Cheap The Field (DVD) (Richard Harris, John Hurt) (Jim Sheridan) Price

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The time is 1920s Ireland where Bull McCabe(Richard Harris) works the land his father and his father's father had worked before him. By his side is his obedient somewhat dim son Tadgh(Sean Bean) and a slithery right hand man named Bird(John Hurt) who also happens to be a little dim. Together Tadgh and Bird will justify the old man's stubbornness with their mindless support.

When the English widow who owns the land on which the McCabe family has been toiling for decades decides to sell it, Bull is only to happy to spend his life savings to finally own what he feels to be rightfully his. In a film of many symbols, the most obvious here is the proud Irishman's refusal to let the English who starved and killed them own their land. Alas, an Irish American(Tom Berenger) has come to find his roots(or something) and decides that he must have this particular field at any price. Berenger is given all of four lines to explain his ache for the field, something along the lines of "When my father died, I had to come back".

A fable is by definition an unrealistic story set to convey a moral message. If The Field purports to be one, where is the sensual beauty that permeates these morality plays? If it's a realistic docu-drama, why is it that I can see the Lear like fate McCabe one hour before the film does? This is a movie with a thoroughly confused tone. Yet Harris's rightly Oscar nominated performance is undeniably great. With his chin down to his chest, his eyes bulging and his hands shaking in rage he spouts out his lines between heavy fumes of breath. But in the greatness of his performance there is a curious paradox. This stubborn unrelenting man who defends his right to the land as if it were his very soul is given the best lines, the most admiring closups. While the forces of reasons, the forces that oppose him are pale and lifeless. Never is this more clear then in what is ironically the film's most affecting scene: As McCabe stands infront of the local Catholic priest(who has now become quite chummy with the Yank) he movingly recounts how he and his father starved, bled and strained on this field and thus as a local deserves to own it. The priest's quite sensible response is "Why don't you find another field?". But it's such a colorless response uttered by a marginal character that it pales next to McCabes speech. Here Sheridan is commanding the audience to side with McCabe. I never felt much sympathy for McCabe's quest. Just Pity.

There are many reasons why people watch tragedies. I guess there is the compassion a viewer feels for his fellow man that maybe saddening but heartfelt. More importantly there is the character's reaction to the tragedy that provides the lesson, and possibly redemption. It is never in any doubt that McCabe's uncompromising ways will come back to haunt him. There are three broad outlines along which he could react to the inevitable fallout:

1)He could continue in his bigotry and refuse to acknowledge his responsibility, which ofcourse would require the director to come up with an original way to make his point.

2)He could face up to his actions, re-evaluate his principles and attempt to redeem himself.

3)Go Insane, which ofcourse is the ultimate cop-out. A convenient punishment that requires no introspection.

Of the three paths, which one do you think this self-defeating drama ulitmatley takes?

At least it wasn't for a Yank burger shack
Land developers beware of Irish backwaters - they're more trouble than they're worth.

Old "Bull" McCabe (Richard Harris) and son Tadgh (Sean Bean) open THE FIELD by tossing the body of a donkey off a cliff into a body of water, and are then seen gathering seaweed, which they schlep over the mountains on their backs. It obviously isn't Kansas. As it turns out, Tadgh had killed the donkey when it broke down a wall and trespassed into the McCabe's field, a three-acre piece of pasture that Bull (and his forebears before him) have toiled over. The seaweed is used as fertilizer. After so many decades of sweat, the elder McCabe is convinced that the land is rightly his, though he pays monthly rent to an Englishwoman for the privilege of working it. Trouble erupts when the owner decides to sell THE FIELD to the highest bidder.

The film has good intentions as it attempts to illustrate the pitfalls of identifying too closely with a piece of ground rather than just letting it go when some developer expresses an interest. In this case, the evil land grabber is a rich Irish-American (Tom Berenger), who's returning to the country of his roots. He wants to pave over Bull's field and make it a staging point for a quarry. (Consider some of the lands in dispute in today's world and imagine what nice parking lots they'd make for a new Wal-Mart.)

THE FIELD is set after the English were chased from the Irish Republic, but before WWII. Harris is first rate as the old fighter who's not about to give up now despite other festering problems. McCabe's wife Maggie hasn't talked to him in eighteen years, apparently since their first-born son committed suicide, itself a millstone around Bull's neck. McCabe senior is now left with Tadgh, not the brightest bulb in the pub sign, who's not interested in inheriting Old dad's crummy lot anyhow and just wants to run off with a Gypsy temptress.

THE FIELD is a dreary piece enlivened only by Richard's performance and that of John Hurt as "Bird" O'Donnell, evidently one of Bull's hired hands, who serves as either a catalyst of trouble or silent observer of events as the plot dictates. Berenger is non-descript as the rapacious Yank, and Bean's Tadgh is totally unengaging. Even Maggie's first words to Bull after the long dry spell are curiously lacking in profundity.

Filmed entirely in Ireland, there's something to be said for the land's austere beauty as captured by the lens. However, by the end credits, I just didn't care about THE FIELD, its walls, its sheep, its cattle, its seaweed, and its crazy renter. Retire to Florida, already.

an all-time favortie...
I read a review of this film on Amazon - indicating that any Irish film must mention the Famine - the review irked me, everyone is entitled to an opinion, sure, but that observation struck me as a very disdainful comment on Irish culture & history than the film itself - after watching The Field again this evening, I decided to offer my own opinion.

I love Jim Sheridan's work in general, but truly appreciate this film - an excellent story, believably written and acted with incredible delicacy. This film tops my list. I very highly recommend The Field as one of the finest & most moving tragedies on film.