INTO THE WEST Tribute to Miramax: Ten Years of Hits

The appeal of legends which invent worlds existing beyond our own mundane realm is universal. Directed by Mike Newell of Enchanted April, and written by Jim Sheridan, who put Ireland on the cinema map with his Oscar-winning My Left Foot, Into the West is a modern fable which begins with the legend on just such a faraway land and takes us on a stirring ride, literally and figuratively, across the spectacular countryside of wild western Ireland. Gabriel Byrne plays a father who has rejected the ways of his gypsy-like clan, the “travelers,” to settle down miserably in the squalor of Dublin’s tenements with his young sons. When their grandfather appears one day with a magnificent white horse trailing behind him, the boys and the horse bond irrevocably. Unfortunately their plan for keeping the horse in their apartment fails, setting in motion evenby which the horse is taken from then and illegally sold to an unscrupulous breeder. When the boys finally regain the horse and ride off into the west with the “posse” close behind, their quest for freedom takes on new dimensions. Byrne rejoins his traveling friends in order to find them before the police or the breeder’s private forces can, and the chase is on. This Irish American coproduction, on at least one level, pays mythic homage to the Old West since it is filled with references and allusions which reemphasize the struggle which that world embodied. Wondertul cinematic, this expressive tale is superbly directed by Newell, who extracts especially stunning performances from the young leads. Byrne is equally strong in a role which manges to avoid cliche.