The Field by John B. Keane 

Totally agree 👍🏾

What anyone would have against a movie like this? I'm from Romania,and believe me,we have the same sensibilities regarding this movie. I grew up in the city,but my week-ends and vacations were spent,every minute,in the nearby countryside,where my grandparents lived. Worked in the field,especially vineyards. MY great-grandfather was a man kinda like the Bull, tough,stoic and respected(feared)-lived well into his late 90's ! Awesome movie, probably best role of Harris,it's the role that suits him the most, that's for sure. Shakespeare in the fields of Ireland,that's what this is... Slainte!

Definitely the best Irish movie of all time.

Agree.

Totally agree,

Thank you for sharing your story! I always loved Richard Harris and his acting. Still miss him. I think "The Field" was one of his best pieces of acting.

@martinturner2309 I loved your story. Thank you for sharing it! This is indeed a wonderful film. It's very reminiscent of a David Lean production, and he was definately the best director up until his time. Arguably, he might still be. This has many similarities with Ryan's Daughter, which I think was his last. The villagers, and especially the village idiot, played here by John Hurt, are much like the ones in Ryan's Daughter. John Mills played the "idiot" in RD, in an amazing performance. I'm a Canadian named Mulvaney who is 1/2 English, 1/4 Scottish, and 1/4 Irish, but I feel 1/2 Canadian with a touch of English, and 1/2 Irish. When I watch anything made in Ireland, or by Irish people, I feel a strong identification and love, even though I never met my Irish grandfather. Maybe because my dad talk about him, and my last name. I know the name is from the north west, but I don't know the county's name. When dad was a child, Grandpa All the best to you, my friend! ✌🏼 🇨🇦❤🇮🇪

@martinturner2309 I was 14 years old when I met Richard Harris on the film set of Cromwell in Shepperton studios, & watched him for a day acting that role of Cromwell, it was a memory I will never forget, to actually walk through the old streets & places built for that film. Yes he was magic as you say & a gentleman too, will never be a great actor such as he was.

You are lucky!

@@cattymajiv "A Passage to India" was Lean's last movie. Just think the movies he could have made in the 70's, but because of Pauline Kael's roasting of Ryan's Daughter he stop making movies for 12 years.

There’s simply no accounting for bad taste my friend. This film is magic

true, a very touching movie with many themes. Modern vs trad. The desperation of the father is just unbearable. Emotions are truly powerful in this.

another one to watch is "The Butcher Boy"

Jackie. The play is set around the 1930s. So, long after the famine. In What was then the Irish Free State. I am Irish btw.

@@doloresaquines1529 thanks Dolores, I know, but my impression was that the Irish American was hated because his ancestors had emigrated to the States to escape the famine, leaving behind the likes of Bull’s family. Just my interpretation but brilliant movie anyway!

Looks even darker George but I’ll give it a go, thanks! @@georgebarnes8163

@@jackiea8394 Absolutely a great movie. Beautiful área too.We were driving through just as they were dismantling the various sets and locations. I dont think Irish Americans were or are hated. Many did leave for USA after the famine, many died en route. That was after 1845. The Field is set in 1930s. It was a difficult time for many. Rural Ireland. Many would never have been to the capital Dublín. Or to Any other city either. An enclosed suffocating and inward looking society.

Ray Mc Nally , was meant to play at Bull Mc Cabe , sadly Ray died . Ray had a great presence on screen ' My Left Foot , Fourth Protacall '. Harris was a great actor , so were all the others in the cast . A sad story of the times , that were in it 😢

Feel like they were going for something Synge-esque, but it doesn't quite come off. I suppose it makes a change to have Sean Bean playing a gormless Irishman instead of a gormless Yorkshireman.

John Hurt looked old even back then. I think he was born old.

Well acted by Richard Harris playing the Apostle John in the Book of Revelation on RU-vid

Not many people know, that there was "famine" and starvation and endemic malnutrition in the West in 1927/28 The Cosgrave Govt tried to cover it up. Someone below argued that the "famine was in 1850" years before. And the famine was not a theme in this film. Thats within Bulls lifetime, and 1927 was definitely within Tadhgs lifetime. " Tadgh will have to emigrate. Tadgh will have to emigrate ". That was simply because they couldnt feed two children.

I left school without the leaving cert but that's irrelevant, great movie, richard harris is outstanding

Did it go into the background of The Tain and Cu Chullainn ?

All jokes aside your so right .. when the catlick church hoarded all the spuds twas a hard life

Wouldn’t go that far. It isn’t flattering . It’s one side (land hunger) and a period of the past and only one part . Utter wafflers to suggest so a thing. Clearly, you haven’t a clue

@@gavintuesday4959 well they certainly ate more than they grew and i wouldnt say its that much a period of the past either considering some people cant afford to eat and keep a roof over their heads today . Then again that depends who you are some people wouldn't have a clue about that sort of thing.

It makes the Irish look like they're a nation of whimsical idiots. Not a good look.

No, it captures Irish American memories of the 1850s

John Hurt, too, mind

John. This is a stage play. Many great actors have played the Bull.

