The film was theatrically released in the United States on August 20, 1993, by Fine Line Features. It received positive reviews from critics, but performed poorly at the box office. For their performances, Amis and Chung earned Independent Spirit Award nominations for Best Female Lead and Best Supporting Male, respectively.
Josephine Monaghan is a young woman who is seduced by her family's portrait photographer and bears an illegitimate child. She is expelled from her family and home in disgrace, and with no other resources, she leaves her newborn son under the care of her sister and heads West.
As a single woman traveling alone, Josephine is viewed with suspicion, or as sexual prey for any man. She assists a traveling salesman who subsequently tries to sell her services as a whore. Seeing it as her only protection, Josephine scars her face, and begins to dress as a man – thus becoming "Jo."
At a mining camp in Ruby City, she meets Percy who takes her under his wing. Percy recommends Jo for a job at the stable, and teaches her about how to survive in the frontier. But Percy nurses a deep suspicion of women, which he later demonstrates by slashing the face of a prostitute who refuses to give him oral sex.
Jo no longer feels safe with Percy, so she accepts a job herding sheep, and heads for the mountains. After returning in the spring, Percy gives Jo a letter for her that he received months earlier. The letter is from Jo's sister, and Percy having opened it, now knows he is a she. He is furious at being made a fool of by a woman and "a whore at that," referring to the mention of her son in the letter. He attacks and tries to rape Jo, but she draws her gun and subdues him. Largely ostracized by the town's people since the incident with the prostitute, Percy promises Jo he will not share her secret if she finances his journey out of the territory. She agrees, though swears to him she will find him and kill him if he breaks his silence.
For five years she works as a shepherd, braving the deadly winters alone to the worry of her employer, Frank Badger (Hopkins), who has taken a liking to the "young man" he nicknames "Little Jo." When Jo has enough money saved, she quits Badger, and buys her own homestead.
While frequently viewed as "peculiar", Jo is clearly educated, and earns the respect of the people in Ruby City and the surrounding territory. A local girl, Mary, has her eye on Jo. Blind to the truth, most hope the two will court. However, Mary ends up wedding her cousin, Lucas Brown, soon after Jo returns from her first winter as a sheep herder.
One day in town, Jo comes across a mob about to lynch a Chinese laborer for trying to "take our jobs." Jo intervenes, and Badger insists the "chinaman", Tinman Wong, go to live with Jo to help with the homestead.
Tinman accompanies Jo to the homestead, and takes on the duties of cook and housekeeper. Though he seems slow-witted, Jo is not happy at having company forced upon her. She keeps as much distance as possible. But Tinman easily discovers the truth about Jo, and in doing so, reveals he is far more intelligent than he has pretended to be—he, too, has been masquerading for his own safety. Jo drops her guard and the two begin a love affair.
A feud begins to brew between the sheep herders and cattlemen who are moving into the territory. The Western Cattle Company wants to buy up all the land in the area, and they kill anyone who does not comply. One by one, the herders give in, or are murdered by masked gunmen. Jo has witnessed the brutal murders of too many of her friends, and the violence that will be necessary to win this kind of fight goes against her gentle nature. This is a masculine quality that goes beyond her ability to "pass," so Jo dons a dress once again in a feeble effort to step back into a more traditionally feminine role. Tinman argues that it will be impossible for her to go back being the society woman, urging her to keep the homestead, and stand against the cattlemen in the upcoming election. Jo is not swayed, and meets with the representative from the cattle company, Henry Grey to tell him she will sell.
Tinman falls ill, and Jo summons Badger's wife, who practices folk medicine, to tend him. Badger comes along, and is furious when Grey arrives with his wife so that Jo can sign the final papers for the sale of the homestead. Feeling betrayed by Jo for helping the cattle company to "squeeze me," Badger hits Jo, proclaiming, "By God, boy! I thought you'd amount to something."
As Grey prepares the papers inside, Jo watches his wife who, through the warped glass, is visually reminiscent of Jo when she was a woman of society. In an instant, Jo changes her mind and refuses to sell to Grey, who leaves in disgust issuing less than veiled threats.
Tinman recovers, and on election day, Badger and Jo ride to Ruby City but are met by several of Grey's masked gunmen. Badger shoots one of the gunmen, but is wounded, so it is up to Jo to finish the fight. She kills the two remaining men, but the pain of the act of killing is clearly indicated on her face.
