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Volume 2, Issue 6
States of Grace
Sean Penn, Ed Harris, Gary Oldham
A young Irish-American thug reappears on his home turf, the Hell's Kitchen of New York City. Here the Irish gang, the Westies, holds sway using heinous tactics of terror and murder and an uneasy liaison with local Mafia types. The prodigal crook has come home from a self imposed youthful exile ostensibly caused by law enforcement heat on his erstwhile criminal activities.
He re-establishes himself with old friends and becomes romantically involved with the sister of the Westies' leader. He is, in truth, n undercover cop sent to gather intelligence on the Westies and bring them down.
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Volume 2, Issue 5
The Snapper
Director: Stephen Frears
Colm Meany
Rating: "R" for language
The Irish film output of the past decade that has reached wide American distribution has been diverse. The dozen or so works that have achieved worldwide acclaim are mostly movies in which the plot and themes tell uniquely Irish stories as in Neil Jordan's The Crying Game or Alan Parker's The Commitments.
And while Stephen Frears' The Snapper is a movie about an ordinary working-class Irish family living in a suburban house too small for the number and dynamics of the unit, the themes and story lines are universally familiar. It is Frears' careful telling and near guileless acting that bring the tale to life in a way that makes the film uniquely appealing.
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Volume 2, Issue 5
John Cleese will star as Nearly-Headless Nick in Harry Potter movie
John Cleese has signed up to portray Nearly-Headless Nick in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, which is currently being filmed in Britain.
Also known as Sir Nicholas De Mimsy-Porpington, Nearly-Headless Nick is a friend of Potter who is also the ghost of Gryffindor Tower. Nearly-Headless Nick gained his nickname when someone didn't quite succeed in beheading him.
Cleese of Monty Python fame is currently filming Rat Race in Hollywood.
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Volume 2, Issue 4
The Quiet Man
Director: John Ford
John Wayne, Maureen O'Hara
Yes, you believe you've seen this film in bits and snatches on the cable. Maybe you've even sat through major parts of it. Forget all that.
Watch the entire film from beginning to end, preferably on a movie screen, but the biggest television available will do, and watch every scene carefully. For anyone interested in Irish culture or history it is informative far beyond its entertainment.
While there is no question that Quiet Man would make current Irish culturati cringe in what they perceive as its stage Irishness, this film was very true to most of the conventions of rural Irish middle-class life of 70 years ago.
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Volume 2, Issue 3
The Secret of Roan Inish
Director: John Sayles, 1993
The Secret of Roan Inish is stocked in the family section of most video stores but that should not relegate it to being viewed as light fare regarding Irish life and legends. Set on the rugged west coast of Ireland, it is a tale of two fantastic happenings spun out so as to involve one of the favorites of Ireland's legends.
The older tale of the movie involves the sulky, a female seal of ancient lore that emerges from its animal skin as a beautiful woman and is taken to wife by the handsomest lad in the fishing village. He holds her in loving thrall by hiding her sealskin.
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Volume 2, Issue 2
Hear my song
Ned Beatty, David McCallum
If you're Irish or want to be Irish, you will love this movie.
Hear My Song is a wonderful tale of the struggle of the Irish to assimilate themselves into Britain while retaining their own culture.
Hear My Song is a story about a young Irishman trying to save his theater and win the heart of his girl friend.
Hear My Song is the true story of 20th century tenor Josef Locke's self-imposed exile in the beauty of his rural Irish homeland to avoid the long arm of the British tax man.
Hear My Song is a story of love lost and found, impostors unmasked, authority rebuked, and the triumph of artistic greatness, wit and love over the banalities of daily life, bill collectors, tax men and you own willingness to relinquish our dreams and songs.
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Volume 2, Issue 1
The Field
Richard Harris, John Hurt, Tom Berenger
1990
Richard Harris was nominated for a Best Actor Oscar as Bull McCabe, the Irish farmer who has fiercely and tenderly cared for a rented field through two generations. When the legal owner decides to sell the plot, a rich American (Berenger) shows up with plans to buy the land as part of a larger development that would pave over the field.
Bull, the perfect portrait of Irish ties to land they don't own, vows to do whatever is necessary to ensure that he retains the field and is egged on in his determination and rage to the point of near violence by his entirely sycophantic crony, O'Donnell (Hurt).
Subplots in which Bull's living and dead sons twist his heart are the stuff of Irish classicism and the role of the Catholic church's laws in alienating its own in Ireland.
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Hornpipe Magazine
Irish Dance, Music, Film, and Culture
Guaranteed to make you more Irish!
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