The Field [VHS]

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The Field [VHS] Review

In order to understand Jim Sheridan's fine film, The Field, based on the play by the same name by J.B. Keane, it is useful to know some of the Irish history that relates directly to this tragic story.

A little less than 800 years ago the English first came to Ireland and initiated a slow but steady conquest of the island and people. By the 19th century the catholic Irish had lost most of their land and their freedom to the protestant English. The great Irish statesman Daniel O'Connell made modest progress in winning some liberty for the Irish catholics in the early part of the 19th century. Unfortunately, the Great Famine, which began in 1845 and lasted until 1848, killed a million or more Irish people who were dependent on the potato, which suffered from a disastrous blight. Two million more people fled the island to foreign shores, America being one preferred destination. A population of approximately eight million people was reduced by about 36%. The Irish never forgave the English for allowing this great tragedy to occur. The ill effects of this disaster lasted well into the 20th century.

In the film The Field, "The Bull" McCabe (Richard Harris), a tenant farmer in a small town in southwestern Ireland, mentions the famine and its after effects several times to justify his right to buy the field that he and his family have given their love and labor for generations. The English woman who owns the field has put her property up for auction and an American, Tom Berrenger, appears ready to outbid McCabe for the field. McCabe will not permit what he perceives to be a miscarriage of justice.

Against him are the American and his ally, the local parish priest. McCabe does his best to reason with these men and explain why he feels he has a right to the field. McCabe mentions the Great Famine and the sacrifice his family made to remain in Ireland to rebuild a devastated society. This field represented not only McCabe's life, but life for his posterity. The priest and the "Yank" are unmoved by his arguments so McCabe takes the law into his own hands with disastrous consequences for him, his wife, and his son.

This fine film gives us a chance to learn much about the Irish people and their culture. The importance of the land, the power of religion, the hatred of the English, the poverty of the people, and the loss of Irish youth to emigration are just of few of the themes touched on as the story develops.

The Field was made in Ireland and the beauty of the land is everywhere evident, in stark contrast to the meanness of the lives of the people who live there. We don't need to be Irish to be moved by the desperation of McCabe and people like him trying to eke out a living by their unremmiting labor.

The Field is less an entertainment and more an education for those people wanting to gain some insight into the lives of the Irish farmers living in the first half of the 20th Century. I have watched this film several times with great interest as well as appreciation for Jim Sheridan's fine work. Highly recommended.

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