Thin but likable account of an oil wildcatter’s rise and fall. Strong production values help offset cast and script issues.
Based on a novel by Tom Pendleton, The Iron Orchard follows Jim McNeely as he struggles to make a name for himself in the Texas oil fields. Ambitious in scope but hamstrung by its budget, the movie can’t avoid comparisons to predecessors like Giant and The Stars Fell on Henrietta. After appearances at festival and a limited theatrical release, The Iron Orchard will be released on home markets on August 6.
Pendleton was the pen name for Edmund Van Zandt, Jr., whose family owned a Fort Worth bank. His 1966 novel was marked by detailed, insider accounts of the punishing work field hands faced drilling for oil in the Permian Basin.
The plot uses Jim McNeely (Lane Garrison) as entry into this world. A poor boy thwarted in his love for rich Mazie Wales (Hassie Harrison), McNeely takes a field job with Basin Oil. Digging ditches, hauling pipe, bullied by his boss and coworkers, driven by revenge, McNeely hardens into a wildcatter thirsty for a big strike.
While plotting his future with manager Dent Paxton (Austin Nichols), McNeely woos Lee (Ali Corbin), the wife of a Basin Oil engineer. They marry and set out on their own with $3000 McNeely has saved.
Geologist Bary Wakely (Allan McLeod) helps points McNeely to Scurry County, where land leases are cheap. But McNeely still needs to partner with a wealthier company to pull off the deal. Soon Scurry County is covered with oil derricks. McNeely vows to work by himself in the future.
The rest of The Iron Orchard documents McNeely’s ascent through Texas oil royalty. He drops old friends, leaves Lee, betrays his workers, develops a gut, and in general behaves like a louse.
But director Ty Roberts (who also co-wrote the screenplay with Gerry De Leon) wants viewers to relate to McNeely. Early on, as McNeely sweats under the brutal sun, it’s easy to feel for him. Later, as he preens and swaggers through Fort Worth’s country club set, McNeely becomes decidedly less appealing.
The lessons learned in The Iron Orchard will be familiar to anyone who’s seen Giant, or for that matter Dynasty or any other soap opera about the rich and careless. What’s distinctive about the movie is the evocative cinematography by Mathieu Plainfossé and Mars Feehery’s solid production design.
Garrison works hard in a difficult role, bulling his way past McNeely’s inexplicable shifts in character. His fellow cast adds good support, hampered as they are by weird, poorly developed plot twists. Also strange is the sense that the movie is taking place in a vaccuum. Outside events never impinge on the plot, and the movie as a whole feels underpopulated.
These are budget issues more than creative choices. The Iron Orchard is a decent, occasionally inspired effort. As a director, Roberts manages in the early scenes to really capture life in 1940s Texas. It’s a shame that he agreed to anachronistic music choices that mar that mood.
