Ruby in Paradise - a landmark film
Amos Perrine in my office…note poster over this left shoulder
Ruby in Paradise is celebrating its 15th anniversary in 2008. For at least a decade I have had a poster for the film hanging in my office at the WV Cultural Center, partially because of the great look of a young Ashley Judd looking so happy with the Florida coastline in back of her, partially because I purchased a 16 mm copy of the film by my friend Victor Nunez who was a pioneer of the independent feature film. ( I also bought a 16 mm print of his first feature, “Gal Young Un”(1979) which is based on a story Marjorie Kennan Rawlings, author of “The Yearling.”)
It’s the favorite film of a lady who works in the Division of Culture & History who has asked me to give her my poster. ( At one time I had a dozen copies, but somehow they disappeared along with hundreds of other great film posters I collected in Film Services.) Hopefully the South Charleston Museum will be able to fit a showing in to its 2008 schedule since no one else in the state will. Here is a nice article by one of WV’s leading experts on film, Amos Perrine, a well-known activist, lawyer, bicyclist in Charleston.
Ruby in Paradise by Amos Perrine
I have often said that there were only four truly outstanding motion pictures made in this country during the last decade of the 20th Century (1991-2000). One of them was 1993’s “Ruby in Paradise” starring, in her first major film screen role, Appalachian native Ashley Judd. It had its first, and to the best of my knowledge, only public screening in the state at the 1994 Mostly Documentary Film Festival. The Mostly Documentary Film Festival (to be known later as The Spring Film Festival) was the brain child of Mark Rance and Amos Perrine of the West Virginia International Film Festival. It‘s mission was to bring documentaries, experimental and narrative pictures that expressed an independent spirit and vision. Films made in, by and/or about Appalachians and other minorities were specifically sought. None of the narrative pictures that were screened met the above criteria as well or was as well-received as “Ruby in Paradise.”
While Victor Nunez has been recognized as having perhaps the most humanistic talents of any American film maker, the screenplay needed a woman who was able to subtly and realistically bring to life the inner turmoil, the challenges, insecurities and apprehensions of a young Appalachian woman who has left her home. I seriously doubt that any actress could have brought those more fully to life than Ashland, Kentucky native Ashley Judd. Without affection Ms. Judd’s portrayal is all the more convincing as she did all of this in an unprepossessing and understated manner. A less secure director and even a sympathetic Hollywood actress would have made Ruby, at best a symbol, and at worst a caricature. While the picture is not set in Appalachia (other than the opening shot), it is one of the very few pictures that captures the essence of having grown up here. The other two that come to mind are “Matewan” and the first half of “Coal Miner’s Daughter.” Significantly, the picture does not judge Ruby’s decisions or the way she makes for herself. This is nowhere more pronounced than with her scenes with Todd Field (who would later direct the excellent “In the Bedroom”) who portrays her boyfriend. While Mr. Field’s character is a compassionate and understanding man he is also dogmatic about the shortcomings of our society and culture. And as it was most likely a man’s repressive dogma that she sought to escape in moving to Florida, Ruby leaves him as well. Less abusively for certain, and while she is just in the beginning of her search for self, she knows what she does not want.
We all know Ms. Judd’s life after “Ruby.” It included marriage to a Formula One race car driver and a lot of higher profile Hollywood movies that were not very good. (Notable exceptions were her roles as a young Marilyn Monroe in “Norma Jean and Marilyn” and “Heat.”) But in her more recent roles in “Come Early Morning” and “Bug” she drew upon inner resources similar to those that gave life to Ruby. Those two recent performances were very well-received even if the pictures themselves did not cause much of a stir. Unfortunately, while “Ruby in Paradise” was available on VHS, it is now out of print and has never been available on DVD. However, the West Virginia Library Commission has the a VHS version that is available to the public.
