Citizen Ruth

Synopsis

"Citizen Ruth is a 1996 American satirical black comedy film directed by Alexander Payne, in his directorial debut, and starring Laura Dern, Swoosie Kurtz, Kelly Preston, Burt Reynolds, Kurtwood Smith, Mary Kay Place, Kenneth Mars, and Tippi Hedren. The film follows a poor, drug-addled, irresponsible pregnant woman who unexpectedly attracts national attention from those involved in the abortion debate. . . . While the film's overt subject matter is abortion, director Alexander Payne has insisted that the film is more prominently about the human side of fanaticism. Elaborating on this, Payne said, "People become fanatics for highly personal reasons. . . . Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-times gave the film three stars out of four praising the film for its "reckless courage to take on both sides in the abortion debate" and for its 'gallery of sharp-edged satiric portraits.'" [Wikipedia]

Genre

Historical

Released

1996

Location

United States

Period

Nebraska in about 1980;

No