The film was written by William D. Wittliff, and stars real-life couple Jessica Lange and Sam Shepard.

The film was directed by Richard Pearce, and was shot on location in Dunkerton and Readlyn Iowa, and at Burbank's Walt Disney Studios.

Then-U.S. president Ronald Reagan stated in his personal diary that this film "was a blatant propaganda message against our agri programs".

[2] Some members of the U.S. Congress took the film so seriously that Jessica Lange was brought before a congressional panel to testify as an expert about living on family farms.

[3] Country was one of three 1984 films, along with The River and Places in the Heart, that dealt with the perspective of family farm life "struggles.