MOVIE REVIEW : ‘Field’ Strewn With Symbolism

“The Field,” set in Western Ireland in the late ‘30s, is such an impassioned piece of blarney that you can’t really laugh at it even when it’s pulpy and ridiculous and wildly over the top. It’s an epic-sized howl, and a few of the howlers--Richard Harris’ patriarchal Bull McCabe and John Hurt’s half-wit Bird O’Donnell--are like black Irish folklore characters brought to vivid life.

This is Jim Sheridan’s first film since “My Left Foot,” his directorial debut, and he brings the same kind of convulsive energy to bear on the story of a man, McCabe, who goes mightily bonkers when a cattle-grazing field he has rented and lorded over for years is put up for sale at public auction.

Practically everything in this movie (at the Music Hall and rated PG-13 for occasional violence) is freighted with symbolism--just about the only thing that’s missing is a white whale. But Harris’ Bull, with his stocky overcoats and imposing beard, looks like a reasonable facsimile of Ahab. When he swings into action, rallying the villagers when an American interloper (a miscast Tom Berenger) threatens to buy the field, he’s a truly terrifying commander. It’s no wonder he hasn’t spoken with his wife (Brenda Fricker) in 20 years, not since their first son’s death.

It’s a shame that, for most of the film, Fricker doesn’t say a word. As Christy Brown’s mother in “My Left Foot,” Fricker was so extraordinary that her silence here is a colossal waste--particularly since she’s surrounded by so many epic talkers. But her underplaying is sometimes a relief in the din.

This is Harris’ first movie role in eight years, and he seems intent on making up for lost time. He’s a fine actor with a genuinely heroic presence, but he sometimes confuses grandstanding with acting. He can get away with most of his bad habits here because Bull McCabe is a character who mistakes grandstanding for feeling.

John Hurt, clomping around the craggy landscape with a cretinous grin, seems intent on topping John Mills’ over-the-top turn in “Ryan’s Daughter.” It’s the kind of actor’s holiday performance that may be more of a holiday for the actor than for the audience. Still, Hurt, when he isn’t being a great actor, is a great ham. There’s so much relish in his work here that we ache for what he might do with, say, a great Sean O’Casey or Synge role.

But the source of “The Field” isn’t O’Casey or Synge; it’s a 1961 potboiler play by John Keane, whose idea of dramatic conflict is one crescendo after another. “The Field” is all climaxes. Beside it, even the most berserk of O’Neill’s plays seem complacent. I intend this as both a detraction and a recommendation.

‘The Field’

Richard Harris: Bull McCabe

Sean Bean: Tadgh McCabe

Brenda Fricker: Maggie McCabe

Tom Berenger: The American

An Avenue Pictures presentation of a Granada film. Director Jim Sheridan. Producer Noel Pearson. Executive producer Steve Morrison. Screenplay by Sheridan, based on the play “The Field” by John B. Keane. Cinematographer Jack Conroy. Editor J. Patrick Duffner. Costumes Joan Bergin. Music Elmer Bernstein. Production design Frank Conway. Art director Frank Hallinan Flood. Set decorator Josie MacAvin. Running time: 1 hour, 47 minutes.

MPAA-rated: PG-13 (occasional violence and strong language).