The Field (1990)

The church and the state will steal your property and use it to enslave your neighbours. Praise them and pay them so that they can do this, otherwise you may feel a little bit bad about yourself because some stupid A$$hole told you to.Die so that the machine may build a civilization (an inherently unsustainable and catastrophically destructive series of blocks requiring the importation of resources) where taxation runs around 40% and nobody owns anything due to eminent domain laws. This is so much better than feudalism! I will only pay if you force all of my neighbours to pay as well, that way it's fair!F the world depicted in this movie but f the world we're living in now even more. I'll take 1000000 dead donkies over the life of a good, honest, hard working upstanding man.

From my point of view this was an absolutely awful film. That is not saying that it wasn't executed competently and the stellar cast ceratinly perfromed well. However, what makes this film so bad is the scrrenplay. The author simply uses stereotypes from the classic Irish literature with its focus on rural life, tradition and poverty. From a certain point onwards that made Irish literature provincial and at times hardly bearable before the arrival of a modern Irish urban literature. So this film just adds stereotype to stereotype and strings it together to an uninspired story relying heavily on Irish foklore. All ingredients are there: the dominant father, love of the lamd, immigration to America, family conflict and lots of landscape.

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.

A more simplistic view of the Irishmen and their love of the land was voiced by Gerald O'Hara in GONE WITH THE WIND: "Land is the only thing worth fighting for, worth dying for." And that is precisely what the theme of THE FIELD is, with RICHARD HARRIS giving a towering performance as "Bull" McCabe, who believes with all his heart that the land he covets cannot be taken away from him by anyone else, least of all an American he calls "the Yank" (TOM BERENGER in an underwritten role).Irish traditions and landscapes are beautifully captured by the camera in this picturesque tale, a grim tragedy that plays out like a twisted morality tale with the viewer hating what McCabe does with his strong beliefs, tainted by false values and his own uncompromising ways.As impressive as Harris is, JOHN HURT overplays his dimwitted brother to the point where his role seems like a parody of a clumsy character. SEAN BEAN is wonderfully restrained as the brother who is uneasy with his father's strong prejudices and beliefs and would rather not fight Berenger over a piece of land.The tale becomes a Greek tragedy once Harris allows his passionate love of the land to overcome all reason. The parish priest tells his stoic villagers that such love of the soil can destroy the soil and that's what happens here.There are some brilliant moments including the savagely staged fight scene by the sea on a misty night, but the story (based on a play) never quite achieves a meaningful conclusion with its very downbeat ending.Realism of most of the performances is unquestionable, but the main reason for seeing it has to be Richard Harris' unforgettable performance as an Irishman who lets "the field" destroy his reasoning to the point of madness.