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This article refers to a 2005 film. For other meanings, see North Country.

North Country
Directed by	Niki Caro
Produced by	Nana Greenwald
Written by	Clara Bingham Laura Leedy Michael Seitzman
Starring	Charlize Theron Frances McDormand Sissy Spacek Sean Bean Woody Harrelson Richard Jenkins Jeremy Renner
Music by	Gustavo Santaolalla
Cinematography	Chris Menges
Editing by	David Coulson
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release date(s)	October 21, 2005
Running time	126 min.
Country	USA
Language	English
Budget	$35,000,000 (estimated)
Gross revenue	$18,324,242 (USA)
Official website
IMDb profile

North Country is an Academy Award-nominated film directed by Niki Caro and released in 2005. It stars Charlize Theron as a female worker at a mining company who is sexually harassed and leads a class-action lawsuit against her employer for failing to protect her and other female employees. Theron garnered an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress for her role in the film. Frances McDormand, playing Theron's tough friend Glory, also received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. The film is based on the case Jenson v. Eveleth Taconite Co., brought by Lois Jenson, although Theron's character in the movie is named Josey Aimes (many other characters in the movie are consolidations of several real-life individuals).

Principal photography on the film began in February 2005, and it was shot in northern Minnesota (including the towns of Eveleth and Virginia), Minneapolis, and New Mexico. The film was inspired by the book Class Action by Clara Bingham and Laura Leedy Gansler.

• Tagline: All she wanted was to make a living. Instead she made history.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Trivia 3 Cast 4 Reception 5 Soundtrack 6 See also 7 References 8 External links

Josey Aimes (Charlize Theron) is a miner and the single mother of Sam and Karen.

The iron mine where she is employed used to have only male workers, but now there is a growing number of women seeking jobs. Both management and workers, including Josey's father, feel that women do not belong there; there is a recession, and the men feel that women are taking jobs directly from the men.

Josey is aware of the problems, but takes a job at the mine because it pays well, and she has to support her two children. She can handle the work, but is targeted, along with the other women, with sexual harassment and bullying. She tries to complain to management, and through her union representative, but things continue to get worse. Finally she quits.

She begins a sexual harassment lawsuit against her employer for failing to protect not only her but also the other female employees. She is initially unsuccessful, as the other women are both desperate to keep their jobs and afraid of the consequences if the lawsuit fails, and refuse to back her. She finally tries to plead her case at a labor union meeting, but is shouted down. Her father steps up, and points out that they would never treat wives and daughters this way, and questions why they feel it is right to treat his daughter so.

Her lawyer tries to file a class action lawsuit, but needs at least two other witnesses to prove the case. During the application for class action, Josey's sexual history is explored in detail. The film reveals Sammy was conceived when his mother was raped in high school by one of her teachers. The revelation that it was rape, not casual sex, seems to mark a turning point. Her highschool boyfriend (one of the main harrassers from the mine) acknowledges that he knew it was rape. Other people, beginning with her friend Glory, step forward to be counted in the class action suit. They win the case.

• The lawsuit which inspired the film was settled in 1998, 14 years after it was first filed and over 20 years after the harassments began.
• In the scene where Michelle Monaghan is trapped in the portable outhouse which is rocked and tipped over by her male co-workers, the supposed human waste was actually made of Gatorade, Cocoa Puffs, and pumpkin pie fillings.^{[citation needed]}

• Charlize Theron as Josey Aimes
• Amber Heard as Young Josey Aimes
• Frances McDormand as Glory
• Sissy Spacek as Alice Aimes
• Sean Bean as Kyle
• Woody Harrelson as Bill White
• Richard Jenkins as Hank Aimes
• Jeremy Renner as Bobby Sharp
• Thomas Curtis as Sammy Aimes

North Country opened in 2,555 theaters in the United States and Canada and grossed $6,422,455 in its opening weekend, ranking 5th at the box office.^[1] In its 12-week run in theaters it grossed $18.3 million^[2], but there was some disappointment among the crew and studio because the film was expected to do better at the box office. The budget for the film was $35 million.^[2]

On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 69% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 162 reviews.^[3] On Metacritic, the film had an average score of 68 out of 100, based on 39 reviews.^[4]

The original music was composed by Gustavo Santaolalla. The dark and melancholic music of the opening scene by Santaolalla is richly supplemented by a wide selection of songs by artists such as The Matt Vorderbruggen Band, Kim Carnes, Warren Zevon, Mac Davis, The Irish Rovers, Leo Kottke, Jeremy Renner, Molly Hatchet, Bellamy Brothers and Cat Power. In addition to the previously released recordings by Bob Dylan, as well as cover songs, the soundtrack also includes a new song by Dylan, "Tell Ol' Bill", recorded in 2005.

• Sexual harassment
• Hostile environment sexual harassment
• Hostile Advances: The Kerry Ellison Story movie about Ellison v. Brady which set the "reasonable woman" precedent in sexual harassment law.
• Michelle Vinson v. Merit One Savings Bank
• Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services

• Official site
• North Country at the Internet Movie Database
• North Country at Rotten Tomatoes
• North Country at Metacritic

• North Country at Box Office Mojo
• Jenson Vs. Eveleth Mines and North Country the true story which is the basis for the film
• Woody Harrelson interview for North Country
• MyNorthCountry About the filming of North Country
• Soundtrack credits, IMDB