The Field

Rating:
Summary: O Begorah! What a bleak an' tempestuous vale o' tears, Etc
Review: My old church was Irish American. The organist was a 75 year-old Galway man with a Darby O'Gill shuffle and squint, fond of tartan caps and spinning fanciful tales of the Olde Country over a pot of warm Harp. In the eyes of the congregation he could do no wrong.

So when he pounded insanely on the keys, bruising our ears with "powerful" but utterly bombastic, nerve-shredding recitals, we would cower in our pews, humbly praying for his death.

Now the magic of Hollywood has brought us a cinematic version of one of old Darby's performances. Like Darby himself, it does have a spry vigor and a, errm, grimly uncompromising bent. But viewers in search of subtlety? Originality? Believable characterization? Non-ludicrous staging? A story that actually goes somewhere? ...may be let down.

This ponderous melodrama gets props for setting some emotional precedents. When McCabe gave his droning speeches about, yes, the potato famine (4-word secret to writing Powerful Irish Drama: Mention Potato Famine Often), I was almost hypnotically bored. When it turned out that his son had been harassing their landlady *every night* for ten years, and no one else was any the wiser, I felt the sting of disbelief. When the 1930's McCabe used the 60's slogan "Yankee Go Home", I felt the thrill of time travel. And as for the sinking-into-madness/driven-ironically-off-the-sea-cliff-by-stampeding-livestock (!!!) finale...have I ever in my life laughed so hard at a "drama"?

The cheeziness of this hardscrabble bit of Gaelic self-importance has to be seen to be disbelieved. Your friends could stage a contest for most embarrassing moment: Tom Berrenger's hammy dance scene? McCabe's speech about the PF and how the Church caters only to the rich, segueing to a priest with a giant dollar sign on his back? Any of the campy Gypsy Girl filler? Or maybe the overall tone of boggy, broguey tra-gerdy. Though how could we forget that final, galloping, cliffside cop-out! Sweet Jaysus, enough I tell ye.

Rating:
Summary: Don't watch this if you're out on a date!!
Review: Not unless your date happens to be Mortisha Adams! It is a very good film, but it is up there with Schindler's List as far as happy movies go!! In this movie an Irish peasent watches as everything he loves is taken from him. A rich and influencial American tries to buy out his field: His kin's blood, his sweat, his life's work... his life. I think this is definately one of those films that is worth seeing, but I don't know if most of us could take seeing it more than once in a lifetime.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent, gripping, and SO depressing.
Review: Richard Harris is absolutely outstanding in this film. No wonder he got an Oscar nomination. This film about pride and struggle keeps you rivited from beginning to end. And a sad, frantic, tragic end it is.

Sean Bean plays Harris's son, and he is very effective as a somewhat dimwitted fellow who is cowed by his powerful and stubborn father. Brenda Fricker (as Bean's mom and Harris's wife) is fine too. And John Hurt plays an amusing gap-toothed buddy with great humor! He was a particular favorite.

Tom Berenger as "The American" gives a fine performance as well (he did a good "East Coast" accent), but it's unfortunate that his character's motivations in buying the field are not more clearly defined--it would have helped explain more of the plot.

Beautiful scenery, and a great score by Elmer Bernstein add much to this film as well! However, closed captions definitely were needed in this movie. The accents are too thick for American ears. (Except for Berenger's accent, of course!) I don't understand why this film was not subtitled or closed-captioned. Not only do the hearing impaired need the captioning, anyone who has trouble with the thick accents will need it too. What gives?

An excellent film. Depressing and dramatic, but it keeps you thinking after the film is over. Richard Harris is *amazing*. What a treat to see him shine in such a way.

Rating:
Summary: emotional
Review: richard harris is amazing in this film. it is a complex story, but keeps coming back to the central image, the field itself. its moving, and very sad, and anybody with a soul will connect with the characters. also, the irish scenery is beautiful.

Rating:
Summary: Not likely to run on TBS each St, Patrick's Day
Review: Richard Harris received an Academy Award nomination for his performance as the domineering "Bull" McCabe in this strongly acted film of a bleak, mean spirited and reactionary Ireland. My favorite performance, however, is Sean Bean as Bull's son, Tadgh, the sullen, resentful canvas on which Harris paints his stubborn, destructive, megalomaniacal madness.

If you want to believe in cheerful Irish country folk making like Leprechauns and the Blarney Stone watch the reruns of the Quiet Man on TBS. But if you want a superbly acted story about one man's blindness to the effect his Irish pigheadedness has on others and how it can destroy what he says he loves, this is the movie for you.

