This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 11th, 2007 at 12:12 pm and is filed under Action, Drama, W, War. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
Director: Ken Loach
Starring: Cillian Murphy, Padraic Delaney, Liam Cunningham, Orla Fitzgerald, Mary Riordan, Mary Murphy, Laurence Barry
This war drama was one of the darlings of the 2006 Cannes Film Festival and it’s easy to see why. The acting is flawless, throughout, and the direction is smooth. The story, dialog and screenplay are all very strong, and, although I occasionally struggled to understand the accents (I actually looked for English subtitles, as it began), I found this movie to be quite riveting.
This film is set in a small Irish village, beginning in 1920, when a group of men form a secret military organization called the Irish Republican Army (The IRA – not sure if this is true) to fight against the oppressive and harsh British occupation. The few battle scenes lack a little punch, but this is more than made up for in the shocking scenes involving civilians. The story centers around two brothers, Teddy (Padraic Delaney) and Damien (Cillian Murphy) who lead the group. Fitzgerald plays Sinead, a brave woman helping the secret army. The movie moves a little slowly, but keeps up the pace enough to hold interest and look for a real twist along the way.
This film should appeal to those with a interest in history and those with an appreciation for fine cinema. Interestingly, this movie apparently did not get a general release in the UK, where its sympathetic IRA view was resented. It is still an excellent film, however. Does anyone out there remember the movies Red Dawn and The Molly Maguires? They are both quite old and obscure but if you combined the two of them, you would have a good idea what to expect here, but better, much better.
