A young man leaves Ireland with his landlord's daughter after some trouble with her father, and they dream of owning land at the big giveaway in Oklahoma ca. 1893. When they get to the new land, they find jobs and begin saving money. The man becomes a local barehands boxer, and rides in glory until he is beaten, then his employers steal all the couple's money and they must fight off starvation in the winter, and try to keep their dream of owning land alive. Meanwhile, the woman's parents find out where she has gone and have come to America to find her and take her back.
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There are a lot of things wrong with this movie. First off, it is just silly. The acting, dialogue, nearly everything. The film doesn't even do a good just of presenting history correctly. It starts off by claiming a greedy Irish upperclass are unfairly charging high rents and that is causing conflict. What the film doesn't tell you is that those people are not even Irish. They were English settlers who stole land with the help of England and made the lives of the actual Irish people a living heck. So that rich vs poor thing is a bunch of hogwash from the get go. This review is long enough, the film is annoying goofy. Maybe the accents were so bad that it made the whole production set stop caring about making a respectable film. Who know?
Shannon is a very upper class lady in Ireland with her controlling mother who wishes her to marry a snobbish land owner, Stephen. Joesph is a farm boy who has just lost his father and his home has been burned by Stephen, Shannon's father owns the land, so Joesph goes to kill him, but fails. His punishment is a duel, but he and Shannon see each other and have an instant connection but won't admit it of course, but Shannon offers for him to come with her to America to claim some land with her. He accepts her offer and goes with her. They claim to be brother and sister to survive, but soon they can no longer resist each other's love, but their family may be too strong to let them be together when Shannon's family comes to get her in America.Far and Away is a very charming film that I'm sure you will be impressed with. It's just a very romantic film, has fun comedy to it, good drama, and has terrific pictures and sights. Ron Howard is just a fine director, he got the whole feel of the old days and that race for land at the end was just shot so beautifully. Tom and Nicole did a great job, they were so beautiful to watch and made this into a great film. I highly recommend this movie, I think you'll love it.
"His best friend is a talking pie!" "Sold! Howard, you've done it again!" (cue Happy Days theme) from The SimpsonsI didn't have such terrible memories of Far and Away, last seen when I was little more than a kid - probably for a number of factors, including John Williams' slick soundtrack, Enya's memorable Book of Days, my schoolboy crush for the young and radiant redhead Nicole Kidman... and mostly for the premise of the Oklahoma Land Rush, a fascinating topic.Watching it as an adult, Far and Away is bad. Being a Ron Howard movie, emotions register with the subtlety of a stampede of buffaloes; the camera swoops around emphatically, rotates, takes flight; character moments are corny, comedic scenes juvenile. People complain about, say, Spielberg's populism and lack of sophistication... but, compared to Howard, good ol' Steven is as thematically dense and thought-provoking as Stanley Kubrick.Kidman and Cruise, who later became competent (in Kidman's case even great) performers, here are just coasting on their looks. Cruise in particular attempts an Irish accent which sounds like he has a moribund but petulant leprechaun stuck in his larynx.4/10
In 1892 western Ireland, tenant farmers are rebelling. Joseph Donnelly (Tom Cruise) loses his father during an incident with the landlord. Their home is burnt for overdue rent. He seeks revenge on landlord Daniel Christie (Robert Prosky) but his gun explodes. The landlord's daughter Shannon Christie (Nicole Kidman) wants to be Modern and get 160 acres of free land in America. She grabs Joseph from a pistol duel with the cruel henchman Stephen Chase (Thomas Gibson). She takes him on as her man servant on the journey. They find out the land is in Oklahoma, but she loses all her valuable spoons in Boston. They are penniless as they meet the ward boss Mike Kelly (Colm Meaney). He gains some worth as a bare knuckle boxer. Meanwhile a mob burns down the Christies mansion and they travel to America to follow Shannon. Eventually it ends in the great race to claim land in the Oklahoma Territories.The movie is beautifully shot by director Ron Howard. However the story is convenient and simplistic. It's as if Ron Howard wanted to check all the boxes of the era for the Irish. Everything feels manufactured. There isn't a real moment in the movie especially the pairing of Kidman and Cruise. There is no subtlety in their performance or the romance. It's not as problematic the first time around but it really annoys me with more viewings.