The plot jumps to many years later, after Tinman Wong has died. Jo collapses while fetching water, and Badger finds her in bed, near death. He takes her in his wagon to the Ruby City doctor, but she is dead before they arrive. As Badger buys rounds of drinks at the saloon in memory of Little Jo, the undertaker rushes in with his shocking discovery—Little Jo was a woman. The town elders rush back to the undertaker's to inspect. All stand around the preparation table in shock, all except Mrs. Addie (Cathy Haase), the saloon owner, who laughs and laughs.
Badger is furious at the betrayal by his friend, and because Jo "made a fool out of me." He goes back to her homestead, and as he tears the place apart in anger, comes across the letter from her sister, and a picture of her as she lived as a woman. In town, the people tie Jo's dead body to her horse for a photograph.
The final shot is of the newspaper story with the before-and-after photographs, and the headline, "Rancher Jo Was a Woman."
Maggie Greenwald completed the screenplay in early 1991, after learning about the life of Monaghan. Six months before filming, Suzy Amis began training with a body builder and movement and vocal coaches, while taking sheepherding, shooting, and horse riding lessons.[5]
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 77% of 53 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.8/10.The website's consensus reads: "It sometimes moseys when it should have galloped, but The Ballad of Little Jo entertainingly upends genre formula while simultaneously highlighting its strengths."[6]
Emanuel Levy of Variety stated, "Greenwald is so committed to a feminist agenda that her treatment leaves out a good deal of the humor and suspense inherent in the story. […] Fortunately, Greenwald's casting and direction of the actors are more successful." Levy highlighted Amis' portrayal of Jo, opining that "what makes The Ballad of Little Jo worthy is Amis' full-bodied performance in what may be her most challenging role to date."[7]
Stephen Holden of The New York Times wrote, "It's not hard to view The Ballad of Little Jo as an allegorical critique of sex and power and men's-club values in America. In its disdain for those values, the film is as focused and cool-headed as the remarkable character whose story it tells." Holden also praised Amis' portrayal of Jo, noting that "the film is illuminated by Ms. Amis's haunting performance."[8]
Peter Rainer of the Los Angeles Times described the film as "a severely de-romanticized view of the Old West and the women who labored—in more ways than one—on its frontiers." Rainer also wrote, "The film ends as more of a dirge than a ballad. But occasionally it casts a forlorn spell. The meaning of Jo Monaghan's life may not really emerge in this film but its mystery lingers."[9]
Roger Ebert gave the film 3 out of 4 stars and stated, "The writer and director, Maggie Greenwald, wisely avoids an old-fashioned plot, and concerns herself more with the daily texture of life in the West." Ebert also noted that "it is rather rough and crude, but it's in the spirit of the film, in which men of poor breeding lived and worked together in desperate poverty of mind and body."[10]
The first musical by Steppenwolf, The Ballad of Little Jo was chosen as the initial production of its 25th anniversary season. However, the show was not terribly well received by critics.[14]
Related Research Articles
Drew Blythe Barrymore is an American actress, producer, talk show host, and author. A member of the Barrymore family of actors, she has received several awards and nominations, including a Golden Globe Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award, in addition to nominations for nine Emmy Awards and a British Academy Film Award. Barrymore received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2004. She was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time in 2023.
Winona Laura Horowitz, known professionally as Winona Ryder, is an American actress. Having come to attention with quirky roles in the late 1980s, she achieved success with her more dramatic performances in the 1990s. Ryder's many accolades include a Golden Globe Award, as well as nominations for two Academy Awards, a BAFTA Award, and a Grammy Award.
Rosalie Anderson MacDowell is an American actress and former fashion model. MacDowell is known for her starring film roles in romantic comedies and dramas. She has modeled for Calvin Klein and has been a spokeswoman for L'Oréal since 1986.
Little Women is a coming-of-age novel written by American novelist Louisa May Alcott, originally published in two volumes, in 1868 and 1869. The story follows the lives of the four March sisters—Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy—and details their passage from childhood to womanhood. Loosely based on the lives of the author and her three sisters, it is classified as an autobiographical or semi-autobiographical novel.
David Mansfield is an American musician and composer.
Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore is a 1974 American romantic comedy drama film directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Robert Getchell. It stars Ellen Burstyn as a widow who travels with her preteen son across the Southwestern United States in search of a better life. Kris Kristofferson, Billy "Green" Bush, Diane Ladd, Valerie Curtin, Lelia Goldoni, Vic Tayback, Jodie Foster, Alfred Lutter, and Harvey Keitel appear in supporting roles.
Freda Josephine Baker, naturalized as Joséphine Baker, was an American-born French dancer, singer, and actress. Her career was centered primarily in Europe, mostly in France. She was the first black woman to star in a major motion picture, the 1927 French silent film Siren of the Tropics, directed by Mario Nalpas and Henri Étiévant.
Joan Allen is an American actress. Known for her work on stage and screen, she has received a Tony Award as well as nominations for three Academy Awards, a BAFTA Award, three Primetime Emmy Awards, and three Golden Globe Awards.
Little Women is a 1994 American coming-of-age historical drama film directed by Gillian Armstrong. The screenplay by Robin Swicord is based on Louisa May Alcott's 1868–69 two-volume novel of the same title, the fifth feature film adaptation of the classic story. After a limited release on December 25, 1994, it was released nationwide four days later by Columbia Pictures.
Paper Moon is a 1973 American road comedy-drama film directed by Peter Bogdanovich and released by Paramount Pictures. Screenwriter Alvin Sargent adapted the script from the 1971 novel Addie Pray by Joe David Brown. The film, shot in black-and-white, is set in Kansas and Missouri during the Great Depression. It stars the real-life father and daughter pairing of Ryan and Tatum O'Neal as protagonists Moze and Addie.
Ruby Starr, born Constance Henrietta Mierzwiak, was an American rock singer and recording artist who attained national prominence in the 1970s and 1980s, notably for her work with Black Oak Arkansas.
Ruby City is a ghost town in Owyhee County, Idaho, United States. It was located along Jordan Creek about a mile below Silver City.
Ruby in Paradise is a 1993 film written and directed by Victor Nunez, starring Ashley Judd, Todd Field, Bentley Mitchum, Allison Dean, and Dorothy Lyman. An homage to Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen, the film is a character study about a young woman who escapes her small town in Tennessee for a new life in coastal Florida. The film marks Judd’s first starring role.
Josephine Margaret Warne, better known as Jo Warne, was an English actress, who briefly played Peggy Mitchell in the BBC soap opera EastEnders, making her first appearance on 30 April 1991. She appeared in a total of 10 episodes between April and July 1991, as part of Sam Mitchell and Ricky Butcher's teen elopement storyline. Barbara Windsor later took on the full-time role of Peggy until the character's death in 2016.
The Spitfire Grill is a 1996 American drama film written and directed by Lee David Zlotoff, and starring Alison Elliott, Ellen Burstyn, Marcia Gay Harden, Will Patton, Kieran Mulroney and Gailard Sartain. It tells a story of a woman who is released from prison and goes to work in a small-town café, The Spitfire Grill.
Beautiful is a 2000 American comedy drama film directed by Sally Field, starring Minnie Driver and Hallie Eisenberg. The plot deals with the sacrifices that contestants in the Miss America pageant typically must make. The film had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival and was released theatrically on September 29, 2000. It received negative reviews and was a commercial disappointment.
Heartland is a 1979 American film, directed by Richard Pearce, starring Rip Torn and Conchata Ferrell. The film is a stark depiction of early homestead life in the American West. It is based on a memoir by Elinore Pruitt Stewart, titled Letters of a Woman Homesteader (1914).
Victor Nunez is a film director, professor at the Florida State University College of Motion Picture, Television and Recording Arts, and a founding member of the Independent Feature Project. He is best known for directing Ulee's Gold, a critically acclaimed movie starring Peter Fonda and Patricia Richardson. Nunez was inducted into the Florida Artists Hall of Fame in 2008 and Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 2016.
Maggie Greenwald is an American filmmaker.
Rich in Love is a 1992 drama film directed by Bruce Beresford and starring Albert Finney, Kathryn Erbe, Kyle MacLachlan, Jill Clayburgh, Suzy Amis, and Ethan Hawke. It is based on the 1987 novel Rich in Love by Josephine Humphreys.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
