Conference bookie::movies

341.0. "Into the West" by DSSDEV::RUST () Sun Oct 03 1993 01:22

    This is one delightful film; a fable of Irish mists (and Dublin slums),
    a deposed king (and a despairing drunk), and a pair of questing
    brothers (raised on neglect and Western movies). Sound promising so
    far?
    
    Well, there's this horse, y'see... A magnificent white horse that
    appears out of nowhere to an old man gathering shellfish by the
    seashore. The old man is intrigued - all the more so when the horse
    follows his wagon as he drives away. [There's some lovely ambiguity
    here; while the story is clearly a fable, and there's clearly magic in
    it, it's never - or seldom - obvious. What we might have here is just a
    lost horse seeking companionship from the carthorse pulling the
    wagon...]
    
    So far the scenery's been all mists and crashing waves, green forests
    and clattering hoofbeats, but suddenly the cart crests a hill, a
    passenger jet roars overhead, and a city becomes visible down below.
    Turns out the old man is a modern-day "traveller" - a tinker, a gypsy -
    living on the edge of the "settled people" but not a part of them. But
    the old man's son, widowed and miserable, has chosen to leave the road
    to raise his two young sons - though he does more drinking than
    parenting, and seldom knows what the boys are up to.
    
    The mysterious white horse takes a liking to the younger of the two
    boys, and the boys opt to keep it in their apartment in a welfare
    housing complex - but of course this doesn't last long. The police
    impound the horse, and an unscrupulous officer sells it to a trainer of
    champion jumpers; the boys go looking for it, and when they find it the
    quest is on. 
    
    I'd pretty much gathered the preceding from the reviews, and didn't
    know what to expect of the rest of the film. I was enchanted. There's a
    haunting, melancholy quality to the story, mingled with staccato
    intrusions of modern-day technology and the frequent touch of slapstick
    as the boys and their horse try to scrounge food, clothing, and shelter
    in a landscape made up of ruined castles and railroad tracks and gypsy
    caravans and movie theaters. And the conclusion was much of what I'd
    hoped for (if not expected), and little of what I'd feared...
    
    There are a few places where things ring a bit false, but for the most
    part story and performances are solid and sweet. I recommend it - but
    you may have to work to find it. [In the Nashua-Merrimack-Manchester
    corridor, the only place I've seen it listed is at the Bedford Mall
    cinema, and even there it's currently showing only once a day. It's
    worth doing some travelling for, though, and if you can't find it at a
    theater, annoy your local video stores until it's available there. ;-)]
    
    Oh, yes, one other thing. Many critics have touted the film as "family
    fare," and it is, both in the sense of not including any overt sex (or
    any sex at all, for that matter, though there's romance enough) or
    graphic violence, and in that it is something children and adults could
    both enjoy. However, parts of it are probably a bit slow for young
    children - a 6-ish tot a few rows behind me required running
    explanations from her father - and several sequences might inspire
    nightmares about abandonment or pursuit or other unpleasantnesses.
    After all, this is a fable, and the best fables go through some dark
    places...
    
    -b

    [Film-showing alert for Nashua-area readers: "Into the West" is now
    playing at the Wilton Town Hall Theater - I don't know for how long.
    It's "now or wait-for-video"...]
    
    -b

    
    On the recording, Dennis said that it **might** be held over.
    A lot depends of what the distributor has for breakfast...
    
    Show times for Into the West:
    
         Fri.-  Sat.  7:00 ($5.00 adults, $3.00 children/seniors)
         Sat. - Sun.  2:00 ($3.00 all tickets)
    
    The previews looked extremely intriguing.
    
    Ron
     

    In Dublin recently I wandered off through the Northside neighborhood of
    council estates, much as seen in the film, and what did I see, but wee
    lads of 10 and 12 racing up and down the street bareback on stout-footed 
    draft ponys.
    
    The movie is not far from the mark in depicting life in these
    neighborhoods of little joy and much want.
    
    I would recommend this for kids and adults as well.