"Far and Away" is an American attempt to combine British-style "heritage cinema" with a traditional Western. The film opens in 1890s Ireland. On the day of his father's funeral, young farmer Joseph Donnelly is evicted from his land because of unpaid rent and home is burned down by his landlord's men. Joseph vows revenge, and makes an attempt to kill his landlord Daniel Christie. He fails, but his attempt sets in motion a chain of events which lead to Joseph running off to America with Christie's daughter Shannon. On arrival, he works for a time as a prize- fighter in Boston, and eventually they take part in the Oklahoma Land Run of 1893 (an event which has also featured in other films such as the two versions of "Cimarron").
The film's main problem is that the story is full of plot-holes and most of these derive from two incidents, the burning of Joseph's house and his attempt to kill Christie. It is never explained why Christie's men would have wanted to burn the house, which after Joseph's eviction could have been let to another tenant. Christie later protests that the burning was done, without his knowledge or consent, by his land agent Stephen Chase, but does not explain why he has not only kept in his employment a man guilty of arson against his employer's property but also continues to regard that man as a desirable suitor for his daughter's hand in marriage. (Chase, possibly based upon the notorious Captain Charles Boycott, is the real villain of the film).
Joseph's attempt to kill Christie is not in itself improbable as Joseph had plenty of reason to hate him. It does, however, raise the difficult questions of why Christie should seemingly bear Joseph no animosity during their subsequent meetings and of why Shannon should first have run off with, and later have fallen in love with, a man who had tried to murder her father. Why did Chase challenge Joseph to a duel? By the 1890s duelling was going out of favour in the British Isles, but even when it was in favour no gentleman would have challenged a social inferior to a duel. (Chase would undoubtedly have regarded an illiterate peasant-farmer like Joseph as his inferior). Why would an obviously wealthy man like Christie, who after emigrating to America has enough money to live in luxury as a rich Boston gentleman, have wanted to abandon that life in favour of becoming an Oklahoma farmer? And why would an intelligent and well-educated woman like Shannon have been unaware that the Land Run was being held in Oklahoma? (She seems to imagine that she only has to step off the ship in Boston to be offered free land).
The stars are Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, the cinema's official Golden Couple of the nineties, in their second film together. It would be true to say that in neither case is this their best film, but then in neither case is it their worst either. If Cruise does not quite reach the heights he scaled in some of his films from this period, such as "Rain Man", "Born on the First of July" or "A Few Good Men", at least he does not slip back into the brattish, cocky screen persona which had been his stock-in-trade for much of the eighties, and Joseph comes across as surprisingly sympathetic for a would-be assassin. I will leave comment on his accent and Kidman's to those more familiar with Irish dialects than I am. I was not, however, impressed with some of the supporting cast, especially Robert Prosky who seemed unable to decide if he should play Christie as a lovable old rogue or an outright villain.
Visually, the film is an attractive one with some striking shots of the Irish landscape, and Ron Howard does a good job as director; the scenes of the Land Run itself are particularly well put together to make a stirring climax. A favourite trick of his is to film the action from above, as if seen by Joseph's father looking down from Heaven. (Joseph often refers to his belief that his father is watching over him). Little expense seems to have been spared in recreating the Ireland and the America of the 1890s and, unlike many period dramas, this one is not littered with historical inaccuracies; about the only goof I spotted was that old chestnut, too many stars on the American flag for the date at which the action takes place.
Roger Ebert said of "Far and Away" that it is "a movie that joins astonishing visual splendour with a story so simple-minded it seems intended for adolescents", a sentiment with which I would concur. When so much attention has been paid to other aspects of the film, it is a shame that so little was apparently paid to the script. The plot has more holes than a colander. With a better storyline my mark would have been considerably higher. 5/10
The film's main problem is that the story is full of plot-holes and most of these derive from two incidents, the burning of Joseph's house and his attempt to kill Christie. It is never explained why Christie's men would have wanted to burn the house, which after Joseph's eviction could have been let to another tenant. Christie later protests that the burning was done, without his knowledge or consent, by his land agent Stephen Chase, but does not explain why he has not only kept in his employment a man guilty of arson against his employer's property but also continues to regard that man as a desirable suitor for his daughter's hand in marriage. (Chase, possibly based upon the notorious Captain Charles Boycott, is the real villain of the film).
Joseph's attempt to kill Christie is not in itself improbable as Joseph had plenty of reason to hate him. It does, however, raise the difficult questions of why Christie should seemingly bear Joseph no animosity during their subsequent meetings and of why Shannon should first have run off with, and later have fallen in love with, a man who had tried to murder her father. Why did Chase challenge Joseph to a duel? By the 1890s duelling was going out of favour in the British Isles, but even when it was in favour no gentleman would have challenged a social inferior to a duel. (Chase would undoubtedly have regarded an illiterate peasant-farmer like Joseph as his inferior). Why would an obviously wealthy man like Christie, who after emigrating to America has enough money to live in luxury as a rich Boston gentleman, have wanted to abandon that life in favour of becoming an Oklahoma farmer? And why would an intelligent and well-educated woman like Shannon have been unaware that the Land Run was being held in Oklahoma? (She seems to imagine that she only has to step off the ship in Boston to be offered free land).
The stars are Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, the cinema's official Golden Couple of the nineties, in their second film together. It would be true to say that in neither case is this their best film, but then in neither case is it their worst either. If Cruise does not quite reach the heights he scaled in some of his films from this period, such as "Rain Man", "Born on the First of July" or "A Few Good Men", at least he does not slip back into the brattish, cocky screen persona which had been his stock-in-trade for much of the eighties, and Joseph comes across as surprisingly sympathetic for a would-be assassin. I will leave comment on his accent and Kidman's to those more familiar with Irish dialects than I am. I was not, however, impressed with some of the supporting cast, especially Robert Prosky who seemed unable to decide if he should play Christie as a lovable old rogue or an outright villain.
Visually, the film is an attractive one with some striking shots of the Irish landscape, and Ron Howard does a good job as director; the scenes of the Land Run itself are particularly well put together to make a stirring climax. A favourite trick of his is to film the action from above, as if seen by Joseph's father looking down from Heaven. (Joseph often refers to his belief that his father is watching over him). Little expense seems to have been spared in recreating the Ireland and the America of the 1890s and, unlike many period dramas, this one is not littered with historical inaccuracies; about the only goof I spotted was that old chestnut, too many stars on the American flag for the date at which the action takes place.
Roger Ebert said of "Far and Away" that it is "a movie that joins astonishing visual splendour with a story so simple-minded it seems intended for adolescents", a sentiment with which I would concur. When so much attention has been paid to other aspects of the film, it is a shame that so little was apparently paid to the script. The plot has more holes than a colander. With a better storyline my mark would have been considerably higher. 5/10