The Last Star In Hollywood
14: Far and Away
This week, the movie that’s often considered the first flop of Cruise’s career: Ron Howard’s Far and Away! Is the movie — or are the accents — as bad as we thought? How can a movie work at the highest and lowest levels, but kind of miss the middle? How do we make our peace with the big political choice that Howard makes?
Content warning: indigenous erasure, colonialism, physical violence, sex work, harm to animals
Unanswered Questions:
- Was it the right decision to avoid the issue of native populations entirely?
- Can we understand the Christie storyline as being that of an Englishman coming under the romantic spell of America?
- Given the Irish immigrant story and the talk of destiny, why is there so little religion in this film?
Further reading:
- Native Land Digital
- Joy Harjo
- Copper Yearnings (Kimberly Blaeser)
- Ron Howard Interview (The Guardian)
- Far and Away Review (Roger Ebert)
- Behind the Burly Q: The Story of Burlesque in America (Leslie Zemeckis)
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Join us next time as we finally find out if Tom Cruise can handle the truth in Rob Reiner’s 1992 drama A Few Good Men!
The Last Star In Hollywood is an independent podcast produced by Elizabeth Rae and Alastair Stephens.
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