This excellent true story of political bribery in Tennessee has a genuine heroine at its center. Sissy Spacek plays a governor’s aide set up to grease pardons for violent offenders, who blows the whistle in her own defense. Jeff Daniels is the fixer running the scheme; attorney and future Senator Fred Thompson became a film actor in this show, playing himself. Originally a non-performer, this worthwhile drama was photographed by the great Chris Menges.

Marie: A True Story
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1985 / Color / 2:39 widescreen / 112 min. / Available at MovieZyng / Street Date August 13, 2024 / 21.99
Starring: Sissy Spacek, Jeff Daniels, Keith Szarabajka, Morgan Freeman, Fred Thompson, Lisa Banes, Trey Wilson, John Cullum, Don Hood, Graham Beckel, Melissa Sue Anderson, Jane Powell.
Cinematography: Chris Menges
Art Director: Ron Foreman
Costumes: Joe Tompkins
Film Editor: Neil Travis
Original Music: Francis Lai
Screenplay Written by Peter Briley from a book by Peter Maas
Presented by Dino De Laurentiis
Produced by Frank Capra Jr.
Directed by Roger Donaldson

Hollywood was never easy on women, and the 1970s and ’80s saw scores of talented, accomplished actresses frustrated by the lack of rewarding parts to play. Sissy Spacek’s winning quality appears to have been sheer fearlessness … and a willingness to take on ‘impossible’ jobs. She prevailed against all odds, starting out with a role in  Prime Cut that today lies far outside acceptable PC tolerance. But she had qualities wanted by everybody:  Terrence Malick,  Brian De Palma,  Robert Altman. Even after her Oscar win with Coal Miner’s Daughter she didn’t back away from politics, or from roles that might be poison to the average actress —  ‘night, Mother.

A worthy addition to Spacek’s filmography is Marie: A True Story, a 1985 picture that most of us saw on cable television, or on those amazing new VHS tapes that could be rented. Titled just Marie in its inital run, it costars Jeff Daniels, who had recently garnered attention in  Terms of Endearment and  The Purple Rose of Cairo. ‘Marie’ is Marie Ragghianti, a notable  real-life whistleblower in Tennessee in the late 1970s.

Author-Journalist Peter Maas ( The Valachi Papers) published his Marie: A True Story in 1983; the film adaptation by John Briley ( Gandhi) presents Marie Ragghianti as a true heroine, overcoming political corruption and sex discrimination through force of character. Producer Dino De Laurenttis snapped up the book.

Abused mother of three Marie Ragghianti (Sissy Spacek) leaves her husband in Georgia and returns to her mother’s house in Nashville, raising three kids while waitressing and attending night school. When she graduates, she notices that her college friend Eddie Sisk (Jeff Daniels) is now the legal counsel to Governor Blanton (Don Hood) and asks him for a job. Expecting perhaps clerical work, she’s overjoyed to find herself in a good position as a State Extradition Officer; Eddie soon makes her a liaison between the Governor and the parole board. Although troubled by repeated requests to streamline paroles for criminals Marie thinks don’t quality, a year later Marie takes the chairmanship of the parole board.

Marie has one friend that she trusts, fellow state aide Kevin McCormack (Keith Szarabajka). She can’t ignore signs that paroles and pardons are being handed out in a questionable manner, but Eddie dismisses Marie’s requests for clarity. Marie makes the mistake of going directly to the governor, who just tells her to use her own judgment. The response from Eddie Sisk and others around the Governor’s office convinces her to contact the F.B.I. She’s suddenly arrested on a false D.U.I. charge, and Governor Blanton fires her for ‘flagrant accounting irregularites.’ Kevin urges Marie to get a lawyer of her own, Fred Thompson (Fred Thompson). Kevin quits rather than testify against her, at which point things become violent…

Australian director Roger Donaldson ( Sleeping Dogs,  Smash Palace) came to Marie directly from  The Bounty. The film has the slightly nervous edge of his good earlier work. We’re naturally concerned for Marie throughout, even though the generic form for such films is the eventual triumph of the feminist underdog:  Norma Rae,  Erin Brockovich. Sissy Spacek’s Marie Ragghianti is tougher than she looks; the real fear is that the storyline will keep throwing disasters at her.

The storyline sticks mostly to the facts of the case — there are no salacious subplots, and the supporting characters aren’t given a great deal of depth. The movie makes a story thread of a health problem with one of Marie’s boys into the major issue. Marie is convinced that a persistent choking problem is from a pistachio shell lodged in on of his lungs, but the doctors dismiss it. This ‘jeopardy to children’ theme hangs in the background through much of the film, keeping the audience on edge in a slightly unpleasant way. We’re glad when it passes, just as we’re happy that Marie doesn’t make its characters give impassioned position speeches. There is a simple quote from Kevin about moral responsibility, that’s repeated two or three times. But the show doesn’t have a really memorable, quotable scene with Sissy Spacek, whose Marie Ragghianti equates ethics with just plain common sense.

