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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
"I got a terrible rapping in me skull.", 6 Jan 2005
Though this film, directed by Jim Sheridan, is based on the stage play of the same name by John B. Keane, it bears little resemblance to the play. The play emphasizes the passion of a Kerry farmer for his land, the measures he takes to protect it, and the willingness of the community to support him, evading both the law and the church to achieve "true" justice. Big Bull McCabe, fighting to buy land he has leased and improved for ten years, is portrayed as embodying the attitudes of the whole Kerry farming culture and not as a completely unique individual with unique problems.The film, however, changes the emphasis and introduces many new visual elements. Bull McCabe (passionately played by Richard Harris) must outbid a crass American (not an Englishman) for the field. The American (Tom Berenger) wants to use the limestone in the hills to create a cement factory (not to build a home for his Irish wife) and to develop the power of the nearby waterfall for a hydroelectric plant. Widow Maggie Butler (Frances Tomelty) is selling the land because she is tired of being harrassed by Bull's son Tadgh (Sean Bean) and his friends (a new subplot). Bird O'Donnell, a nearly toothless and somewhat daft stereotype (John Hurt) is a gawping comic foil for the passion of McCabe here. Traditional, folksy dances and community activities, the developing love story of Tadgh and a gypsy girl, the close friendship between the American buyer and the pompous local priest (Sean McGinley), the death of McCabe's other son many years before, and the involvement of McCabe's wife in the film's resolution are new, visual plot elements, and the ending is totally different, both in the way the action is "resolved" and in its thematic message. The stunning cinematography (Jack Conroy)--fog, wind, cliffs, and rain--illustrates the greatness of the land and the relative smallness of man, while the simple music (Elmer Bernstein) adds to the mood and highlights the dramatic action. Dialogue, often limited to cryptic comments, is subordinated to visual information, and the pub characters, including the pub owner, a major character in the play, are almost interchangeable in their stereotypes. Symbolism is obvious, from Bull's blowing of a dandelion to illustrate "what we'd be without the land," to his crucifixion pose near the end of the film. The stark realism of the play and the power of the "us vs. them" community dynamic are subordinated in the film to a personal focus on Bull McCabe--and to melodrama. Mary Whipple
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