Крик на перекрестке Cross Creek

1983 film by Martin Ritt

Cross Creek is a 1983 American biographical drama romance film starring Mary Steenburgen as The Yearling author Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings. The film is directed by Martin Ritt and is based in part on Rawlings's 1942 memoir Cross Creek.

In 1928 in New York State, aspiring author Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings advises her husband that her last book was rejected by a publisher, she has bought an orange grove in Florida, and she is leaving him to go there. She drives to the nearest town alone, and arrives in time for her car to die. Local resident Norton Baskin takes her the rest of the distance to a dilapidated and overgrown cabin attached to an even more overgrown orange grove. Despite Baskin's (and her own) doubts, she stays and begins to fix up the property. The local residents of "the Creek" begin to interact with her. Marsh Turner comes around with his daughter Ellie, a teenage girl who keeps a deer fawn as a pet named Flag. A black woman, Geechee, arrives and offers to work for her, even though Rawlings insists she cannot pay her much. The grove languishes below her expectations and Rawlings writes another novel, hoping to get it published. A young married couple moves into a cabin on Rawlings's property. The woman is pregnant and they reject Rawlings's attempts to help them. Rawlings employs the assistance of a few of the Creek residents, Geechee and Baskin, to unblock a vital irrigation vein for her grove, and it begins to improve. The young couple has their child. Ellie's deer grows older and escapes her pen, and Marsh foretells that the deer will have to be killed for eating all their food. Geechee's husband comes to stay with her after being released from prison, and Rawlings offers him a place to work in her grove, but he refuses and Rawlings asks him to leave. Even though her husband drinks and gambles, Geechee goes to leave with him, and Rawlings admits she will be sad to see Geechee leave, after Geechee demands to know why Rawlings would allow a friend to make such a mistake. Geechee decides to stay after all after telling Rawlings that she should learn how to treat her friends better. Rawlings submits her novel, a gothic romance, to Max Perkins, and it is rejected again. He writes to ask her to write stories about the people she describes so well in her letters instead of the English governess stories she has been writing. She does so immediately, beginning with the story of the young married couple (which eventually becomes "Jacob's Ladder," published in Scribner's Magazine in 1931). During a visit to the Turners' home on Ellie's 14th birthday, Flag escapes his pen once more and Marsh is forced to shoot him after he eats the family's vegetables. Ellie screams at him in hatred, and Marsh goes on a bender, goes into town and attracts the sheriff's attention. The sheriff finds Marsh drinking moonshine with a shotgun across his lap and demands the gun. When Marsh offers it to him, the sheriff shoots him. The story becomes the basis for The Yearling. At Marsh’s funeral, Ellie blames Rawlings for Marsh's and Flag’s deaths and tells her to leave. Rejected and heartbroken, Rawlings leaves her home in a motorboat and rides down the waterways for several miles. After more than a day in complete isolation and loneliness out in the water, she returns to her home and is happily reunited with Geechee. A few nights later, Rawlings and Geechee find themselves battling to save their orange grove from the autumn frost. The neighbors arrive to help her out, and among them are Ellie and her younger siblings. Ellie apologizes to Rawlings for her behavior at Marsh's funeral, stating that “good friends shouldn’t keep apart,” and they reconcile. Perkins visits and accepts her story "Jacob's Ladder" upon reading it. Baskin asks Rawlings to marry him, and she accepts after much hesitation about her independence. Rawlings realizes her profound attachment to the land at Cross Creek.

In 1928 Rawlings gave up a ten year career in journalism to move to Cross Creek and write novels. She won the Pulitzer in 1939 for The Yearling. Rawlings' book Cross Creek was published in 1942. The New York Times called it "an autobiographical regional study". Reviews were strong and the book became a best seller, selling more than 500,000 copies. A companion book Cross Creek Cookery came out the same year. In 1943 Miss Zelma Gaison, a social worker and friend of Rawlings, sued the author for $100,000 alleging defamation of character in the novel, claiming it made her look like a "hussy" who "cursed". The suit was initially dismissed. However Gaison appealed to the Supreme Court, who referred the matter to a jury, saying there was an arguable case of invasion of privacy. The jury ruled in Rawlings' favor. Rawlings died in 1953.

Film rights were purchased by producer Robert Radnitz. "There was such a feeling of place in the book," he said. "That's something that has always interested me, because I think all of us are very influenced by where we happen to live. Second, I felt that what she accomplished was incredible, particularly at the time she did it. It took tremendous courage for her to pick up and start a new life." The film was not made. Radnitz decided to make a feature film instead and got Dalene Young to write a script. "The script was turned down by every major studio in town," said the producer. "They all said to me, 'God, it's beautiful. Come back if you've got Jane Fonda or Meryl Streep.' One of them literally suggested Barbra Streisand. I said to him, 'Can you really imagine Barbra Streisand in this role?' He said, 'Well, I admit it's off casting, but it could be interesting'." Ritt says he cast Steenburgen because "I wanted a lady out of Middle America who had a lot of the good qualities associated with that section of the country I just thought she was right. It's an educated guess, you never really know. You try to pair the actors together with the big scenes. I knew Mary was good. I'd seen Melvin and Howard I just had a feeling she'd be right." Radnitz suggested Rip Torn, with whom he had worked on Birch Interval, as the backwoods hunter, Marsh Turner. When Alfre Woodard auditioned for her role Ritt says "Alfre just blew us all away. Everybody was crying when she left. Her power is extraordinary."

Filming took place at Ocala, Florida, near Mrs. Rawlings's house, which is now a state museum. The unit had to deal with mosquitos, snakes, alligators and rainfall. "I felt I was being bitten by the same mosquitos and hearing the same sounds as Marjorie Rawlings," said Steenbergen. Rawlings's husband, Norton Baskin, the hotel proprietor whom she met when she moved to Florida played by Peter Coyote in the film, came on location several times. He also had a cameo as the elderly man who directs Marjorie to Norton Baskin's hotel. "I was tickled to death when I met Peter Coyote," said Baskin. "He was macho as hell, which I wasn't. He is 6 foot 1, handsome and athletic, whereas I'm 5 feet 8 and anything but. I always wanted to look like that." "Writing is essentially an internal process," said the star. "To try to make that external has always been a trap for actors. You tend to get self indulgent and overly dramatic. I don't know if I licked the problem, but I don't think I make people cringe. I tried to show her passion for wanting to be the best writer she could possibly be."

Award Category Nominee(s) Result Academy Awards Best Supporting Actor Rip Torn Best Supporting Actress Alfre Woodard Best Costume Design Joe I. Tompkins Best Original Score Leonard Rosenman Cannes Film Festival Palme d'Or Martin Ritt NAACP Image Awards Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture Alfre Woodard National Board of Review Awards Top Ten Films 9th Place Young Artist Awards Best Family Feature Motion Picture Best Young Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture Dana Hill