THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, July 27, 1994 TAG: 9407270024
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARY BISHOP, ROANOKE TIMES AND WORLD NEWS
DATELINE: TAZEWELL LENGTH: Medium: 60 lines
IT'LL TAKE THE people here a few viewings of ``Lassie'' to absorb it all.
That IS local lawyer Henry Barringer opening a door in one scene, right? And that's sheep farmer Clinton Bell jumping on a tractor in another scene? And, hey, aren't those three guys chewing tobacco in front of a country store really Cracker Lowe, Bev Smith and Fuzz Mays, all local guys from just down the road?
Yes, on all accounts, and if a farmer looked real close, he might even spot the worn-out overalls he sold to movie folks in their clamoring for authentic farm clothes. Though the credits don't even say it was filmed here, ``Lassie'' is as homemade a product of Tazewell County as sorghum and sheep. All last fall, people rented out their homes, hired on as extras and pumped their community's resources into the making of the movie. Businesses and families reaped about $5 million from it.
Seeing ``Lassie'' last weekend, locals said that except for a few phony Southern accents, it was pretty much true to their place. They're accustomed to living in beautiful country, but even local families oohed and ahhed over the tender camera treatment of Tazewell County's high pastures.
The opening scene of Lassie herding sheep along a ridge line - with symphonic movie score soaring - actually was shot nearby at Rosedale in Russell County. Some filming was done at Sandstone Falls on the New River near Hinton, W.Va. But Tazewell County is the cinematic star. Much of the film lingers on scenes of the Clinch River, Burkes Garden, Knob Mountain, the old Cove School, a contemporary house in the county and the Wardell Ham Store near Claypool Hill.
Most of all, the film focuses on the 1,400-acre Barns Company Farm in the southern end of the county. Clinton Bell farms his family's enormous spread. His family leased some of it to the movie makers. For months, he herded his 400 ewes back and forth across pastures to suit the movie director. One thing Bell knows for sure: No matter what the press kit claims, Lassie can't herd. All those scenes of her - actually it's a ``him'' - expertly guiding the sheep around was a masterful deception. Bell said trainers could make Lassie circle the sheep, but that was about it.
The focal point of the movie is an old house on Bell's land that becomes home to Lassie and her new family. The house had no real inhabitants except for a few weekend groundhog hunters for years, so it was fairly rundown when the movie crew grabbed it last summer. Filmmakers needed it a little more dilapidated, or more photogenically so. So they put old-fashioned wallpaper inside and produced fake peeling and water stains. They weathered the outside to give it a more romantic look.
Everything's quiet since the filming ended in December. Bell's field, where the movie trailers and the catering tent once bustled with Hollywood actors, is planted deep in alfalfa. Bell got a kick out of all the commotion, and he has a keepsake that should last many years. High on a hill above his house, the name ``Lassie'' is carved into a big maple, just as the tree appears at the end of the movie. by CNB