Hollywood Returns To 70Mm Photography With `Far And Away'
May 22, 1992
John Hartl
Is the new Tom Cruise movie, "Far and Away," the first theatrical movie since David Lean's "Ryan's Daughter" (1970) to be filmed in the crisp, detailed 70mm process?
"Far and Away" is being advertised, rather confusingly, as "filmed for the first time in Panavision Super 70." It's hard to tell precisely what that means. The press kit claims it's "the first feature film ever to be photographed with the new Panavision Super 70 camera equipment." But how is that different from the Super Panavision 70 equipment that was used three decades ago to shoot "Exodus" and "West Side Story"?
Aside from the fact that "Super" and "Panavision" have been transposed in the title, it's because the new movie uses a 70mm film stock recently developed by Eastman Kodak - although the new stock does not always yield as breathtaking an image as "Ryan's Daughter." Only a few sequences in "Far and Away," among them the Oklahoma land-rush finale, demonstrate what 70mm can do for a spectacular sequence.
This does, however, seem to be the genuine article: the first major-studio production shot entirely in 70mm in some time - although, to make matters even more confusing, it's not the only movie presented in 70mm in 22 years. Many movies shot in 35mm, such as "Howards End," are routinely blown up to 70mm to take advantage of 70mm's six-track stereo. The special effects in such movies as "Terminator 2" are shot in 70mm, then blended with 35mm live-action footage.
One effects-heavy movie, Disney's "Tron" (1982), may have been filmed entirely in 70mm, although even such an authoritative book as Robert E. Carr and R.M. Hayes' "Wide Screen Movies" (McFarland and Co., published 1988) can't say for sure: "There is much confusion regarding this film . . . It is possible the whole film was produced in Super Panavision 70."
As Carr and Hayes point out, the golden age of 70mm cinematography produced some of the clearest images in the history of movies. When it was abandoned two decades ago (at about the same time Hollywood temporarily gave up on stereo sound), a developing technology was crushed. If you saw the recent 70mm reissues of "Lawrence of Arabia," "West Side Story" and/or "2001: A Space Odyssey" at the Cinedome, you know how wonderful standard 70mm can look - and sound.
Even more technically advanced are the IMAX documentaries that play the Omnidome Theater and the Eames/IMAX Theater at the Pacific Science Center. They're filmed in a 70mm process that literally dwarfs all Hollywood productions, including "Far and Away." Because the IMAX cameras and projectors feed the 70mm film stock horizontally, they can make use of a much larger frame. The first feature-length IMAX movie, "Rolling Stones at the MAX," is continuing through the summer at the Eames/IMAX Theater.
Hollywood director Ron Howard reveals secret behind Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman's 1992 'honeymoon movie' Far and Away
With leading roles in 80s box office hits Risky Business and Top Gun, superstar Tom Cruise managed to successfully cement his place on Hollywood's A-list early on in his career.
By 1992, the renowned actor was already considered one of the world's most bankable stars, likely making him a shoo-in for any role of his caliber that year, such as his epic western romance film Far and Away.
But to film director Ron Howard, DailyMail.com can reveal, it was lesser known actress and Cruise's new bride Nicole Kidman who had the star power he was seeking for the movie at the time.
The former Hollywood power couple starred alongside each other in the film, which would ultimately turn out to be a critical flop and box office disappointment.
It had been nicknamed Cruise and Kidman's 'Honeymoon Movie' since they had married shortly before filming the drama which recounts the romance and struggles of 19th Century fictional Irish immigrants Joseph Donnelly and Shannon Christie in America.
Howard shared rare insight into the making of the film at a screening of the movie at New York City's Museum of Moving Image (MOMI).
Speaking to the audience, the filmmaker revealed he had been far more invested in casting Kidman, 57, and deliberately avoided telling Cruise, 62, his wife was 'more of a priority' than he was to get him to make epic drama.
Howard, 70, who played Richie Cunningham in Happy Days as a child actor before becoming a director, told the audience: Cruise 'was already one of the major stars. He really wanted this for Nicole.
'What he didn't realize is that Nicole was at the top of my list before I ever thought Tom Cruise could be in it'.
'But Nicole was just coming up and a newer discovery but I always felt like she would be great for Shannon.
'So when I started talking to Tom, at that point they were dating, they had done Days of Thunder, they were, you know, kind of an item but nobody knew how serious.
'He said, "Well, what do think about Nicole Kidman? Would you be willing to meet her?" I said, "Yeah, I would."
