Far and Away

At the end of the 19th century, poor Irish land worker Joseph (Tom Cruise) must flee the country after getting into an argument with large landowner Daniel Christie, while Christie’s daughter Shannon (Nicole Kidman) wants to escape her parents. As women are not allowed to travel alone, Joseph pretends to be her servant during the ship crossing, with the mismatched couple thus forming a partnership of convenience on their trip into the promised land of America. Yet poverty and hard competition initially await the two new arrivals there. They live in a shabby brothel and work in a chicken factory in Boston. Joseph’s attempts to make ends meet as a professional boxer also end abruptly. They ultimately take part in the Oklahoma Land Run to obtain free portions of land in the Wild West. Shot in Ireland and Montana on Super Panavision 70 on a budget of 70 million dollars, Ron Howard’s epic immigrant saga FAR AND AWAY (USA 1992) boasts breathtaking images, at once a colonial drama and intimate love story. (Hans-Joachim Fetzer)