I classified this movie as a western. The story began in Ireland and ended up on the rolling plains of Oklahoma. This is a love story with a truly American twist in that the lowly commoner wins the love of the gentry of the old country. Joseph Donnelly played by Tom Cruise holds his father as he dies after explaining, that a man is nothing with out land. The land is a man’s soul. Shannon Christie played by Nicole Kidman shows Joseph a flier from America about free land and tells him she is running away to America to get some of the free land. She has her mother’s silver spoons and that will get her to Oklahoma and the free land.
With many twists and turns the two opposite people cross the Atlantic with Joseph as Shannon’s servant. Arriving in Boston the two young people start to separate but are thrown together by a cruel act of fate. They become close and depend upon each other as Shannon gets a taste of being poor and looking for every meal. Things continue to happen and some bad events happen and they are separated.
The story continues and Joseph awakens to his dream and ends up in Oklahoma where he meets Shannon again. I wont spoil the ending for you but it is a great story with epic vistas and real American history in it. I rate it as a movie to see and it is close to my top 100 best western movies.
