The Field
by Jim Sheridan
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Brenda Fricker, Frances Tomelty, John Hurt, Richard Harris, Sean BeanDirector: Jim Sheridan
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 113 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2002-02-26
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Lions Gate
Movie Reviews of The Field
Movie Review: Harris Gives Powerful, Perhaps Too Powerful Performance
Summary: 4 Stars
"The Field," (1990), an Irish movie, was the second to be made by the talented Irish director Jim Sheridan, who also gets the screenwriting credit on it. It was made from the well-known and -loved play of the same name by John B. Keane, who was a small-town publican in Co. Kerry, and evidently paid very close attention to what was going on around him. It's based on a true story about a bitter land dispute between a local man, "The Bull McCabe," played by noted Irish actor Richard Harris,who collected an Oscar nomination for his performance; and "The Yank," played by Tom Beringer. John Hurt also had a starring role, playing "Bird O'Donnell,"the sort of part that the older English actor John Mills had made his own, the wily village idiot.
The movie was filmed not in Co. Kerry, but in Co. Mayo, in the village of Leenane. Its sets still stand: so happens I've just been and seen them. Anyway, never mind the change of county, the movie, with cinematography by Jack Conroy, still gives you a very good idea of the Irish countryside: constantly threatened by an angry sea, generally cool, rainy and overcast, muddy, with deep black cold lakes and rivers. The film's set in the earlier 20th century: clothes, houses and vehicles appear to be accurately rendered, as does the dreary lives most of its characters were forced to live. The excellent musical score is the work of Hollywood favorite Elmer Bernstein. "The Field" functions as a corrective to John Ford's misty-eyed "The Quiet Man," that starred John Wayne. The Ford picture shows us the American, Wayne, coming into a small Irish village, and, after a bit of blather, being welcomed. Sheridan's picture emphatically does not. It casts a cold eye back at the terrible 19th Century Famine, and examines the land hunger of the people who remained.
For whatever reason, there's lots of Soviet socialist realism school silhouetting against the big sky. Harris's high-powered performance dominates the film. Mind you, some would say too high-powered, that Harris, possibly with Shakespeare's King Lear in mind, leaves no blade of grass unchewed on that field. Hurt, too, does strong work, as does the supporting cast. Sean Bean is Tadgh, McCabe's handsome son. Brenda Fricker, possibly with Shakespeare's Lady Macbeth in mind, is the luckless Mrs. McCabe, to whom her husband hasn't spoken for sixteen years. Sean McGinly turns in good work as the village priest. Such standbys as Brendan Gleeson, Ruth McCabe, and Malachy McCourt also take small parts. The movie is realistic, and devoid of sentimentality, not for those who prefer their Irish movies cozy. But it's engrossing, if you don't find Harris's performance too much.
Summary of The Field
After scoring an art-house hit and Oscar nominations for his previous film, My Left Foot, Irish director Jim Sheridan made this ambitious and hard-hitting drama, set in Ireland during the 1930s, about one man's obsession with a plot of land that his family has tended for generations. The results are decidedly mixed, and it's obvious that this kind of tragic allegory is better suited for the stage (where it originated as a play by John B. Keane). What makes the film worthwhile is the Oscar-nominated performance by Richard Harris as "Bull" McCabe, the fiercely stubborn man who's nurtured a prime field of rented land for decades, only to lose it when the owner auctions the land to an unwelcome American (Tom Berenger). Rather than sacrifice his life's work to this brazen invader, McCabe wages a personal war with powerfully tragic results. It's unfortunate that this potent drama never really connects on an emotional level, but Harris is never less than fascinating in a role that seems to virtually consume him as an actor. His performance approaches greatness, even when the film falls somewhat short of its dramatic ambitions. --Jeff ShannonDrama DVD Video
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