Far and Away

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Far And Away
Promotional movie poster
Directed by	Ron Howard
Produced by	Ron Howard Brian Grazer
Written by	Bob Dolman Ron Howard
Starring	Tom Cruise Nicole Kidman
Music by	John Williams Enya
Distributed by	Universal Pictures (USA)
Release date(s)	22 May 1992
Running time	140 min.
Language	English
Budget	$30,000,000 (estimated)
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Far and Away (1992) is a drama film directed by Ron Howard, starring Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman. Cruise and Kidman play Irish immigrants seeking their fortune in 1890s America, eventually taking part in the Land Run of 1893.

1 Plot Summary
2 Reaction
3 Trivia
4 Further reading

[edit] Plot Summary

Joseph Donnelly, a young Irishman facing property eviction after his father's death, decides to take revenge on Daniel Christie, his landlord. However, instead of killing Christie, he is injured and sentenced to a duel with Christie's arrogant manager, Stephen Chase. Meanwhile, Shannon, Daniel's daughter, is growing dissatisfied with the traditional views of her parents' generation and longs to be modern. She makes plans to leave for America, and with her help, Joseph is able to escape. Upon arriving in Boston, Mass., they find jobs and begin saving money. Joseph becomes a local barehanded boxer, while Shannon works in a chicken processing plant and then as a dancer at the social club. All goes well until Joseph loses a boxing match while he was trying to help Shannon. Because of this, their money is taken away and Joseph and Shannon are left to starve in the winter cold. Shannon's parents, still in Ireland, face a devastating loss and decide to come to America to be with her. Chase, who joined them, has begun a campaign to find her, but his efforts are unnecessary as Joseph brings Shannon to them after an accident. Joseph then heads west to work on the railroad. After many months, Joseph is confronted by his father in a dream, and is reminded of his desire to own his own land. Joseph decides to join the wagon trains and arrives in Oklahoma Territory just in time for the Land Run of 1893, which enabled him to own his own land.

[edit] Reaction

The movie received generally modest reviews, and was not very well received by audiences. The movie, which cost US $30 million to make, earned only $10 million on its first weekend but made a total of $59 million domestically. Although it was not a huge flop as it was often believed (it fared solidly abroad, with almost $79 million), it fell far below the studio's expectations considering that it had two big stars (Cruise and Kidman). One particular criticism of the film was that the two leads (Cruise in particular) could not perform convincing accents. But the widespread media focus on Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman since their December 1990 wedding may have hampered the movie's reputation even further.

[edit] Trivia

The main theme of the film Book Of Days is sung by Enya.

The film was the first to be shot in Panavision Super 70, utilizing Panavision's newly updated 65mm camera equipment. The format was heavily promoted in the film's publicity materials, but eventually failed to renew interest in 65mm feature film photography.

The land rush portion of the movie was filmed on the plains of Montana where today an event called Happy Pappy's Holdup is conducted to give an account of what actors experienced while filming and some of the staged accidents on the covered wagons. During the Pappy's Holdup, actual cowboys, who were in the movie, give their accounts and overview of how it occurred. This location is also the same land where the movie Lonesome Dove was filmed.

Ron Howard was apparently not satisfied with Nicole Kidman's reaction when she first spies on Tom Cruise naked. He pulled Cruise aside and told him to remove his boxers for the scene without telling her, and filmed it again. This is the sequence actually shown in the movie, where Nicole's reaction is that of genuine surprise at seeing her husband naked during a film shoot.