Far And Away - Original Soundtrack

One of my favourite films is Ron Howard's epic "Far And Away" starring Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, back when they were Mr and Mrs.  This is a perfect film for two people in love, showing how they are initially not attracted to each other, thrust together for their basic survival and then their love grows; not everything goes to plan and they end up apart until they are triumphantly brought back together.
This is a majestic movie filmed on 70mm wide stock, capturing the colours and wide vistas of this continent-spanning story.  To accompany such an event, Ron Howard employed the master himself, Mr Star Wars, John Williams.
Once again, John Williams creates an iconic soundtrack that captures both the Irish landscape and time of 1892, and the heroic granduer of a majestic tale of one man doing everything he can to achieve his dream.  Some of the best pieces include "The Big Match" and "Blowing Off Steam" (which is reminiscent of a piece he did for Steven Spielberg's classic "Always"). The "Joseph and Shannon" theme is beautiful and instantly recognisable whenever I hear it. John Williams also can do the softer notes like when Joseph and Shannon have to break into a Mansion to get food.  This magical moment is captured with the music box-like piece "Inside The Mansion".
John Williams also joins forces with the classic Irish band, The Chieftans to create some very Irish music for this film, including "The Fighting Donnellys" and "Fighting For Dough".
I love that they employed the astounding voice of Enya for the song over the credits, "Book of Days".  She brings a magical Celtic sound to the end of this spectacular film.
This is one of John Williams best soundtracks and one that is sorely forgotten.  Perhaps you can all look this up if you havn't heard this and give it a listen.  I promise you won't be disappointed if you love John Williams.