FILM · 1990 · IRELAND
The Field
30 archived facts 4 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (30)
- #001
Ray McAnally was originally cast as "The Bull," but his sudden death forced writer-director Jim Sheridan to recast the lead. Richard Harris was considered for the role of the Priest and convinced Sheridan to trust him with the lead. Harris's career had been in the doldrums for years, but his strong performance here earned him his first Oscar nomination since 1962 and brought about a major revival of his film work.
- #002
An image from this film appeared on Ireland's thirty-two penny stamp in 1996 for the centenary celebrations of Irish cinema. The stamp featured Sean Bean, Sir John Hurt and Richard Harris in the setting of Ireland's Killary Harbour.
- #003
Richard Harris arranged a meeting with writer-director Jim Sheridan to secure the role, arriving in full costume and character. Sheridan, initially reluctant to cast Harris because of his bad reputation, decided to cast him on the basis of that meeting.
- #004
The film premiered in 1990, the 25th anniversary of the first staging of John B. Keane's source stage play "The Field."
- #005
Marlon Brando and Sir Sean Connery were considered for the role of "Bull" McCabe. Ray McAnally was initially cast, but died before production.
- #006
According to Wikipedia.com, "John B. Keane based the story on the 1959 killing of Moss Moore, a bachelor farmer living in Reamore, County Kerry. Moore's neighbour Dan Foley, with whom he had a long-running dispute, was suspected of the murder, but the accusations were denied by Foley's family."
- #007
Richard Harris was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role. Harris never won an Oscar; his first Oscar nomination was also for Best Actor in a Leading Role, for This Sporting Life (1963).
- #008
The only characters cut from the play were Tadhg McCabe, "The Bird" O'Donnell and Thady "The Bull" McCabe.
- #009
Among the cast is one Oscar winner, Brenda Fricker, and four Oscar nominees: Richard Harris, Sir John Hurt, Tom Berenger and Brendan Gleeson.
- #010
Richard Harris was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role for this film, but lost to Jeremy Irons for Reversal of Fortune (1990).
- #011
The closing title sequence of the film states that it was "filmed entirely in Ireland, in the counties of Galway, Kerry, Mayo and Wicklow and at M. T. M. Ardmore Studios."
- #012
The screenplay was rewritten several times. Some of these changes resulted from changes in the cast.
- #013
Most of the characters in the film have the surname "McCabe." One of the actors had the surname McCabe: Ruth McCabe, whose character was not a McCabe but "Tinker Woman."
- #014
This was Jenny Conroy's (Katie - The Tinker Girl) first feature film.
- #015
Body count - three (including the donkey).
- #016
Tom Berenger is the only American actor in the main cast.
- #017
Jenny Conroy, who played the Tinker Girl Katie, received an "introducing" credit.
- #018
The play was first staged in 1965 at the Olympia Theatre in Dublin, Ireland.
- #019
At least sixty cast and crew members worked on this film and My Left Foot (1989), mostly on the latter.
- #020
Richard Harris, Brendan Gleeson and Sir John Hurt all appeared in the Harry Potter film series.
- #021
Sean Bean and Richard Harris appeared in Patriot Games (1992).
- #022
The film was released twenty-five years after the first staging of John B. Keane's stage play of the same name on which it is based.
- #023
It was writer-director Jim Sheridan's first film after the Oscar-winning My Left Foot (1989), which was nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium. That film won Oscars for Best Actor (Daniel Day-Lewis) and Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Brenda Fricker); the latter also appears in this film.
- #024
The play was first staged in 1965, based on a story from six years earlier; it was published as a book in 1966, and twenty-one years later a revised version of the play appeared with changes, while this film version followed three years after that revision.
- #025
Three actors appeared in both this film and My Left Foot (1989): Brenda Fricker, Ruth McCabe and Jer O'Leary.
- #026
It aired in Ireland on RTE One television on 10 December 2023 from 21.30 to 23.35.
- #027
Peter (Tom Berenger) was nicknamed "The American", O'Donnell (Sir John Hurt) was nicknamed "Bird" or "The Bird", and Thady McCabe (Richard Harris) was nicknamed "Bull" or "The Bull".
- #028
Brendan Gleeson, Sean McGinley and Jer O'Leary appeared in both Braveheart (1995) and Michael Collins (1996). Gleeson and McGinley also appeared in Gangs of New York (2002).
- #029
In My Left Foot (1989), Brenda Fricker again played a mother.
- #030
Some scenes from the play were changed for this film version.
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