How closely Marie’s story follows real life, I can’t say … was a murder involved in the actual Ragghianti case?  The corruption at the Tennessee state capitol is practically out in the open. Eddie either thinks Eddie is dumb, or can’t conceive of a woman who would put ethics ahead of immediate personal gain. We understand Marie’s dilemma. Is she supposed to turn down a job because of a personal connection?  She’s being asked to do things that don’t seem right, and it doesn’t take long to figure out what’s going on. ‘Friends of the governor’ asking for expedited pardons happen to be friends of the criminals being pardoned. Some of the men are violent offenders, but Eddie wants them released anyway. One parolee immediately commits a rape.

Just as in the corruption story  Brubaker, Marie realizes that she’s fighting the power of special relationships in the Governor’s office. Her lawyer sues for wrongful termination and Kevin leaves his job with a chache of paperwork evidence to support Marie. In both reality and the movies, nobody seems capable of seeing the full reach of the villains’ conspiracy. Marie and Kevin go through so much grief and take such big risks, that the lesson imparted could very well be, ‘don’t get involved.’

When prepping the film, director Donaldson interviewed Marie Ragghianti’s lawyer and liked his personality so much that they hired him to play himself.  ←  Attorney Fred Dalton Thompson was involved in Senate politics and was a visible figure during the Watergate hearings  (You know, back when ethical Republicans wouldn’t support a crooked President).  Gaining traction from his success in the case against the Tennessee governor, Thompson continued acting even as he rose in politics. Parts in major films eventually led to his five-year role in the TV series Law and Order. He made a bid to become the Republican Presidential candidate in 2008.

Sissy Spacek is called on to cover a range of emotions in trying conditions. She’s a capable employee, and not at all naïve, even when she does her best to give Eddie Sisk’s evasions and prevarications the benefit of doubt. This is the 1970s, and few women are in supervisory positions. Marie’s pragmatic attitude toward sex discrimination is expressed early on, when she is working as a cocktail waitress. A customer gets fresh, and she responds with a part-smile that will just let the offense pass … from a few steps away. When she complains to a friend that she didn’t get a job because the interviewer was looking for someone sexy, they both laugh — it’s just the way things are.

Jeff Daniels is perfect casting as Eddie Sixk. We already knew Daniels’ cheerful, let’s-not-be-so-formal persona, so we don’t immediately guess that his Eddie Sisk is the point man for an appalling bribery scam. We know the type well, the charismatic, corner-cutting fixer who enables a crooked setup. He’s the guy who wants us to alter work time cards, or to look the other way when he lies and cheats … and tells us to Lighten Up when we protest.

Keith Szarabajka is an unfamiliar name, but it shouldn’t be, as he has solid credits and is still very busy. The role of Kevin isn’t an easy one. A murder that occurs appears to have been an invention for the movie (?), and the film’s final wrap-up does not resolve it. But the screenplay stays honest by not making Marie and Kevin into lovers or otherwise sexing-up the storyline. After her failed marriage, and her re-invention as a Vanderbilt graduate, she isn’t initially interested in a new relationship. It is suggested that she and Kevin are headed in a romantic direction, though.

Standing out more now than they did in 1985 are two supporting actors. Trey Wilson is Marie’s FBI contact, the kind of role he lampooned in Jonathan Demme’s  Married to the Mob. We really expect to see more of Morgan Freeman, who gets fourth billing and makes a strong impression as one of the crooked parole board officials. There might not have been any scenes cut out, as most everything we see follows only what Marie personally sees and hears … the murder scene is a pointed exception to that rule. In the final act, Marie becomes a courtroom drama. Roger Donaldson direct’s Marie’s lawsuit trial without resorting to hyped suspense tricks.

Marie: A True Story did not become one of Sissy Spacek’s notable successes. It only got a ‘limited release’ and its New York opening attracted little business. As soon as cable TV came in, movie channels became the primary venue for an enormous volume of mid-range product that didn’t perform in theaters, and most of us caught the movie there.

Just the same, Sissy Spacek’s starring vehicle is a solid drama about a real corruption scandal, the blatant kind that hits the national news every few weeks or so. Marie may not scorch the screen with extreme scenes, but it feels very good right now to see a true story about a grievance with the government turning out well.

The Warner Archive Collection Blu-ray of Marie: A True Story is the expected flawless encoding. The handsome J-D-C Scope images are the work of the celebrated cinematographer Chris Menges, of  Local Hero and  Shy People. Colors are rich and the lighting is natural, even when Marie visits prisons.

The movie benefits from an excellent music score by Francis Lai, which gives excellent support to Marie’s private story. The Warner Archive Collection has no extras for this one, save a trailer.

I must admit that I’ve long confused Marie with another Sissy Spacek movie, 1975’s Katherine, by Jeremy Kagan. It’s a lot more controversial … Spacek plays an activist driven by her experiences into a radical stance. It’s as daring as anything she ever did, especially considering that  The Weather Underground and the SLA were still big news at the time.

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

Marie: A True Story
Blu-ray rates:
Movie: Very Good / Excellent
Video: Excellent
Sound: Excellent
Supplements:
Original trailer.
Deaf and Hearing-impaired Friendly? YES; Subtitles: English (feature only)
Packaging: One Blu-ray in Keep case
Reviewed: August 14, 2024
(7175mari)

Final product for this review was provided free by The Warner Archive Collection.

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