Historical Land Ownership as Depicted in the Movie, the Field by Jim Sherindan - Essay Example

Task: Historical land ownership as depicted in the movie, the Field by Jim Sherindan One of the plays that hit the 20th century movie market was the field, a film that was written by John Keane and performed for the first time in 1965. It debuted at the Olympia Theatre in Dublin the same year of its first performance. It was later published in 1966 by the Mercier Press. However, a new version of the play with some edited changes was produced almost two decades later. The adaptation of the film was released in 1990 with Sheridan as the director, and Harris Richard taking the lead role. The setting of the movie is in a small country village located in the southwestern part of Ireland. Bull McCabe is an individualist who has spent several hard years of labor cultivating a small rented land. He nurtures it from barren rock into fertile land, which becomes beneficial. Bull has always claimed the land his and had dreamed of buying it, as it is being put up currently for auction. McCabes intimidate pose intimidation of several townspeople out of bidding in auction to the auctioneer Mick Flanagan. Galwayman Dee is from England where he has been living for several years with his plan for the field. The play reaches its climax McCabes comes face to face Dee. The encounter ends in struggle and finally death. This essay will look into the succinct analysis of the play with regard to the Irish view of land ownership and home. To begin with, the first scene talks of the man carrying out the cultivations on a vast land, which he claims to be his. This gives the illustration on the Irish land ownership rights. The action shows that laws regarding land ownership in Ireland are not legally organized or planned to facilitate peace among societal members (Baker 34). The man simply start working tirelessly on a barren land, which to him, is an empty unutilized land which should be put into appropriate use. This is the reason behind the conflict that arises between the two Irish men. Dee had believed that he the land was his even in his absence. To him, he had the ownership which qualified him as the legal owner of the place, therefore, the idea of another man thinking of the land as a free place and unused property is illegal. The fact that the widows make a step to put the land in auction without considering McCabe’s work is unlawful itself. Allowing a citizen to work on a large rocky land turning it into a fertile land, and auctioning it, is not a fair deal and shows some shortcomings in the Irish land (Deane 67). The law does not consider much the plights of the low class people in the region. The bright lighting in the play serves the role of stressing some ideas in the film. For instance, the director has used bright light to accentuate the suffering and oppression of the low class individuals in the Irish society. He has done the same in all other cases representing the ways in which people of high social class live in comparison to those of low classes. The sound patterns in the play is that of higher tones with speech and low tones of background sound. This is meant to ensure that the listeners and viewers get enough comprehension of the video, in terms of its thematic contents. Historically, Ireland land ownership was characterized by English elite rule. The rule involved the division of the country into large estates, and authority was passed down to the supporters of Scottish Protestants. This is reported to have been a political plot to bring down Ireland and wipe out the issue of Roman Catholicism in Britain. It is indicated too in the historical texts that majority of the notable landowners were absent; and could more often employ agents who were of Ireland origin to take care of the land. The agents could, in turn, become tenants who had no tangible security of tenure and thus they could be chased out in case their rent went to arrears or otherwise. The management of estates was always poor as the tenants lacked motivation and the necessary incentive to develop or improve the land (Browning 54). This is also reported to have been out of fear that the rent might be raised anytime and to which failure to pay would automatically lead to eviction without compensation. Reality though shows that the assertion that landowners were exclusively of English families and Protestants is not true as some absentees were in East of Ireland and that not all were exploitative and inhuman property owners. In fact, records are available of property owners who were human and caring to their tenants. The truth of the matter however, is that absenteeism was a common practice in the country of Ireland and is alleged to have been the greatest impediment to the country’s development. It is nonetheless not enough to put fort that absenteeism was responsible for inefficient management of the estates and careless unprocedural renting as most noble proprietors would employ land stewards to oversee their lands. When the landlords championed for the efficient management, rental income maximization among other taxing responsibilities on tenants, leading to somewhat inhuman expectations, the tenants revolted against the same which lead to the famous land crisis in 1879. The tenants were driven by the unjust treatment; where they were suppose to carry the time wasting, local and unpalatable socio-political responsibilities that did not in turn reward them in any case. In the film, ‘The Field by Jim Sherindan’, Richard Harris, the lead role, otherwise referred to as Bull McCabe in the movie, is depicted to be a hardworking tenant who has spent many years of hard labor, turning it from unproductive barren rock to a an impressive fertile field. Bull considers the land to be his and intends to buy it. After a short while however, the land is auctioned and though Bull puts a relatively high bid, Galwayman William Dee who has just arrived from England overtakes him (Herr 49). This obviously shows the level of oppression that faced common citizens in Ireland during the colonial times. Even after nurturing and taking of the land, Bull is not given the chance to buy the land, which therefore clearly shows that local tenants were not accorded any level of nationalism. The setting of the movie is in the rural Ireland, where the landscape is primitive and attractive with little population size. The choice of clothes and cars used by the director shows that the era was probably in the beginning of 1900, though the year is not clearly stated thus implying anytime and evoking the idea of a myth to correspond to type of story it is. As the movie unwinds, Bull and his son known as Tadgh works from sunrise to sunset and the situation is made worst by the fact Bull and the wife are not in good terms because of a son who passed on (Herr 43). This shows the hardships faced by normal citizens in Ireland and a fact that life was not easy. This however does not deter the citizens from pursuing their primal passions, a show that captures the hard but exiting times of the past. This is a sorrowful story that fully makes one comprehend the essence of land being a home for the owner but at the same time showing the nation as the ultimate owner as the local tenants matter less when comes to auctioning of rented land. From the above elaborations, it is quite succinct that land ownership in Ireland was not planned and this led to a lot of troubles between different in case two or three of them claimed a similar land as theirs. The film has also proven that there is an existing economic disparities in Ireland, with a few people very rich and almost equal number languishing from abject poverty. The class difference infers unequal wealth and resource allocations among the entire Irish population. Work Cited Herr, Cheryl. The Field; Volume 5 of Ireland into Film. Cork City: Cork University Press, 2002. Print. Browning, Mark. Wes Anderson: Why His Movies Matter. New York, NY: ABC-CLIO, 2011. Print. Deane, Seamus. The field Day Anthology of Irish Writing: Volume 5-Page 466. Manchester: University of Manchester Press. 2001. Print. Baker, Allan. Studies of Field Systems in the British Isles. New York: SAGE Publishers. 2002. Print. Read More