Amber Waves
Amber Waves
| 09 March 1980 (USA)
Amber Waves Trailers

A drifter stranded in Kansas accepts a job offer from a wheat harvester who, in desperation over his cancer and financial woes, attempts suicide but becomes a father-figure to the young man.

Reviews
Matcollis This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.
Console best movie i've ever seen.
Bergorks If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.
Wyatt There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.
G VB Amber Waves (1980) is one of those little miracles of television that appeared at a time when so many low-quality TV movies were being produced. With a strong cast that includes Dennis Weaver, Kurt Russell and Mare Winningham, this poignant story is only superficially about American patriotism during the Vietnam war era--its true strength is in the humanity of the characters and the essence of their struggles to find meaning in an often heartless, random world. Kurt Russell is a vain, self-absorbed and angry male model who gets stranded in Kansas after a photo shoot and is helped out by a passing farmer (Weaver) who has learned that he has terminal cancer. Bridging the divide between the honest, hardworking farmer and the selfish young man is Mare Winningham, the daughter of the farmer, who is attracted to Russell's character but is also disappointed at his lack of character and work ethic. The farmer hires the young man to help with the urgent harvest work, and the young man only takes the job so he can have enough money to go home again.Weaver plays his role without any bombast or melodrama...you can just feel his mortality slipping away from him, yet he knows he must set his fears aside to be able to get the harvest done on time and save his farm and his daughter's future. Russell's character is seething and confused, looking for something meaningful to give him a sense of purpose. Part of his attraction to Winningham's character is that she represents something more real and more beautiful than anything he has known before.Amber Waves is a highly underrated and moving story about people and their core values that holds up well even more than 30 years after the movie was made.
douggers Kurt Russell is a womanizing, irresponsible male model who is both full of himself and improbably on a shoot in the wheat fields of the Midwest, while aging Dennis Weaver works nearby with the barely profitable wheat harvesting company that he owns. Each man is having the worst day of his life, as Kurt is beaten up in a bar then fired for his now un-photographable looks and he ends up headed back to NYC with no money to get there. Meanwhile, Weaver's credit is caput at his bank, he can't find a buyer for his troubled firm and his doctor has just told him he has terminal cancer. Weaver picks up a young hitch-hiker, who happens to be Russell and when Weaver drops him off in the city the cops pounce on the young man for hitch-hiking and vagrancy, which will no doubt net him a term on a chain gang.Weaver bails out the young model and at first his motive appears to be altruism, but his agenda becomes clear when he announces he's short of labor and that he's shanghaiing Russel to be a part of his crew. A duck out of water at first, the arrogant young pretty-boy/model gradually toughens up physically and even begins to develop character, thanks to the hard work and the good example set by straight-arrow Weaver. Against all odds Russell turns into a valuable member of the crew. Enter Weaver's daughter, played by Mare Winningham, who ends up falling for Russell, who discovers a noble streak he never knew he had, as he tells Winningham to save her love for "somebody who deserves it." This is a simple, beautiful film that puts to shame the noisy, head-rattling and cartoon-ish drivel that graces our movie theaters these days. The fine script features realistic parts for Weaver, Russell, Winningham and Wilford Brimley, who deliver uniformly fine performances. After watching this you will feel you've experienced a part of America you've probably never seen and gotten to know some people who speak and act straight from the heart.
mkillentv This is an excellent television movie with much to say that was made during the peak of the made-for-TV era. It's the story of a widower (Dennis Weaver) and his kids who travel around the farm belt hiring out as professional wheat harvesters. Kurt Russell signs on reluctantly to help. Weaver's performance is one of his best and the rest of the cast shines as well. Top notch writing, directing, photography and score. I saw this film during a very dark time in my life and it inspired me to press on and make changes. I recommend it to anyone in need of inspiration. They don't make these kind of intelligent, sensitive and involving films for television often anymore. But these are exactly the kind of films we need today.
NotSureifthisis7734 This movie is an insult to the viewer at every conceivable level. It is an abomination of junk writing, brain-dead story, wretched casting and mind-numbing pointlessness. I watched this film in sheer horror. There was nothing of any value on the screen. I had a better time watching "The Swarm." Every moment was false. It was as if someone had taken one of the greatest movies ever made, Days of Heaven, shoved it in a blender and then threw the results in my face. Wait a minute. It wasn't "as if," it was. Everyone associated with this picture should be ashamed to the depths of their being. They should have been blacklisted, fined, and never permitted to work in movies again. Alas, I have read many critics who ooh and aah over the rubbish and I guess in that way reveal they never saw a movie they didn't like. People this is a plea: watch Days of Heaven instead. Know the difference between art and dreck.