Main Cast: Kathleen Quinlan, David Keith, Frances Sternhagen, Cliff De Young, Dianne Wiest
Release Year: 1983
Country: US
Run Time: 110 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
In this run-of-the-mill romantic drama, the title Independence Day refers to the usual Fourth of July fireworks festival in the U.S. but also to the dilemma of Mary Ann Taylor (Kathleen Quinlan) who lives in a small town but has a big ambition to go to the city and study photography for a profession -- should she go, or should she stay in her hometown with the man she loves? Focus on Mary Ann's dilemma slips to other characters -- her boyfriend's suicidal sister (Dianne Wiest) who is abused by her husband, the abusive husband's equally nasty father, and Mary Ann's boyfriend himself who is preparing his Camaro for the annual Fourth of July race. With the story moving from here to there, hampered by some extraordinary leaps of imagination, the narrative is thinned considerably by the time the Fourth is at hand. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
Josef Sommer - Sam Taylor; Bert Remsen - Red Malone; Richard Farnsworth - Evan; Brooke Alderson - Shelly; Noble Willingham - Andy Parker; Anne Haney - Rose Parker; Zachary de Loach - Joey Morgan; Lance Gordon - Truck Driver; Adrienne Hampton - Girl on Hill; Jeff Polk - Billy Morgan; Susan Ruttan - Nurse; Scott Simpson - Youngest Morgan Child; Cheryl Smith - Ginny; Mary Ann Smith - Linda; Bunny Summers - Nurse #1; Judy Brown - Janis
Credit
Jerry Sobul - Art Director, Susan Arnold - Casting, Phyllis Huffman - Casting, Gary Jensen - Coordinator, Julie Weiss - Costume Designer, Robert Mandel - Director, Tina Hirsch - Editor, Dennis Virkler - Editor, Charles Bernstein - Composer (Music Score), Charles Bernstein - Songwriter, Jim Messina - Songwriter, John M. Elliott, Jr. - Makeup, Neil Roach - Camera Operator, Paul Pollard - Camera Operator, W. Stewart Campbell - Production Designer, Charles Rosher Jr. - Cinematographer, Ann Kindberg - Production Manager, Daniel H. Blatt - Producer, Robert Singer - Producer, George R. Nelson - Set Designer, Howard Jensen - Special Effects, Willie D. Burton - Sound/Sound Designer, Alice Hoffman - Screenwriter, Cindy Meyers - Screenwriter
The film concerns the small-town youth of a woman artist (Kathleen Quinlan), and her challenge to become ' what she's almost sure she could be.' " Her desperation takes the form of affectations and pretensions that are a little like those of the young Katharine Hepburn in Alice Adams and the young Margaret Sullavan in The Shop around the Corner, but the Quinlan character has the talent driving her on past all that." [1]Dianne Wiest plays a battered wife. The film was reviewed favourably by the critic Pauline Kael in her collection State of the Art; "Kathleen Quinlan plays the part of the woman artist with a cool, wire-taut intensity, Robert Mandel keeps the whole cast interacting quietly and satisfyingly, Wiest has hold of an original character and plays her to the scary hilt." [2]
