Bertam is a retired railroad worker who is injured when his horse Mel runs away, overturning the carriage in which he is riding. While he recuperates in the hospital, Kate, his eldest daughter who lives in New York, comes to visit. After chastising her for being pregnant without a husband, Bertam asks Kate to shoot Mel for him. Always anxious to prove herself to her father, she is not sure that she can go through with his request. She wants some time to think about it. Her sister Rita, however, vows to save the horse. A single parent, she lives on the farm with her parents and must cope with the stress caused by her promiscuous teenage daughter and the strange behavior of her mother who seems lost in reveries about the past.
Sam Shepard, in his directorial debut, draws out fine performances from this ensemble cast which includes Charles Durning, Jessica Lange, Tess Harper, Ann Wedgeworth, Donald Moffat, Patricia Arquette, and Nina Draxten. In a quirky but engaging way, Far North compels us to ponder about how children must win their father's love. The drama also depicts the difficulties we all have in discarding the roles our birth families have assigned us. Best of all, the film conveys the loneliness, anger and frustration of men who can no longer rely on an outmoded machismo mystique to give their lives meaning.