Simply Perfect

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

The acting in this movie is really good.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

The Field is the second film directed by Jim Sheridan and falls among his brilliant early works such as My Left Foot and In the Name of the Father. The film, based on a play by John B. Keane, takes place in an Irish village in 1920s. It focuses on the life of "Bull McCabe" and his efforts to buy the field that he works on. His family has lived for generations in this village and he wants to leave the field as his legacy to his son, and his son after him, and so on. As a hardworking and honest man, we come to admire him. But things take a turn for worse when the field becomes more important than anything for him, even more important than himself. And he fights fiercely to get the field, without considering what this fight might cost him and his family. His traditional thinking is also challenged by the appearance of a rich American, who has returned to him homeland to buy the lands and begin a major industry there.Richard Harris, who plays Bull McCabe, was nominated for an Oscar while John Hurt was also nominated for BAFTA for playing "Bird" in the film.

Being an avid follower of the Oscars ever since the 1984 ceremony has sometimes served to alert me about small movies which had nevertheless obtained at least one major accolade; this powerful Irish drama was just such a case and, appropriately enough, it has taken me all of 18 years to finally watch it! Richard Harris deservedly received his second personal Academy Award nomination (and the film's sole Oscar nod) for his riveting portrayal of an old farmer who is not about to let a visiting Irish-American (Tom Berenger) take away the titular plot of land which he has slaved for years over to breathe new life into. The colorful cast of characters is rounded up by John Hurt (as the mischievous village idiot), Brenda Fricker (as Harris' wife – whom he has not spoken to for 18 years, since the accidental death of his son, despite still living under the same roof with her), Sean Bean (as Harris' immature other offspring) and Jenny Conroy (as the sultry village hussy whom Bean eventually takes up with over Harris' objections). The film – which opens with the startling donkey disposal incident and closes with the mass suicide of a herd of cows that has tragic consequences – is often beautiful to look and has a fine Elmer Bernstein score into the bargain but, truthfully, its real trump card remains, as I mentioned above, Harris' tour-de-force central performance.

I simply don't like cultural stereotypes -- it's lazy and emotionally stunted thinking. While we are given many extrapolations about the Irish (I'll leave it to the Irish to interpret them), we have a galling stereotype of an American. It's no more "right" than the stereotypes of the Irish seen in some Hollywood films (as a UK reviewer observed). You're insulting my people -- something that isn't right no matter whose people are being insulted. But then one person's bigotry is another's righteous opinion, it would seem.The film itself is about a half hour too long. Harris is wonderful but then he's always wonderful. The themes and ideas I'll leave to the Irish to judge.Now enjoy clicking "No" to the review.

Tenant farmers in Ireland and their problems accounts for some of the great political movements in that country. So it was interesting to learn that in The Field those problems have not gone away even though it's not British who are absentee landlords.Shot mostly in County Galway in Ireland, The Field certainly has the look and feel of The Quiet Man, but it's hardly in the same lighthearted spirit. In fact the priest in this film functions more like Karl Malden's priest of the docks in On The Waterfront.Richard Harris has been a tenant farmer working the land for widow Frances Tomelty for years and has raised his family there. It's pretty much accepted by the villagers that it's Harris's land by right of sweat so when the widow wants to sell no one bids against him except Harris's sidekick John Hurt. But American Tom Berenger doesn't know the rules around there and he does bid.But what Berenger wants to do is develop the place, put some Americanized shopping mall there. Imagine a strip mall on some of that beach-front property that John Ford so lovingly photographed in The Quiet Man and you can understand the feelings there. It all leads to a lot of tragedy.Originally Harris was supposed to play the priest role that Sean McGinley had and who played it well. The lead was to go to Ray McAnally who had done this role on stage. When McAnally died, Harris was moved up to the lead and responded with an Oscar nominated performance for Best Actor. Harris lost that year to Jeremy Irons in Reversal of Fortune.Also look for some nice performances here by Sean Bean as Harris's son and Brenda Fricker as his wife. All part of a very violent household.Religion specifically the Roman Catholic Church takes a beating and The Field does touch on the conservative role of the church in society. It's a generally accepted fact that the Church did its level best to discourage revolutionary activity during the 19th century after the Irish lost their parliament in the Wolfe Tone rebellion. Harris and others in the film comment about how no priests died during the potato famine that they don't know how the tenant farmers live. And Sean McGinley as the village priest is by no means portrayed as a bad man. There's also bad feelings towards Berenger who is seen as the descendant of people who cut and ran during the Irish troubles. Of course if a lot hadn't emigrated to all points of the globe, there would be a lot more trying to share the land that Harris wants to hold on to. The Field is a fine drama about Ireland and the problems there that may not have been totally resolved with independence.