A young Irish couple flee to the States, but subsequently struggle to obtain land and prosper freely.A young Irish couple flee to the States, but subsequently struggle to obtain land and prosper freely.A young Irish couple flee to the States, but subsequently struggle to obtain land and prosper freely.
- Awards
- 3 nominations total
Featured reviews
If you pay too much attention to the cliches and unlikely situations the characters are placed, you really miss the charm of this movie. I can see how people would be put off if they were expecting a serious historical reenactment. Still, I believe that Ron Howard fully meant for this to be a fully romanticized account of the time. This movie works in many of the ways Titanic does, and I think it does it more effectively. Still, with Titanic, most people seemed more than willing to overlook the absurdities. With Far and Away, I don't think Ron Howard was trying to trick us or dumb us down. I don't think he was ever trying to underestimate the intelligence of his viewers. I think he was asking us to follow him and trust him as he told a story. I enjoyed it. Kidman and Cruise were both fun to watch. The supporting cast, although they did seem like they came from a comic book, were entertaining. I hope this movie has life on cable and DVD.
I must say that this was a lot more enjoyable than I expected. I read the synopsis and did not have high hopes for a Grapes of Wrath style melodrama. While there is plenty of melodrama, there is a lot more entertainment here than I would've guessed. The Boston fight scenes in particular were fun to watch. Cruise and Kidman bring some bona fide star power and keep you interested against the beautiful landscapes.. The land rush was another terrific sequence that gave the old-fashioned epic its worthwhile climax.
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.
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.
Tom Cruise may have the "worst-looking" Irish accent on the face of the planet, but it is undeniable that he and Nicole Kidman are sizzling on the silver screen together. Their intensity shines as well as their artistic ability to envelop a character and relate their thoughts to a viewer. Besides their very well done performance, the film is absolutely beautiful. Kudos to the set and costume designers that spent long hours on Far and Away. But he real story in this film is Ron Howard. It is simply a asthetic masterpiece. I spent most of my time wishing that he had just set his camera up on the prairie and filmed the grass growing. It was truly beautiful. Incidentally, sometimes one scene just makes a film. Brings it up from a good film into near 'masterpiece' status. This is one of those films. The music (the best soundtrack of the year thanks to Horner) combined with Ron Howard's vision made the "land race" scene of Far and Away and classic within itself. Put this scene up there with the chariot race in Ben Hur and the parting of the Red Sea in The Ten Commmandments, it is just that good. This is, far and away, one of the best films of the year.
One of my guilty pleasure movies. May just be the favorite one! Ok, I am not an expert on Irish and I am aware that this movie is full of cliches, but every Nicole & Tom scene is like magic. I feel real love connection between them and every time I get so emotional. Every scene evokes memories of the people I loved and people I love to this day. This movie is worth it just because of Nicole & Tom, if everything else is crap and everything else is falling apart, because of those two lovebirds it's worth it! For a movie that's over 2 hours it never gets boring, it's an easy watch. I've seen this movie multiple times, it's still fresh and rewatchable. I am watching it right now and loving it.
Did you know
- TriviaThe recreation of the Great Land Rush involved 800 extras, 400 horses and 200 wagons. The extras were all recruited from a re-enactment society called The Re-enactors.
- GoofsWhen Joseph and Shannon step off the ship in America, vendors are selling American flags with 50 stars.
- Quotes
[about Grace]
Shannon Christie: She's got an awfully large chest to be goin' to church.
Joseph Donnelly: Shannon, all chests are equal in the eyes of the Lord.
- Crazy creditsNear the end of the credits, special thanks are given to, among others, Fungi the Dingle Dolphin (although the correct spelling of the dolphin's name is Fungie).
- Alternate versionsHere's a detailed description of all the additional scenes in the Extended Version, Part 1 :
- When Joseph's dad dies, there is some added material where the dad says, "I've given you nothing, you boys. A small mold cottage on a bit of rock that isn't even ours, full of hollow labor." Also, there is a bit where the priest there looks at the dying dad curiously as he says his last words.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Siskel & Ebert: Sister Act/Encino Man/Alien³/Far and Away (1992)
- SoundtracksBook of Days
Music Composed and Performed by Enya
Lyrics by Roma Ryan
Produced by Nicky Ryan
Courtesy of Warner Music (U.K.), Ltd.
- How long is Far and Away?Powered by Alexa
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- Un horizonte lejano
- Filming locations
- Billings, Montana, USA(Oklahoma land rush)
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $60,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $58,883,840
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $10,194,520
- May 24, 1992
- Gross worldwide
- $137,783,840
- Runtime2 hours 20 minutes
- Color
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