The Field
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Movie Reviews of The Field
Movie Review: Powerfully depressing and bleak
Summary: 2 Stars
With ordinary actors this movie would be depressing. With Richard Harris finding enormous, brilliant energy in his role as the doomed main character, it goes beyond depressing to being scorchingly, searingly upsetting. It's bleak, harrowing, dismal and severely gut-wrenching. If that's your kind of thing, this movie delivers it in spades, way more forcefully than the next ten downer flicks put together.
I saw it on cable and walked out before the final, awful ending. My wife sat through the whole miserable story and confirmed that the ending was even heartrending than the rest of the movie.
Two stars because of the acting, otherwise zero stars. Life is too short, and there are enough miserable things to deal with, that I prefer not to voluntarily subject myself to painful movies.
You've been warned. I wish I had been.
Movie Review: Cows Falling Through Space (o, the huge manatee!)
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm still not sure if this was supposed to be a comedy, but when I saw it with my drunken mob of friends back in the day, the majority of us burst out laughing at the Falling Cows and the immortal line, "We can't run off like tinkers!" Strangely enough, those of us who had ancestors directly affected by the true, historcal events of the Famine laughed loudest; whereas those of us attempting to deeply experience the pathos so that they might connect with our suffering, on-screen brethren with true, empathic feeling---well, our rolling in the aisles really ruined the evening for them. This is a very good film, but if you're not laughing by the end, there's something wrong with you; however, if you are laughing, there's something deeply wrong with you. And, by God's sanctifying grace, everyone might learn that there is something deeply wrong with all of us. I was born an original sinner...Movie Review: The Field: Irish identity with the land
Summary: 5 Stars
As an Irish person i can connect and relate to this movie. And as an israeli iam moved that even gentiles have such a concept of the sacredness of place. Richard Harris is a great actor and does well at playing himsself. what i mean by that is he ia an irish born native of ireland playing an irish native of ireland on film. There is a great sad and tragic history of irish rural life in lreland. This movie depicts the reality and the history of that very well. Movie Review: some historical stats.....
Summary: 4 Stars
As an Irish person I find Dr Russell Fannelli's synopsis of Irish history quite interesting.....
My intital thoughts were :
"uh-oh, an american offering to give a brief run-down of irish history ...don't like the sound of that....."
But actually its quite a good summary, if a little brief. One statistical detail however warrants mentioning. The population of the island of Ireland fell from 8.2mn in 1841 to 4.2mn in 1961....a decline of some 48%, most of which took place before 1900...actually far worse than the 36% figure mentioned by Dr Fanelli
For what its worth, I think The Field is aimed at an international audience, it is a romantic view of tough old country folk fighting over "the land" with a lot of cliched figures from the Irish landscap - the hardy farmer, the tinker girl, the wild son, the 'yank'...was there a 'widow woman' in there too? can't remember...
....for me it is also clearly a play adapted for cinema and would probably work better as a play.
Still though i enjoyed the movie.
Less well known movies of a similar bent are Poitin starring Donal McCann who is the best Irish actor that I have seen, and Eat the Peach, starring Stephen Brennan.
Movie Review: Struggle for the Irish Land
Summary: 3 Stars
Not a light-hearted movie. A look at one man's attempt to take care of his land and his way of life. Richard Harris is compelling in this tale of an influential man in a small town. A powerful ending that will leave you sitting in your chair just thinking about the movie.