Greetings,
The other day I posted on Twitter about my plans to, perhaps, indulge in the viewing of a film that I rather enjoy, albeit as something of a guilty pleasure, Far and Away. I finished up said Tweet by mentioning how similar I thought it was to another movie, Titanic, specifically that Far and Away is that movie if Jack and Rose had made it to America together. Apparently, I'm not the only one to notice that. So why not discuss it here?
I will assume that most of you know that story of the movie Titanic, and if you don't, I guess go watch it and then come back. Simply put, the film is Romeo and Juliet on the Titanic. From the info I have, this is exactly, word for word, the way that James Cameron pitched the idea. I suppose he pitched Avatar by calling it Pocahontas...IN SPAAAACE! Because it is. Look, I'm not knocking Cameron for taking a story from Shakespeare. Other people have done it, none more, probably, than Romeo and Juliet. Actually, there are several aspects of that play put into the other film about which I'm talking.
Far and Away is way lesser known and loved (for some reason) than Titanic. It is a 1992 film, directed by Ron Howard, wherein still universally loved Tom Cruise stars as a poor Irish worker named Joseph whose family is abused by the rich people who own their land, culminating in the death of his father and the burning of their house. In order to seek revenge for all this, he goes to the house of head rich man, Daniel Christie, to kill him. But it turns out that Christie has a beautiful, headstrong daughter named Shannon. Of course, he does. She is played by Nicole Kidman. And wouldn't you know it, Shannon has a mother very set in her ways, who wants her daughter to be a proper, high class lady and marry this other rich guy, who is kind of a jerk, but Shannon wants to be modern and is okay with not being so girly and sophisticated. Also, red hair. Sound familiar? Oh, and jerk fiance is played by Thomas Gibson, who I happen to think is better looking than Tom Cruise. Now ask me to compare Billy Zane and Leonardo DiCaprio.
Anyway, after some shenanigans, Joseph and Shannon end up going to America in order to participate in the Land Run of 1893, wherein people would race on horses so that they could claim their own plot of land in a new country. Tons of land owned by no one. Yeah, I should also point out that this was also called the Cherokee Strip Land Run, but then I'll stop. Seeing as how I'm part Cherokee, and that I'm guessing this might not have been the greatest thing for my ancestors, I'll refrain from making too many comments.
More shenanigans also take place whilst they are in America as Irish immigrants, like both of them posing as brother and sister and living in a whorehouse and Joseph becoming a boxer. After that, I suppose I should mention that this was not a comedy. But why talk about that either? Just go watch the movie. Besides, the comparisons that I'm making pretty much all take place at the beginning and the end. Mostly, because that's when the fiance and the parents are around, therefore, that's when things are bitingly similar.
Yeah, the only real differences are that DiCaprio doesn't have a laughably bad, Irish accent and Shannon has a mother AND a father. By the way, shout out to Barbra Babcock as her mother, Nora, who was great in this, as well as Robert Prosky, who played her father and was hilarious. Just standing there, all oblivious to what his henchman were doing. So, if you take the bookends of Far and Away, expand it by two and a half hours, and add a boat that did NOT make it to America, you've pretty much got Titanic.
Now I could go on and on about how my like of Titanic has diminished greatly over the years, mostly due to the inaccuracies. To say the very least. Good for you, making the boat look just how it did for real, but how about the actual people? My eternal apologies to the family of William Murdoch. Yes, that's William Murdoch, the man who, according to actual witnesses, helped get people off the ship safely and then went down with it, as a hero, not the man who took bribes, shot people and committed suicide. Sorry, if that still bugs me. And I'm not saying that Far and Away was totally accurate when it came to what it was dealing with any better, but that's because I don't know much about it. Still, I can't imagine it handling things any worse. It was just really ambitious, what with trying to be very epic-y, though, I think it fell short with some people. Not me.
You know, all things considered, I'd say I like Far and Away a lot more than I do Titanic. I mean, if they were both on TV at the same time, I'd pick old school Tom and Nicole, what can I say? Maybe it's because now we can all see that, though it was praised in its time, Titanic was kind of over-hyped, which might cause people to be over it. Far and Away, on the other hand, seems to be a forgotten gem of sorts. Is it perfect? Um, no. But it's entertaining as heck in its own way.
So, in closing, yeah, this isn't something I'm exactly passionate about, but it came up, so I thought I'd write about it, as I do. Still, I say give Far and Away at least one watch if you get the chance. It may end up being added to your list of movies that you always HAVE to watch when they're on. It is for me. Go figure.
Love and full moons,
Becky the Writer
