Far And Away Themes

Far and Away, written and directed by Ron Howard is an extremely accurate historical film. The film begins to tell the tale of Joseph Donnelly and Shannon Christie. Their journey went from Ireland to boston and the Oklahoma territory. Shannon and Joseph did not have much of a relationship at the beginning. They delve deeper and deeper into the movie and all of their experiences spark the attraction to one another. This creates an additional interesting theme to the film’s portrayal of the life of immigrants. They run into many challenges along the way including Shannon Christie almost getting killed. The couple migrates in the late 19th century while the number of immigrants coming into the United States was low, giving an untraditional portrayal of immigration after the Great Famine. …show more content…
Joseph, played by Tom cruise, realizes he will never be able to reach his dreams of owning his own land if he stays on the family land. A wealthy landlord, Daniel Christie who is played by Robert Prosky, owns the land Joseph occupies. Most farmers in Ireland had land which was not owned by them. They couldn’t afford to pay the taxes, which is why they left Ireland for the United States. A rich aristocrat going through the village strikes Joseph’s father across the head. This results in him passing away later on in the afternoon and instills the dream of land ownership in Joseph. The desire to own land is another reason why other immigrants leave Ireland for the United States. During the funeral, Stephen Chase sets fire to Joseph’s home because the Donnelly family has not paid their rent. Joseph swears to get revenge and leaves the only home he has ever known to find and kill Daniel Christie. The violence felt between the lower and upper class was typical in this time period. Stephen Chase and Joseph Donnelly perfect the tensions between the two classes in Far and