THE LAND GIRLS

• Starring Catherine McCormack, Rachel Weisz and Anna Friel
• Directed by David Leland
• Rated R with sex and nudity; running time 112 minutes
• With 10 as a must-see, Jack gives this film a 8

By Jack Garner
Democrat and Chronicle

(July 31, 1998) -- Wars are fought in all sorts of ways.

They're fought most horrifically with guns, tanks and bombs, as Saving Private Ryan reminds us.

In The Land Girls, a new British World War II drama, victory is sought with plows, hoes and milking stools.

The Land Girls is an engaging saga about the labors and loves of three volunteers in the Women's Land Army, a British organization that puts city girls on farms to replace the boys who've had gone off to fight Hitler.

While America's home front had Rosie the Riveter, England had "land girls."

In The Land Girls, three women are assigned to work on the rugged Lawrence farm in Dorset:

Stella (Catherine McCormack) is a principled woman doing her duty while her steady beau serves as a naval officer.

Ag (Rachel Weisz) is a Cambridge graduate who hides behind books to cover up her social inexperience.

Prue (Anna Friel) is a working-class hairdresser (and flirt) who doesn't mind working, as long as she can also have some laughs.

Though Mr. Lawrence is hard to convince, he eventually learns to make efficient use of his new farm hands. Joe more quickly discovers certain advantages in having three attractive women in the barn.

Ultimately, each of the three has a "go" at Joe, for her own reasons. Prue just wants a roll in the hay. Ag sees Joe as a means to an end -- the end of her virginity. Stella finds herself falling in love.

Truth be told, there's a lot of lovemaking in The Land Girls. As the three women swarm all over Joe, the film seems like a farmer's-daughter joke in reverse.

I wonder how they find the energy after digging potatoes and milking cows all day. But The Land Girls successfully captures the mood of wartime -- including the heightened emotions of young people who grab for the gusto while they can.

Director David Leland (of Wish You Were Here and Mona Lisa) brings great detail to The Land Girls, from the women's distinctive '40s hairstyles to the plausible depictions of farm work.

The wartime unity of purpose among the British shines through and reaches a pinnacle when the Dorset farmers and shopkeepers enthusiastically cheer the flight of a newly created Spitfire at a parade and airshow.

But Leland also finds uniquely quiet ways to demonstrate sacrifices on the home front.

In an especially poignant moment, farmer Lawrence gazes sadly at a lovely meadow on his property. He knows he must plant crops to feed the army, but he hates to plow up all that beauty.