FAR AND AWAY
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1992 Mark R. Leeper
Capsule review: A really big film with impressive
historical sweep. The sort of epic storytelling that films
do so well and just have not done very often in recent years.
Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman star in a story of Irish
immigrants coming to the Irish slums of Boston and then to
the Oklahoma land rush just about one century ago. This is
the most enjoyable film I have seen in 1992. Rating: +3 (-4
to +4).
(Spoiler warning: This film could not be adequately described without telling more of the plot than I usually like to tell. It is clear early on where this film is going. However, if you prefer not to read details of the plot, be warned.)
The summer is off to a roaring start with the return of a type of film we have not seen in a while, a big sprawling spectacular historical novel in cinematic form. This is a film in the grand tradition of epics like THE UNTAMED, which took Tyrone Power and Susan Howard from Ireland to a trek across South Africa with the Boers. It is rare enough these days to see an historical film set in another century. FAR AND AWAY sweeps the audience from the tenant unrest in Ireland in 1892 to the Irish slums of Boston to a brief sequence in the Ozarks and finally to the Oklahoma land rush. The land rush race of 1893 is eye-poppingly brought to the screen on a scale rarely seen on films any more. Along the way the viewer gets a pleasurable history lesson about conditions in Ireland, Boston, and Oklahoma of a century ago. FAR AND AWAY is *a lot* of film. It is 140 minutes of story.
The story opens in western Ireland. There tenant farmers live and die in abject poverty, owing everything they have to absentee landlords. Many of these landlords never even saw the properties that made them rich. Joseph Donelly (played surprisingly well by Tom Cruise) has dreams of escaping his poverty and owning his own lands. His dreams change when the rent collector indirectly kills Donelly's father and then intentionally burns Donelly's home. Donelly leaves home, intending to find and murder his landlord Daniel Christie (played by Robert Prosky). Christie turns out to be a likable fellow and Donelly a completely incompetent assassin. Soon Donelly is a patient being cared for by Christie's family in Christie's own house. Donelly particularly is interested in Shannon Christie (played by Nicole Kidman--Cruise's real-life wife). Shannon fancies herself a very modern woman and has dreams of running away to America, where they are giving away free land in Oklahoma and where she can be the equal of any man. It is no surprise to the audience that she is eventually off to America with part of the family treasure and with Donelly in tow as a sort of servant--at least that is what she thinks he is.
The longest chapter of the story is set in the Irish immigrant slums of Boston, where the couple go from riches to rags to riches and back to rags. The historical re-creation here is beautifully done. We see the immigrant population and the brothels. Donelly and Shannon are forced to pose as brother and sister and share a room in a brothel. Shannon plucks chickens and barely makes enough money to cover the rent, while Donelly is adopted by a local bully (played by Colm Meany of STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION) and groomed as a bare-knuckle boxer. Donelly has a meteoric career as a boxer- -reminiscent of too many other of Cruise's films. Eventually the couple is dragged apart by poverty. Donelly tries a minor stint laying railroad track in the Ozarks before he decides to head west and find his land in Oklahoma. They once again meet up for the largest and most famous of the Oklahoma land rushes, the Cherokee Strip race. (Ever wonder what Cherokee Strip Day commemorated?) The Cherokee Strip was a six-million-acre strip of land between Kansas and Oklahoma bought from the Cherokee Nation for $8,500,000. It was partitioned into plots of land, and at noon on Saturday, September 16, 1893, the race for land began. The first person to get to one of the plots and replace the marker flag in it with his own flag owned it. One to a customer. This was the best known of the Oklahoma land rushes, attracting 100,000 settlers ("boomers"). A settler could be shot for being a "sooner," cheating and going to a plot of land sooner than noon. Sooners are, however, commemorated in the state nickname: The Sooner State. The Cherokee Strip land rush has been depicted in films several times before--most notably in the 1931 film CIMARRON, based on the novel by Edna Ferber and which won the Oscar for best picture. However, for once budget constraints seem to have been a small issue. Aerial shots of the rushing boomers indicate the land rush was recreated for FAR AND AWAY on a massive scale.
While the film has the feel of a novel, it was in fact based on an original screenplay. The screenplay was done by co-producer Bob Dolman. It was based on a story by Dolman and by director Ron Howard. This is purely a Hollywood product, story and screenplay, which makes it all the more surprising that the result is so pleasing. There are a few false moves, the worst coming in the final seconds of the film, but general the writing is quite good.
Tom Cruise does well with a script that involves many of his talents. Both his boxing and his horse-riding are surprisingly good and done in large part apparently without doubles. The Irish accent at first seems strange coming from Cruise, but only because his own inflection is familiar. Had I not seen him before, I would probably accept the Irish accent as his own. Kidman's talents also seem more than sufficient for her role. Robert Prosky never turns in a bad performance, of course.
Because there is so much to see in this film, it was shot on extra-wide 65mm film stock. That would not be uncommon for a special-effects-oriented film but is most unusual for a film with few or no visual effects. Just one more reason FAR AND AWAY is a good buy in a movie ticket.
Kudos to Ron Howard for the best and most entertaining film I have seen so far this year. I give it a +3 on the -4 to +4 scale. It's nice to be enthusiastic about a Hollywood studio film once in a while.
Mark R. Leeper
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