Into the West (film) facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Into the West |
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Theatrical release poster
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Directed by | Mike Newell |
Produced by | Jonathan Cavendish Tim Palmer Gabriel Byrne (associate) |
Written by | Jim Sheridan David Keating |
Starring |
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Music by | Patrick Doyle |
Cinematography | Newton Thomas Sigel |
Editing by | Peter Boyle |
Studio | Channel Four Films Majestic Films International Miramax Films Parallel Film Productions |
Distributed by | Entertainment Film Distributors |
Release date(s) | 11 December 1992 |
Running time | 97 minutes |
Country | Ireland |
Language | English |
Into the West is a 1992 Irish magical realist film about Irish Travellers written by Jim Sheridan and directed by Mike Newell, and stars Gabriel Byrne and Ellen Barkin.
Into the West was one of several major films to come from Ireland during the 1990s, including the likes of My Left Foot, The Miracle, The Commitments, The Boxer, The Playboys, In the Name of the Father, War of the Buttons and The Crying Game. The film received several awards.
Plot
Into the West is a film about two young boys, Tito (Conroy) and Ossie (Fitzgerald), whose father "Papa" Reilly (Byrne) was "King of Irish Travellers" until his wife, Mary, died during the birth of their second son, Ossie. The boys' grandfather (David Kelly) is an old story-telling Traveller, who regales the children with Irish folk-tales and legends. When he is followed by a beautiful white horse called Tír na nÓg (meaning "Land of Eternal Youth" in Irish), from the sea to Dublin, where the boys and their father have now settled down in a grim tower block in Ballymun, the boys are overwhelmed with joy and dreams of becoming cowboys. The horse is stolen from them and they begin their adventure to get their mystical horse back. They escape the poverty of a north Dublin council estate, and ride "Into the West" where they find that Tír na nÓg is not just a horse.
Cast
- Gabriel Byrne as Papa Reilly
- Ellen Barkin as Kathleen
- Ciarán Fitzgerald as Ossie
- Rúaidhrí Conroy as Tito (credited as Ruaidhrí Conroy)
- David Kelly as Grandfather
- Johnny Murphy as Tracker
- Colm Meaney as Barreller
- John Kavanagh as Hartnett
- Brendan Gleeson as Inspector Bolger
- Jim Norton as Superintendent O'Mara
- Anita Reeves as Mrs. Murphy
- Ray McBride as Mr. Murphy
- Dave Duffy as Morrissey
- Stuart Dannell-Foran as Conor Murphy (credited as Stuart Dannell)
- Becca Hollinshead as Birdy Murphy