Into the West
Director: Mike Newell
1992
26 May 2025
See
A modern folktale of Irish Travellers (a euphemism for gypsies, although the term seems to apply specifically to the traditionally itinerant in the Emerald Isle, as opposed to being a derogatory grouping for Romani or other nomadic people like the Bedouin or Sami). A grandfather (David Kelly) finds a white horse and gifts it to his deceased daughter’s sons, Tito (Ruaidhri Conroy) and Ossie (Ciarian Fitzgerald). Their dad Papa Reilly (Gabriel Byrne) is still devastated by his wife’s death several years earlier.
Think
He deals with it by drink and has them holed up in a tower block in Dublin, rather than out on the land where they belong like their forebears. They’re connected to a romantic idea of freedom from the rules of regular society, filled by fireside stories of adventure, both ancient Gaelic myths merged with childhood fantasies of being cowboys. The two little boys name their horse Ter na nOg, which their grandfather explains with a story means Land of Eternal Youth. But they’re now city residents and keep Tir na nOg in their slum apartment. Their dad is too distant and out of it to care. They wash it in the bathroom, ride it into and out of the elevator, and love their horse earnestly and with abandon because it makes them special. Papa Reilly is too out of it to care, when not on the drink, doing low paid tinkering (taking part in neighbours welfare fraud or cash in hand smash repairs on a banged up car). There are moments realising the horse is majestic when the Ossie rides it as it jumps over a fire, or calms Tir na nOg when the authorities come to remove it from their apartment.
Feel
Inspector Bolger (Brendon Gleeson) not only takes the horse, but sells it to a wealthy businessman, Hartnett(John Kavangh) for equestrian show jumping and pressures papa to sign consent of sale even though he’s illiterate. They’re the moments that the reality of the prejudice and poverty of being stationary Travellers comes through. But the beauty is present too, in the stories and rule breaking of what is not illegal but morally wrong, by showing a divergent culture. The boys get their horse back and are on the run as contemporary outlaws. The magical realism of Tir na nOg being their mummy, helping their daddy believe in their roots again. He returns to a Traveller encampment and enlists the help of old friends Kathleen (Ellen Barkin) and Barreller (Colm Meaney).
Papa comes alive again and Byrne is so handsome when he cracks a smile for the first time and rediscovers self-respect, it helps him be finally able to grieve. Together they help him track Tito, Ossie and Tir na nOg on their journey West across the mesmerising countryside. It’s sincere in overcoming cynicism and makes your heart ache when it’s happy, and also sad but glad for both.
