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Seaweed, the staff of life
Sep. 29th, 2007 06:38 pmThe Field (1990), Jim Sheridan. September 29, 2-ish pm. View count: One.
This was on IFC, which was either given us mistakenly by the cable company or given us intentionally by the cable company. I'm pretty happy about it, either way.
The Field, though, was kind of awful. Rotten Tomatoes seem to generally have the right idea; overwrought and propagandistic it was. This is the kind of story (old irish plot of land fought over by outsider and locals) that would do well as a small personal kind of piece, but for some reason it was played so broadly and stereotypically that I almost gave up on it a few times*.
Someone on Rotten Tomatoes mentioned that is was based on a play, and boy did it show (not nicely). Lots of Telling Not Showing, lots of Every Event Fitting Into the Tale Perfectly, lots of speechifying about people's motives. 'Hey, boy, land is the most important thing ever. We'd be crap without this land. The land is extra special and worth more than people's lives, no, really, because we stayed here during the famine. Got that?' (He did not get it. The son (Boromir) was maybe supposed to be a fetal alcohol syndrome baby or something (?), but it was unclear. He seemed like he was being set up as a not-too-bright fuckup, but it was impossible to tell what reasons there were for this.)
There was lots of appalling 'color' music that was right in your face with either HEY THIS IS AN IRISH PICTURE GUYS or just boring run-of-the-mill crap that distracted with its blandness. Hor-rid.
The whole thing was that way; overly broad and simplistic. I'm somewhat alarmed it got nominated for an oscar (and was directed by the fellow who made My Left Foot?), but I guess making a movie sympathetic to the irish plight was the important thing. Even though it seemed more important to me that it was about a small insular town than about a small irish town.
*(I'm glad I didn't, because at the very end there was a shot that we knew from an old music video that we saw on the Splu Urtaf Show back in the day. I'll try to find and youtub it.)
This was on IFC, which was either given us mistakenly by the cable company or given us intentionally by the cable company. I'm pretty happy about it, either way.
The Field, though, was kind of awful. Rotten Tomatoes seem to generally have the right idea; overwrought and propagandistic it was. This is the kind of story (old irish plot of land fought over by outsider and locals) that would do well as a small personal kind of piece, but for some reason it was played so broadly and stereotypically that I almost gave up on it a few times*.
Someone on Rotten Tomatoes mentioned that is was based on a play, and boy did it show (not nicely). Lots of Telling Not Showing, lots of Every Event Fitting Into the Tale Perfectly, lots of speechifying about people's motives. 'Hey, boy, land is the most important thing ever. We'd be crap without this land. The land is extra special and worth more than people's lives, no, really, because we stayed here during the famine. Got that?' (He did not get it. The son (Boromir) was maybe supposed to be a fetal alcohol syndrome baby or something (?), but it was unclear. He seemed like he was being set up as a not-too-bright fuckup, but it was impossible to tell what reasons there were for this.)
There was lots of appalling 'color' music that was right in your face with either HEY THIS IS AN IRISH PICTURE GUYS or just boring run-of-the-mill crap that distracted with its blandness. Hor-rid.
The whole thing was that way; overly broad and simplistic. I'm somewhat alarmed it got nominated for an oscar (and was directed by the fellow who made My Left Foot?), but I guess making a movie sympathetic to the irish plight was the important thing. Even though it seemed more important to me that it was about a small insular town than about a small irish town.
*(I'm glad I didn't, because at the very end there was a shot that we knew from an old music video that we saw on the Splu Urtaf Show back in the day. I'll try to find and youtub it.)
