My little sister works at a nursing home for the old and sick. She is the one that stays after a person’s loved ones go home. Most of us try not to think about those kinds of places. Most of us would rather not end up in those kinds of places at all.
We don’t want to smell death or handle the guilt thinking we’ve abandoned our grandparents to face it alone. We visit them out of obligation and wait anxiously to leave. Another Harvest Moon doesn’t allow for that separation. It deals exclusively with the life inside the facilities.
The story follows four old-timers, Frank (Ernest Borgnine,) June (Piper Laurie,) Ella (Anne Meara,) and Alice (Doris Roberts,) each with their own fears and ways of coping. Between shattered hips, dementia, cancer, and strokes, they have a lot to cope with.
Borgnine is brilliant as Frank, the former marine. You can see the restlessness and regret on his face, even as he delivers a monologue on the beauty of the sun shining through his window. He keeps his deceased wife’s nail clippers by his bed at all times to keep her on his mind. He also keeps a loaded gun from his youth for similar reasons, to keep the memory of his fellow soldiers alive.
War is just one recurring theme in the movie. Other themes include the importance of routine, the effects of memories, and the grown relationships between fathers and sons. I thought the lotto ticket scenes with Alice were especially well integrated into the film. I was really moved watching her sit in front of the television, full of faith and dreams for the prize money.
I have never wanted a fictional character to win so badly before. The writing is really tight and full of these little moments.
Alice also plays an important role in the film, as Frank’s ideological opposite. Where he struggles to deal with the pain he feels waking up each day, she faces everything with unflinching optimism. Each one of us will have to make the same choice one day, to either give up or keep fighting.
It is easy to say that I’ll keep fighting forever, my body hasn’t yet betrayed me, and I still have control over my memories. How much fight will I have in me immobilized in a bed, or lost in a fog forced to live in my past? I don’t know.
The film is bookended by effective and evocative opening and closing sequences featuring soft fade scene transitions and a pretty musical score.
Another Harvest Moon gets a strong B+. It is a sad movie, but it is honest and well done. Borgnine and Roberts especially stand out among the stellar ensemble cast.
I’m sorry for anyone currently suffering in a nursing home, either physically or emotionally. I wish we took better care of our grandparents as a society and I hope our children don’t forsake us.
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