Plot

In the early 1970s, a young woman passing through rural Tennessee unintentionally gets caught in a feud between two local neighboring clans, the Feathers and the Gutshalls.

Two rustic families, headed by patriarchs Laban Feather and Pap Gutshall, are feuding. At first, it is comical, with just the sons of the two families playing tricks on each other. But soon the Feather boys decide to kidnap a girl. She turns out to be innocent bystander Roonie Gill, not the made-up girlfriend "Lolly Madonna." As events escalate, Zack Feather and Roonie fall in love and try to bring the others to their senses. Will Roonie discover Zack's dark secret, the reason for the painful feud between the two families which once were close friends?—Dan Kuttner (KutRite@yahoo.com)

This isn't perfect - I'm doing this from memory. But 'til now, there was no synopsis at all.

The movie revolves around a minor feud between the Feather and Gutshall families. They dispute ownership of a small plot of land.

As a prank and to provoke the Feathers, two of the Gustshall brothers forge a romantic postcard to themselves, from a fictitious girl named "Lolly Madonna." The postcard ends "Lolly Madonna XXX" (XXX meaning kisses).

The Feathers find the postcard and decide to kidnap the girl to provoke the Gutshalls. They find a pretty girl, a stranger to the mountain, at a bus stop. The Feather brothers presume she's "Lolly." The girl says her real name is Roonie Gill, but the Feathers don't believe her and kidnap her anyway.

Pap (Robert Ryan) decides to save Roonie ("Lolly"), even though he doesn't know her. The two families have minor skirmishes, but each one escalates.

The Feathers steal a pig from the Gutshalls, partly as a prank. Sister E Gutshall comes to get the pig back, and seems also to want to visit with Hawk feather, on whom she has a crush. She watches as Hawk, a hopeful country singer, singing and performs as he fantasizes he's on stage.

Sister E taunts Hawk, who chases her. He catches her and they start to make out. (I think) Skylar wants to join in, but Sister E resists. Both brothers end up raping Sister E. She goes home to her mom and dad crying. This further enrages the parents against the Feather family.

Two Feather sons and their father, Laban, stake the stolen pig out where Pap Gutshall can see it. They threaten to shoot it if Laban doesn't give them title to some disputed land between them. The argument escalates and the Feathers set fire to the grass around the pig. Roonie attempts to rescue the pig, but can't. Pap shoots the pig to put it out of its misery in the fire.

Fuming for revenge, Pap has Ludie, his overactive son, and Villum his Vietnam-vet son start an attack on the Feather house.

Inside the Feather house, it appears there's a dark secret which has torn the family apart. Laban hates his son Thrush, who goads Laban into beating him up. Through flashbacks during the beating, we see that the two families were once close friends, bonded through the marriage of Zack (Jeff Bridges) and the daughter of Pap. Thrush was good with horses and trained the horse Pap's daughter loved. I found it odd that Zack was the only non-bird named son in the Feather family. Even the mom is named "Chickie."

In the flashback, we see there was once love and happiness in the family. It all ended with a tragic accident, in which Zack's wife, who is also Pap Gutshall's daughter, fell off a horse and was killed. Laban kills all the horses including the "guilty" one, and forever blames Thrush, who trained them all. We see at the end of the flashback that Laban has beaten Thrush to death.

Meanwhile, Pap's son Zeb (Gary Busey) has come to make peace and is held hostage instead. It's apparent that Laban is losing his mind and the violence will escalate even further out of control.

Skylar Feather decides this is all too much. The only way to live is to escape. He offers to take Roonie away to safety, but sees she and Zack are obviously in love. He leaves on his own. Ludie and Villum see the truck. Villum uses his sniper rifle to kill Skylar just as he drives off the property.

Ludie and Villum set up a siege of the Feather house. There is gunfire between them and those inside. Hawk is fatally injured. He makes a last stand on the porch, wearing his on-stage jacket. Hawk is hoping to go out in style and perhaps end the battle. Villum shoots Hawk again. As he dies he has one final on-stage fantasy.

Laban finally retreats into total insanity. Zack banishes him to his room, where he prepares sandwiches of ketchup and mayonnaise.

In revenge for the killing of Hawk, Chickie Feather shoots and kills the hostage Zeb. Now, they have no cards to play and have to battle it out to the end.

Ludie attacks the Feather house with egg "grenades" and Zack shoots him. Villum makes an angry charge and is also shot to death.

Pap sadly walks back to his home, childless. His wife retreats to her room. It's obvious she is disgusted with this "war" and has no more respect or love for Pap.

I believe Finch, the retarded Feather son, is still alive at the end. Chickie is left with him and the insane Laban. It appears that Zack and Roonie will leave the battle-scarred mountain and start a better life together somewhere else.

That's the best I remember how it ends. Like Vietnam, there were no winners, except maybe those who ran off (to Canada, in the US case).

Hope this has been helpful. It should be close to accurate. Feel free to improve upon it. My memory isn't what it used to be!

YouTube has a behind the scenes video of this movie:

(add " /watch?v=JabMYjwYO7c " to the their URL)

Sister E. Gutshall (I have no idea what the E stands for) is still alive at the end, but she is shown taking off suitcase in hand too. Also, it wasn't Hawk she was in love with. It was Skylar. It was really a good movie, but the ending was so sad.