Far and Away :: essays research papers

Far and Away fades in with a slow fly-over shot of a crashing Atlantic Ocean on a partly sunny day, away the coast of what could not be mistaken for anywhere but Ireland. The wide-angled overhead continues, and the hire title emerges as the camera lifts up and over the rough cliffs and shoreline of rural Ireland our sense of place reinforced by a computer backup of cheery Celtic flute music. The opening credits continue to pasture as the camera glides over a lush green, hilly landscape, emphasise by late afternoon silhouettes of the partial cloud cover, and perhaps outstrip described by Carolyn James in her review as picturesque in the manner of an Irish Spring soap commercial. Gradually, what we tire to be a late 19th century Irish crossroads comes into view, characterized by a handful of rudimentary stone buildings, narrow semi roads, and stone walls. The camera view switches to brief shot of the street direct in the closure, the music replaced by the bustle of the e veryday activities of the townspeople, before fetching us into the local pub. It should be noted here that from street level, this liquidation does not much resemble the romantic vision of the same village provided by the aerial shot. Even in such a bypass shot, the village appears more urban than it probably should, and if not for the natural light, would not differ greatly from the scenes of urban Boston later in the hire.It is in the pub that we first meet Josephs father (Joe) and a comrade (McGuire) who appear to be perpetuating stereotypes by sharing a drink (or two) in the middle of the day and singing a favourite drinking terminate before being summoned to the street by a local to refuse the arrival of a rent collecting protestant landlord. The camera scrambles to conjoin the protest out into the street as the villagers yell and throw debris at the landlords tractor trailer and horses. Here the early comedic groundwork of the film is set as the scene essentially sto ps to allow Joe to boob out a semi-drunken slurred barb toward the landlord, to which McGuire responds with a coy grimace and a sarcastic You told him type response. The protest resumes (or, at least the film refocuses on the protest), and in the chaos of the landlord trying to escape the villagers, his horses and/or carriage knock over some sort of infrastructure (it is quite ill-defined what actually happens here) which falls on, and injuries Joe gravely.