The Pride of Jesse Hallam 1981

Jesse Hallam, Johnny Cash, a coal miner in Muhlenberg, Kentucky, has just endured the double blow of his wife’s death and losing his job. His daughter Jenny Hallam, Chrystal Smith, needs a back operation, and the nearest hospital capable of performing it is in Cincinnati, Ohio. To secure treatment, he sells the family farm to his brother-in-law Charlie, Earl Poole Ball, for $15,000 in cash, and loads Jenny and his son Ted Hallam, Ben Marley, into a pickup to head for Cincinnati and a chance at a new life.

In Cincinnati, Jesse pays $14,000 for Jenny’s operation. After getting Ted enrolled at Harding High School, he sets out to find work, but the job search stalls until he intervenes to stop a petty vendor from cheating an elderly grocer. The grocer, Sal Galucci, Eli Wallach, offers him a job on the spot.

A setback comes when Jesse is pulled over for a traffic stop and learns his driver’s license has expired. Later, at a market setup, Sal rebukes him for placing their wares on a space reserved for someone else. Sal then realizes Jesse is illiterate, and he convinces Jesse to let Sal’s daughter Marian, Brenda Vaccaro, who is also Ted’s principal, teach him.

Meanwhile, Ted struggles academically and socially, drifting with a group of wild friends. A police officer brings Ted home after he drinks, underscoring the challenges Jesse faces as a parent trying to support his son.

As Jesse begins to read more, Marian gives him a copy of Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea, which inspires him and spurs a plan for a summer reading program at the high school designed to raise his literacy level. Yet when Jesse fails the written portion of his driver’s test, he becomes discouraged and decides to return to Kentucky, much to Ted’s apparent relief.

When the school year ends, Ted returns with his report card; he reveals he earned an A in gym and a D in math, and Jesse learns that Ted has effectively failed all his other subjects, which depend on reading.

The final scene returns to the high school remedial reading class that Marian had suggested, with the teacher calling roll and the two men replying in unison, “here,” signaling a hopeful turn in their ongoing effort to read and learn together.