@@doloresaquines1529 Dolores...Yes ..but Harris, had the screen presentation to bring it to life,...and John Hurt was superb.

@@johnlavery6116 Absolutely. Harris is the best Bull McCabe. He brings the menace and latent violence of the psychopathic character out very well.

I@@doloresaquines1529 I doebt many played the role better than Harris and the chemistry between him and John Hurt was superb

This is brilliant , John B Keane wrote so many great plays and struggled in the start with a ban on some of them

Yes. Laetitia.His plays are amazing. He knew What he was writing about.

@@timcotter8879 Yes Tim. Like many other writers, such as John McGahern. Banned and had to publish abroad, and leave the country too. The suffocating Church-led censorship then.

Iv droned over the field that was used in the film

@@Discover-Ireland good on ya

I usually love the writing of the late great film critic Roger Ebert, but "The Field" completely went over his head, much less the fact that it is a masterpiece. I suspect this is because, like the tinkers, the yank & the priest, he had completely lost touch with the land & was unable to identify with the Bull McCabe & see that, from his viewpoint, everything he did was justified & morally right.

​@@leomulhare1565 maybe if his son hadn't terrorised the widow things may have been different ,

@@smallfeet4581 The widow---Sting's ex wife Francis Tomelty.

@@willyboyw.5771 yes , I saw her name and knew I knew it , took me a moment or two to think who it was , I wouldn't have recognised her in the film though , not on a small laptop screen with my eyes , cheers 👍

@@smallfeet4581 Well then we wouldn't have had a play would we! lol. And it is a work of fiction, written by the playwright John B. Keane, even if loosely based on a certain other event.

Great actor. Along with many others. Hurt, Bean, Berenger, McGinley to name a few

You've gotta understand , Ireland's hopeless. That's why our ancestors left.

@@redtobertshateshandles You're a funny little tiny worm😆😆😆😆😆😆😆

To quote another great Irish movie "It's not an American story, it's an Irish story"

Richard Harris is the best.

Always excellent

.............. and we love you right back !!! ( I'm Irish-American )

Shirley. It isn't a period film. This is an adaptation of a play by John B. Keane. The Field. Not very long ago.

I love the field if like to drop some knowledge on film like this remarkable one, I'm all ears❤

Yes, Dave. Let us not forget that this is a film adaption of John B. Keane's play The Field. It was first performed in 1965 at the Olympia Theatre (Dublin) with Ray McAnally playing the lead. The film does take some liberties with the original play. For example, it isn't an American who buys the field, but an English man.

of Irish descent is not the same as actually being Irish.

I'm English but my grandmother was Irish. I don't claim to be Irish. I love being English.

​@@duibhiruimaolmmhauid9039 You are correct.

​@@doloresaquines1529 your not Irish either with that Surname

Angelo. Written by playwright John B. Keane. For stage. Many great actors have played the Bull

Terrible history even before the famine, surely? Think Oliver Cromwell - and even the Romans.

@@jamesrouillardjas1671 James. The Romans never came here to Ireland. Julius Caesar gave it the name Hibernia and decided not to visit after peering through the cold mist beyond which it lay!

The joke is that they didn't give him tea to wash it down with

Pan. Richard Harris died in 2002. He would have been 60 years old when he played this part.

A good story well told and well acted.

Robin. The film is based on a stage play, written by John B. Keane. A famous playwright.

💚🤍🧡

I found the play very difficult to concentrate on. Especially after seeing the film. JB. Keane was there on set. He had a minor part as the matchmaker when Bull is trying to find Tadgh a wife. Theres a Huuuuge number of themes in that film that go "deep. very deep. deeper than you think". Everything from Cu Chullainn , Nationalism , Patriarchal V Matriarchal, paganism , and pre-christian "geassa" or taboos which gaelic kings (like a Bull) were subjected to. And of course Famine. The scene where the priest calls the Yank "Peter" is actually a mistake. He was meant to be nameless and only described as the Yank in the credits. He was meant to be nameless, because Cu Cullainn killed his own son on the shore because he refused to reveal his name. The Bull even calls him Shamie (his dead son) as he goes mad, like King Lear during the storm

@@olliephelan Yes, in the film it is a Yank. But in the play it is actually an English man. The film is amazing, but like any adaptation for screen it does expand a loton the stage play. Meantime I bet you will be interested in this:In 1887 Roasting a Man Alive: The Case of Mary Rielly, Criminal Lunatic

@@doloresaquines1529 I can only really find articles on gender related to a murder case.

Bet you didn’t know that the indigenous Irish were shipped to the colonies... The original Irish are in Jamaica, Barbados America and Australia. We were Jacobites loyal to king James a black man... 😊

​@@penelopepitstop7748Not this Irish woman. My family were never shipped anywhere.

