Wisconsin Movies: Red Betsy
It's not Hollywood. It's not even New York, Montreal, or London, but some people do make movies here in Wisconsin.
Premiering this weekend, on September 19, is the movie "Red Betsy". Not only was "Red Betsy" filmed in Wisconsin, primarily in Delafield and towns surrounding Milwaukee, but it is about a Wisconsin family.
Based on a short story written by Charles Boebel, the movie is directed by his son, Chris Boebel. The short story was based on the memories of Charles Boebel, who grew up on the family farm near Boscobel, Wisconsin. The Boebel's have been farming in Southwestern Wisconsin for 120 years.
Charles wrote the story for personal reasons, but when his son, Chris, read it in 1997, he knew he had to make a film of it. He first planned to write a one-hour teleplay for public television. As the screenplay progressed he realized it needed to be a film.
Red Betsy is an independent film that does what few mainstream films will do today. It tells the story of a family without any shootings, car chases, gun battles, explosions, bathroom humor or gratuitous sex scenes. The story takes place in Wisconsin just before, during and after World War II. The family is dealing with the things that are shaping world events as well as those that affect their own lives - rural electrification, a nation on the brink of war, the loss of a wife and a son.
The main character, Emmett Rounds, tries to resist the changes. He doesn't electrify his farm; he won't listen to the radio news of the war in Europe. Eventually he can no longer avoid the outside world. How he reacts and how the family and townspeople react to events is what "Red Betsy" is all about.
The movie is written and directed by Chris Boebel, produced by Andrew Lang, an Oconomowoc native, and stars Alison Elliott and Leo Burmester. This is a serious film, but a family film. If you want to know rural Wisconsin in the 1940s, you will want to see this film.
Opening Friday, September 19, it will be released in the Midwest and spread across the nation.
For more information on "Red Betsy": :
Green Bay Press Gazette article :
For more information on Wisconsin movies:
Movies made in Wisconsin
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