Really well made spiritual entertainment
“Into the West” begins as a story of two boys and a magical horse but by the end it’s taken us on an affective, albeit kinda grim, spiritual journey. It comes from “My Left Foot’s” Jim Sheridan, no stranger to Irish grief, though here he manages to keep that as sort of a side dish to a family story with cute moments but that’s always wisely kept away from being cutesy.
The two boys are Ossie (Ciaran Fitzgerald) and Tito (Ruaidhri Conroy), Dublin brothers descended from traveling gypsies, though not anymore. When they’re mother died, their father (Gabriel Byrne) fell into a deep depression and now it seems as if his one interest in them is using them to get welfare money for drink from the government.
They hate living in the housing project and are fascinated whenever their grandfather (David Kelly), who still travels the gypsy way with horse and buggy, tells them stories of his journeys. His most recent return brings with him a beautiful white horse, christened with the name “Tir na Nog”, which the boys fall instantly in love with.
Director Mike Newell does everything he can to tell us this is one special horse- just look into its eyes (which Newell does with the camera quite regularly) and you’ll see a real bonding between horse and child. Less of a match made in heaven is having the horse live in their apartment, which leads to some funny scenes before the cops are called.
Tir na Nog is taken and made to perform high jumps at the polo grounds, which the two boys get wind of and run to its rescue. They break the horse out in a daring escape, which sets up a chase as everyone, including a young Brendan Gleeson as a ruthless police chief, is after them to get the horse back.
The exuberance of the two kids is the film’s charm. Spurned on by their grandfather’s stories and the idea of old American western movies, they think they’re cowboys. In truth, they don’t even really know about real cowboys. In more truth, they probably never leave Dublin. But they’re having fun believing they’re out West just the same.
They know from old movies that cowboys eat beans and that there is usually a reward for their captures, both of which are two of the funnier scenes here as they completely mess up the cook and whoop and hollar as they hear about their bounty.
Also in on the chase is Byrne, who begins to notice that the horse seems to be carrying his kids through all his old haunts. He reconnects with old traveling companions in Ellen Barkin and Colm Meany, visits his wife’s grave, and realizes some of the things he’s lost. Byrne, as a grief-stricken man whose lost his way, is really compelling here.
Also interesting is the look at the traveling gypsy life- people who live in mobile home campgrounds, huddled around bonfires with their family and friends, often talking and dancing the night away. Newell brings a communal, free-spirited life to this, and doesn’t shy away from how this life leads to discrimination by the cops and the government.
“Into the West” is so good at adventure and establishing a heart within and true bond between each and every one of these characters that once it does also touch upon the subject of death- it does so with tact. We understand this journey is meant to be as cathartic as it is enjoyable, redemptive and personally fulfilling as it is lovable. That it manages to balance it all while never talking down is a pretty wonderful achievement.