Rating:
Summary: Not likely to run on TBS each St, Patrick's Day
Review: Richard Harris received an Academy Award nomination for his performance as the domineering "Bull" McCabe in this strongly acted film of a bleak, mean spirited and reactionary Ireland. My favorite performance, however, is Sean Bean as Bull's son, Tadgh, the sullen, resentful canvas on which Harris paints his stubborn, destructive, megalomaniacal madness.

If you want to believe in cheerful Irish country folk making like Leprechauns and the Blarney Stone watch the reruns of the Quiet Man on TBS. But if you want a superbly acted story about one man's blindness to the effect his Irish pigheadedness has on others and how it can destroy what he says he loves, this is the movie for you.

Rating:
Summary: Not likely to run on TBS each St, Patrick's Day
Review: Richard Harris received an Academy Award nomination for his performance as the domineering "Bull" McCabe in this strongly acted film of a bleak, mean spirited and reactionary Ireland. My favorite performance, however, is Sean Bean as Bull's son, Tadgh, the sullen, resentful canvas on which Harris paints his stubborn, destructive, megalomaniacal madness.

If you want to believe in cheerful Irish country folk making like Leprechauns and the Blarney Stone watch the reruns of the Quiet Man on TBS. But if you want a superbly acted story about one man's blindness to the effect his Irish pigheadedness has on others and how it can destroy what he says he loves, this is the movie for you.

Rating:
Summary: The Haze of Righteous Indignation
Review: Somewhere amidst the perfection of 1989's My Left Foot and the frenzied energy of 1993's In The Name of The Father director Jim Sheridan had a brief flirtation with mediocrity in this drab Irish saga. Failing as an allegory and a docudrama, The Field is finally a film at odds with itself.

The time is 1920s Ireland where Bull McCabe(Richard Harris) works the land his father and his father's father had worked before him. By his side is his obedient somewhat dim son Tadgh(Sean Bean) and a slithery right hand man named Bird(John Hurt) who also happens to be a little dim. Together Tadgh and Bird will justify the old man's stubbornness with their mindless support.

When the English widow who owns the land on which the McCabe family has been toiling for decades decides to sell it, Bull is only to happy to spend his life savings to finally own what he feels to be rightfully his. In a film of many symbols, the most obvious here is the proud Irishman's refusal to let the English who starved and killed them own their land. Alas, an Irish American(Tom Berenger) has come to find his roots(or something) and decides that he must have this particular field at any price. Berenger is given all of four lines to explain his ache for the field, something along the lines of "When my father died, I had to come back".

A fable is by definition an unrealistic story set to convey a moral message. If The Field purports to be one, where is the sensual beauty that permeates these morality plays? If it's a realistic docu-drama, why is it that I can see the Lear like fate McCabe one hour before the film does? This is a movie with a thoroughly confused tone. Yet Harris's rightly Oscar nominated performance is undeniably great. With his chin down to his chest, his eyes bulging and his hands shaking in rage he spouts out his lines between heavy fumes of breath. But in the greatness of his performance there is a curious paradox. This stubborn unrelenting man who defends his right to the land as if it were his very soul is given the best lines, the most admiring closups. While the forces of reasons, the forces that oppose him are pale and lifeless. Never is this more clear then in what is ironically the film's most affecting scene: As McCabe stands infront of the local Catholic priest(who has now become quite chummy with the Yank) he movingly recounts how he and his father starved, bled and strained on this field and thus as a local deserves to own it. The priest's quite sensible response is "Why don't you find another field?". But it's such a colorless response uttered by a marginal character that it pales next to McCabes speech. Here Sheridan is commanding the audience to side with McCabe. I never felt much sympathy for McCabe's quest. Just Pity.

There are many reasons why people watch tragedies. I guess there is the compassion a viewer feels for his fellow man that maybe saddening but heartfelt. More importantly there is the character's reaction to the tragedy that provides the lesson, and possibly redemption. It is never in any doubt that McCabe's uncompromising ways will come back to haunt him. There are three broad outlines along which he could react to the inevitable fallout:

1)He could continue in his bigotry and refuse to acknowledge his responsibility, which ofcourse would require the director to come up with an original way to make his point.

2)He could face up to his actions, re-evaluate his principles and attempt to redeem himself.

3)Go Insane, which ofcourse is the ultimate cop-out. A convenient punishment that requires no introspection.

Of the three paths, which one do you think this self-defeating drama ulitmatley takes?

Rating:
Summary: Field of Sorrow and Regret
Review: This film is an excellent character study written and directed by Jim Sheridan. It is moody and brilliantly photographed. Richard Harris turns in a poignant performance as "Bull" McCabe. He's grim, stoic and stubborn yet he remains poetically sympathetic. It contains a fine score by Elmer Berstein.

Rating:
Summary: A MASTERPIECE!
Review: This film is in my all time top ten. Don't be swayed by these other reviews. "Who will dance wi' the Tinker's daughter?"