Far and Away (1992)

A young Irish couple flee to the States, but subsequently struggle to obtain land and prosper freely.

Director:

Ron Howard

Writers:

Bob Dolman (story), Ron Howard (story)

Stars:

Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, Thomas Gibson

3 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Tom Cruise	...	Joseph Donnelly
Nicole Kidman	...	Shannon Christie
Thomas Gibson	...	Stephen Chase
Robert Prosky	...	Daniel Christie
Barbara Babcock	...	Nora Christie
Cyril Cusack	...	Danty Duff
Eileen Pollock	...	Molly Kay
Colm Meaney	...	Kelly
Douglas Gillison	...	Dermody
Michelle Johnson	...	Grace
Wayne Grace	...	Bourke
Niall Toibin	...	Joe
Barry McGovern	...	McGuire
Gary Lee Davis	...	Gordon
Jared Harris	...	Paddy

Storyline

A young man leaves Ireland with his landlord's daughter after some trouble with her father and they dream of owning land at the big give-away in Oklahoma ca. 1893. When they get to the new land, they find jobs and begin saving money. The man becomes a local bare-hands boxer and rides in glory until he is beaten, then his employers steal all the couple's money and they must fight off starvation in the winter and try to keep their dream of owning land alive. Meanwhile, the woman's parents find out where she has gone and have come to the U.S. to find her and take her back.

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Plot Keywords:

three word title | voyeurism | voyeur | female voyeur | watching someone sleep | 

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Taglines:

Far and Away

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Genres:

Adventure | Drama | Romance | Western

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for some violence and sensuality

Did You Know?

Trivia

This was Cyril Cusack's final film before his death on October 7, 1993 at the age of 82.

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Goofs

When Joseph brings Shannon to her family after she gets shot, she is seen lying on the couch facing left. The next time we see her, she is facing right.

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Quotes

Shannon Christie: May I ask, what are you doing, sitting at my table?
Joseph Donnelly: I'm eating your chocolate cake.

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Crazy Credits

Near the end of the credits, special thanks are given to, among others, Fungi the Dingle Dolphin.

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Alternate Versions

On the Network version, when Joseph is working on the railroad, there is a problem with a stick of dynamite. Showing how depressed and careless he is at the time, Joseph volunteers to reset the dynamite. There is a moment of tension after the explosion as we wait for Joseph to come into view out of the cloud of dust.

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Connections

Referenced in The Graham Norton Show: Chris Pratt/Bryce Dallas Howard/Jeff Goldblum/Thandie Newton/Jake Shears (2018)

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Soundtracks

Book of Days
Music Composed and Performed by Enya
Lyrics by Roma Ryan
Produced by Nicky Ryan
Courtesy of Warner Music (U.K.), Ltd.

User Reviews

The Frontier Thesis

Back in Gone With the Wind Gerald O'Hara tried to tell Katie Scarlett the importance of the land, a lesson she took the entire film to learn. For Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman it's the land, their own bit of land to work as they please and answer to no one.

The story of Far and Away takes place in a very specific time period in the history of both Ireland and America. In Ireland the home rule movement had been dealt a stunning blow with the fall of Charles Stuart Parnell in scandal. Independence had been set back and the landlords were riding high, though not without opposition.

Opposition in this case comes in the form of Tom Cruise and his family who are Irish tenant farmers about to be tossed off their land because they can't pay the exorbitant rents. Turns out the landlord's got a most fetching daughter in Nicole Kidman who's got her eye on the peasant lad.

Far and Away is first and foremost a romance, the rich girl and the poor boy, two beautiful young people we all wish we were. Of course the real affair of Tom and Nicole and their eventual marriage is fairy tale storybook stuff on its own. It sure didn't hurt the film.

They've got a rough road ahead though. In Boston they get exploited by their own people as badly as the English are doing in the old country. Of course their eventual salvation is the Oklahoma land rush where Tom can get his own land to work.

Frederick Jackson Turner was a famous American historian who put forth the thesis that the reason America escaped the class struggles and revolutions of Europe was our frontier. It didn't work out so well for those Indians already there, but the proletarian masses instead of becoming a mob that agitators could stir to revolution just went west and made opportunities. Turner's thesis is still a widely respected paradigm in the study of American history and I think if he could have seen Far and Away, he'd say Ron Howard proved his point.

Speaking of Ron Howard, it's pretty obvious he was influenced by both versions of the Oklahoma land rush previously made in the two films of Edna Ferber's classic Cimarron. He doesn't do badly in recreating Boston of the Gay Nineties and Ireland of the same period.

And Tom and Nicole certainly look beautiful even when she's working in a factory and Tom's getting clobbered in a bare knuckle prize fight. Look for nice performances by Robert Prosky as Nicole's father, Thomas Gibson as Tom's rival for Nicole and Colm Meaney as the Irish political boss in Boston.

Maybe the world needs a frontier to solve its problems.

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

22 May 1992 (USA)

Also Known As:

Far and Away

Filming Locations:

Ardmore Studios, Herbert Road, Bray, County Wicklow, Ireland

Box Office

Budget:

$60,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$10,194,520, 24 May 1992

Gross USA:

$58,883,840

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$137,783,840

Company Credits

Production Co:

Imagine Films Entertainment, Universal Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

140 min

Sound Mix:

70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints) Dolby (35 mm prints)

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.20 : 1