michael Neumann Saddled with the foreclosure of their ailing Iowa farm, two brothers do the logical thing and burn it to the ground, embarking on an idyllic crime spree through Middle America and becoming folk heroes, which if nothing else seems to be a great way to meet sexy women. The script makes a brave attempt to dramatize the plight of farmers facing tough times, but unlike the drought-stricken heartland it suffers from an overabundance of corn. For a while the film wavers between being passable entertainment and an embarrassing, beer commercial ode to amber waves of grain, but whenever it threatens to become halfway interesting something obvious invariably happens: a lonely widow becomes available or a cop car comes into view, and so forth. Richard Gere downplays his matinée idol glamour, but not enough to disguise his resemblance to an American Gigolo playing Old MacDonald. And featured in the flashback introduction is (of course) Nikita Khrushchev; it figures that somewhere behind all the economic chaos of the Corn Belt the Commies had to be at fault.

Pepper Anne That's the metaphor that explains this story. Two guys started a protest, but liked their outlaw status, and didn't know when to quit."Miles From Home" takes a look at the life of the small-time farmer, guys who's farms were once-prosperous thirty and forty years ago, but with the price of upkeep going up faster than the price of agriculture, many have lost their farms (and homes) to corporate farm owners.Richard Gere and Kevin Anderson are the Roberts brothers. Their father's farm is one of historical significance. As we see in the introduction, Nikita Krushcev visited the farm, which might seem unusual that a Russian leader would travel all the way to some small farm in the states. Especially given the time period, it's a wonder they didn't label Frank Roberts, Sr. (Brian Dennehy) a Communist and try to shut him down. But, apparently, Kruschev came because he admired his father's farm, voted best farm in the state that year.It's been some time since their father died, and the sons took over the farm. Gere is the oldest boy, "Frank"; Anderson is "Terry". They have had a bad year on their farm and have yet to pay off an undisclosed number of mortgages and loans. So, the fellow from the bank comes buy to inform the brothers that they had been offered a pretty good deal for the farm, and they've agreed to sell it. Frank in particular, finds immense defeat in having the banks take over the property--the banks being a disdainful institution when you're a small town farmer in that area (we see Judith Ivey's character is the wife of a farmer who was foreclosed upon). So, Frank and Terry get the idea to burn the farm and the house down.In that town, their arsonist protest makes them local heroes. Like I said, people don't like the lending institutions because so many have risked foreclosure. But, now the cops are after Frank and Terry because they burned the property that the bank owned, and now are risking criminal sanctions, if nothing else. Frank and Terry take advantage of the situation, though Terry is a little more reluctant than Frank to start playing outlaw. They may have been famous at one point, even agreeing to be interviewed (by a journalist played by John Malckovich), but pretty soon--things get out hand. Frank wants to rob banks and shoot the bank representative who wanted to sell their farm. But Terry doesn't want to get involved in that any further. In fact, though fugitives, they just want to go to work on a farm again. But, they can't exactly return to the life they know. The locals were kind enough to help them get as far as they did, and it's up to Terry and Frank to decide what they'll do from there. It's like Terry's childhood memory of himself running through the cornfields at night for so long and having so much fun before he realized he didn't know how to get back. It's a pretty good movie, and one that is Gary Sinise's directorial debut of a feature film (he had previous director credits on three television series). Gere does do a little overacting towards the end and the movie does drag along a bit at certain points, but overall, it was a pretty good movie that makes a significant point about small farmers who are running out of options.

tiernan323 I was in this movie as the kid who drove a bike across the screen when the vehickle pulls in to the trailor park and they dunk down and then the Linn County Sheriffs dept drives by them then I drive a bike across the picture and my brother is throwing a football. Its a good movie with downhome values