'I don't think I told him that she was more a priority than even he was,' Howard admitted.
Cruise and Kidman had fallen in love shooting their first movie racing car movie Days of Thunder in 1990.
The pair divorced in 2001, less than two years after the release of their third and final movie Stanley Kubrick's searing erotic thriller Eyes Wide Shut.
Howard's admission is all the more interesting since at the time the film was being made, Cruise was a far greater Hollywood star than his wife who had not yet starred in her mid-1990s box office hits Batman Forever, Malice and To Die For.
Howard added: 'When he came on board I think he always cherished this as a tremendous woman's role for Nicole. He certainly wanted to do his part and I really enjoyed working with both of them and the rest of the cast.'
But the movie flopped making just $59million at the US box office, less than its estimated $60million budget.
Howard admitted at MOMI he was lucky to get the film made: 'I don't even know how you'd get this movie made today. Even then it was a real rarity.'
Howard argued one of the reasons it received an underwhelming box office reception is that the comedic elements were overlooked as critics fixated on the fact the epic, shot in County Wicklow, Ireland, and parts of Montana, was the first film in a decade to be shot in the wide high-resolution 70mm format.
Howard said: 'In retrospect I think in some ways it sort of led to a misunderstanding around the film.
'Because when it came out I always thought of it as like if Frank Capra and John Ford put their head together and decided to make a romantic comedy maybe it would look something like this.
'To me it was always playful, romantic, innocent, sweet, almost a fairytale and a fable kind of story.'
But he said because nobody had done a movie in 70mm in over 10 years, people thought that he believed this was a serious, heavy drama about immigration simply because of the format.
'I think it created a little confusion, never for audiences, even though it wasn't a big-grossing movie because even with movie stars period movies in the summer have rarely broken through. It was OK box office.'
Despite a lavish premiere at the Cannes Film Festival and a London premiere that attracted then-UK Prime Minister John Major in 1992, critics were unkind to Far and Away.
Celebrated critic Roger Ebert wrote: 'It's depressing that such a lavish and expensive production, starring an important actor like Tom Cruise, could be devoted to such a shallow story'.
Tony Parsons, then of the Daily Mirror, wrote it was 'a stinker of the picture...far and away the worst film I have ever seen.'
Howard alluded to the awkward reception of Far and Away when introducing the film to the audience at MOMI.
'By the way when it's funny it's supposed to be C so it's OK to laugh,' he joked.
The director, who had more luck with hits including Apollo 13 and A Beautiful Mind, said Far and Away was an important movie for Cruise as an action star as he underwent a meticulous training regime for several intense boxing fight scenes.
'He treated himself like an athlete, he trained every day, really worked out, had a trainer,' Howard said, adding: 'We did that boxing montage, including the first fight, all in one day.
'Tom went through five different stunt guys. They were all exhausted and Tom was smiling at the end of the day. It was kind of mind-blowing. It's not the kind of thing that you can double.'
But Howard revealed Cruise was not so lucky on horseback, sustaining an injury on the set: 'I already knew, having done some work with horses as an actor and director, it's the most dangerous thing you can do.
'You're dealing with a huge creature that is uncontrollable at times and can be frightened.
'Tom took one horrible fall once. He had the challenge of having to ride like the wind but look like a farmer who had never been on a horse.
'He was riding in a very unorthodox way and he was supposed to balance and you can see how many shots were undeniably him.
'He did it once and then we did it again and his horse came off and he was down. But he was OK. We got through the whole thing safely.'
Since their divorce, Cruise and Kidman have taken great pains not to be photographed together.
They were reportedly both no-shows at their daughter Isabella's wedding in 2015 and last year Cruise was rumored to have skipped the Oscars to avoid an awkward 'run-in' with his ex-wife.
The pair attended the Paris Olympics on the same day late last month but while Tom watched the Artistic Gymnastics Women's Qualification at Bercy Arena, Nicole was a 20-minute drive away at Place de la Concorde with her second husband Keith Urban watching the Women's Street Final.
During the closing ceremony at the Olympics Cruise abseiled down into the Stade de France in a jaw-dropping stunt that saw him slide 115-feet on a rope from the venue's roof as part of the handover to Los Angeles for the 2028 Olympic Games.
Shrewsbury Road Edwardian used for Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman film for 12.5m
In 2012, Coolbeg was owned by a cardiologist and his family who’d bought it for a little over 18,000 in the late 1960s and lived there for 46 years. Some scenes from 1990s film Far and Away, starring Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, were filmed here during that time.