My Irish came to Canada via the port of New York in Early 1800s. My great granfather was born in ontario in 1823. He had my great gt grandma when he was 60. They were happy indeed - So very happy - to leave all the strife and crazy neighbours with their religious and political-economic conflicts behind. Sounds like nothing much has changed but it’s verbal now. Why the English have to hang on to a part of Ireland is beyond me! Haven’t they suffered enough. From Robert the Bruce’s butchery to Cromwell’s butchery and the early 1900s children being stuffed in ships for America (which meant Canada and the USA in those days) . I guess though the irish burchered a bunch of English in mid 1600s. And then remembering that Irish citizens were being indentured in 1600s along with Scottish POWs (another one of my ancestors - a Scot was marched in 1600s from Scotland to England and shipped to New England as an indentured servant as well). Irish indentured servants in Canada Aus and New Zealand weren’t so worried about the English - did their time, got their land and got on with farming it. The Irish republican army tried to stir things up in Canada and tried raiding us in 1860s but got no where. Fenian Raids. My Irish Gt Grpa in his diary mentioned the raid in passing as though “they” were a different race! Their aim was to rake over Canada and exchange us for a free Ireland. Too many happy Irish people here (like my ancestors). for starters..

@@susanjohnson1105 They are still killing each other here over land (usually inheritance). A Notorious case quite recently. People become quite unhinged over the smallest thing relating to land.

Here in America I know a family. Nine brothers and sisters. This happening right now. The mother died three years ago. Two brothers had taken over the farm, had been farming it with their father for the past....20 to 30 years. One brother, You didn't see him a lot, unless it was hunting season. The whole time she's sick, He's over all the time. But he's not visiting. He's surveying. He's going to sell it off to one of the big farmers, the big desk farmers. Probably fetch a million. Got all his brothers and sisters stirred up, the house was supposed to one particular girl. One of the older brothers, the one with the illegitimate son he never took care of, the one with the record. Well he's the one who got the house. The long lean brother who is out surveying, He's trying to sell it all off except for a few roadside areas that he'll get, needless to say, he's going to try to take the Lions share. Two brothers that farm, who onestly I don't like much either, but they're stealing from their family. Well they built a bunch of grain bins, the other siblings know they built them. But they're claiming their father built them, Even though there seems to be some evidence of proving they didn't exist in their father's lifetime (about 10 years ago). Simply so they can have money from the sale of them. And some of them think their brothers are cheating them, and some of them think their sisters are cheating them. And here is this one lone brother, playing them all against each other. And every day he's in church, every morning. Made a donation recently I heard, about 300 bucks. Nothing. Something in high school kid could have done. But man did he stand up and wave. Just enough for them to get new candles. This is happening in America is the point. Has been for a long time. Everything we do abroad. We do worse at home. It's kind of a sad, strange justice and at all. His daughter is basically brain dead, She was drinking and did something stupid. He wasn't a very good father. The story he tells is different, a tragic accident unavoidable. But everybody knows what really happened, She was drunk and did something really stupid. He's a bad father, I know that kids do stupid stuff anyway when they get in their early 20s. But all of her stuff always damn from him not giving a s***. Cuz he doesn't. He cares about how he's seen. He cares about himself. He expects his children to be worthy of him. And none of them can be because he's not really much of anything. Guy doesn't have a college diploma, doesn't really have much success at all. Oh he's upper middle class, He has a business. Mostly by cheating people. He has a reputation for that. I think maybe the big takeaway for me and all this is. Don't have too many children, the oldest ones won't love the youngest ones cuz they won't know them. There won't be enough to leave them all. They fight over it. And even if there was one of them might turn out like this brother. And there's not enough land in America for him.

Angela's ashes was a good film , sad too , but a good ending if I remember with the eclipse

"Angela's Ashes" was a marvellous book!

Malachi McCourt is not dead.

@@Fred-vy1hm According to the end of the film credits, Malachy's name ends with the letter "y" NOT "i"

I tried to get my dad to read Angela's Ashes, but he refused His folks emigrated to America, he was born soon after, early 1920s,dirt poor on welfare, everything he did, he did himself,running companies, owning businesses ,so his reasoning was "Why would I want to read that, I already lived that life once "

Pretty well said they don't come like this very often, but wen they do arrive they last generations if I may be so bold as to say so🇮🇪🍀

AMEN!!!

Yes, James. It is a great film, no doubt about that. The camera has captured the atmosphere exactly. Of course, the playwright, John B. Keane wrote many great plays.

No. Jenny. The American was not his nephew. In the original play, written by John B. Keane, It isn't an American, but an English man.

@@doloresaquines1529 That makes so much more sense. No American would be fighting for 3 acres of land, or even 20.

@@kristinebailey6554 No sane Irish person either. But then, the Bull McCabe wasn't sane. L.

​@@doloresaquines1529the foreigner speaks again, leave the dissection of this movie to an Irish person

Aye, its greatest export was its people.

@@BradBrassman and stout

​@BradBrassman Dev , wanted the people to leave, and send home some money 😢

😟

Enrique. It certainly is one of the best. It is an excellent adaptation of the play written by John B. Keane, although a few liberties have been taken as regards the original play. In the play it isn't an American (Yank) it is an English man.

Tax. The play is based on real events. Excellent Cast and performance. And land is also a dark protagonist of this play.

He's been in movies for years, lots of small parts, but always good

The banshees of innisherin could almost be a sequel

Adding to his screen death tally.