Rating: 
Summary: The Field - How's Your Irish?
Review: This film needs Closed Captioning because the Irish accents are way too thick. The beauty of Ireland is captured here but the people are poor, showing how they lived after the war. These are the ones who stayed & didn't 'run away' to America when it got too tough. But the gist of the story is: Tom Berenger's father DID take off for America, made a fortune & now Tom's back to do some building & leveling of a gorgeous field that Richard "Bull McCabe" Harris has been tending to for years. He doesn't own it but rents it from an English woman who is now selling it at public auction. Guess who wants to buy it & has plenty of money to do so? Peter "The Yank" (Berenger). Bull tries to keep him from doing so but winds up killing him in the end. What a waste! Actually, the only comfortable time in this film is when Berenger is on the screen. And it's limited time. He brings a sense of familiarity & progression to the whole story. But we all lose out when Bull McCabe gets his way once again.
Rating: 
Summary: Extraordinary Drama
Review: This is one of the finest tragedies to ever come to the screen. The story of a man's obsession and his fall from grace. Only a Richard Harris could pull this off. It surely ranks as his finest hour. This film is an undiscovered gem. How unfortunate that Pioneer's DVD release only offers the truncated aspect ratio of 1:1.33! Perhaps one day they will release a version that shows the entire "field".
Rating: 
Summary: "I got a terrible rapping in me skull."
Review: Though this film, directed by Jim Sheridan, is based on the stage play of the same name by John B. Keane, it bears little resemblance to the play. The play emphasizes the passion of a Kerry farmer for his land, the measures he takes to protect it, and the willingness of the community to support him, evading both the law and the church to achieve "true" justice. Big Bull McCabe, fighting to buy land he has leased and improved for ten years, is portrayed as embodying the attitudes of the whole Kerry farming culture and not as a completely unique individual with unique problems.
The film, however, changes the emphasis, introducing many new elements for their visual effects. Bull McCabe (passionately played by Richard Harris) must outbid a crass American (not an Englishman) for the field. The dandified American (Tom Berenger) wants to use the limestone in the hills to create a cement factory (not to build a home for his Irish wife) and to use the nearby waterfall for a hydroelectric plant. Widow Maggie Butler (Frances Tomelty) is selling the land because she is tired of her harrassment by Bull's son Tadgh (Sean Bean) and his friends (a new, illustrated subplot). Bird O'Donnell, a nearly toothless and somewhat daft stereotype (John Hurt) is a gawping comic foil for the passion of McCabe here.
Traditional, folksy dances and community activities, the developing love story of Tadgh and a gypsy girl, the close friendship between the American buyer and the pompous local priest (Sean McGinley), the death of McCabe's other son many years before, and the involvement of McCabe's wife in the film's resolution are all new, visual plot elements, and the ending is totally different, both in the way the action is "resolved" and in its thematic message.
Spectacular cinematography (Jack Conroy)--fog, wind, cliffs, and rain--emphasizes the greatness of the land and the relative smallness of man, while the simple music (Elmer Bernstein) adds to the mood and highlights the dramatic action. Dialogue, often limited to cryptic comments, is subordinated to visual information, and the pub characters, including the pub owner, a major character in the play, are almost interchangeable in their stereotypes. Symbolism is obvious, from Bull's blowing of a dandelion to illustrate "what we'd be without the land," to his crucifixion pose near the end of the film. The stark realism of the play and the power of the "us vs. them" community dynamic get lost with the film's personal focus on Bull McCabe--and its melodrama. Mary Whipple
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