Product Details

• Studio: MCA Universal Home Video
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• ASIN: 6302574994

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Shannon: "Look, you've got your land." --- Joseph: "But all the land in the world means nothing to me without you.", February 20, 2011

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Annie Van Auken (Planet Earth) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: FAR & AWAY--LASERDISC (Laser Disc)

NOTE: This is NOT a DVD. It's a 12" Laserdisc. These record album-sized predecessors of today's DVDs were visually superior. Until the advent of BluRay technology, Laserdiscs were the best digital format available.

Set in the 1890s, Ron Howard's best picture is this lyric tale of two Irish immigrants, one wealthy (Kidman), one poor (Cruise), who leave home with almost nothing and come to the New World in search of modernity and free land. To reach Oklahoma and their "destiny," first they must somehow survive Boston's mean slums.

Tom Cruise is typically charming in FAR AND AWAY, but also quite convincing as a bare knuckles brawler who makes a decent living with his fists, until an unexpected defeat and the insulting of his sponsor cause Cruise and Kidman to be labeled persona non grata in that town. (The obvious chemistry between him and Miss Kidman really helps sell this romantic costumer.)

Versatile character actor Robert Prosky is also believable as an Irish landlaird who follows his daughter to America when the family's stately home is ransacked and burned to the ground. He and Barbara Babcock seem well-matched as a long-married couple. Honorable mention for Clint Howard's portrayal of the villanous sweatshop foreman who sexually harrásses Kidman right out of her miserable chicken plucker job.

The Great Land Rush scene is particularly realistic thanks to the many hundreds of professional re-enactors that participated. Three of director Howard's great-grandparents were riders in this historic 1893 event.

Parenthetical number preceding title is a 1 to 10 imdb viewer poll rating.

(6.3) Far and Away (1992) - Nicole Kidman/Tom Cruise/Thomas Gibson/Robert Prosky/Barbara Babcock/Cyril Cusack/Colm Meany/Clint Howard/Brendan Gleeson/Rance Howard