By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Paul Greengrass
Starring: Allan Gildea | Gerard Crossan | James Nesbitt | Mary Mould
Country: ireland, united_kingdom
Year: 2002
Running time: 107
IMDB: http://us.imdb.com/Details?0280491
Laura says: “Writer/director Paul Greengrass (THE THEORY OF FLIGHT) consulted Don Mullan, author of Eyewitness Blood
Sunday, who had read the hundreds of civilian accounts ignored by the first official inquiry into the massacre and decided to tell his story from four points of view. The authoritarian figures on either side are Ivan Cooper (James Nesbitt, WELCOME
TO SARAJEVO), a Protestant Member of Parliament leading the Catholic civil rights movement, and Brigadier Patrick MacLellan (Nicholas Farrell, PLUNKETT & MACLEANE), the man in charge of an operation he didn’t entirely support. Their counterparts in the field are Gerry Donaghy (Declan Duddy, whose uncle was the first killed on Bloody Sunday), a seventeen year
old just out of prison for stone throwing, and Paratrooper 27 (Mike Edwards an ex-infantry soldier), a young soldier whose unit fired most of the shots that day.
“This powerful film attempts to tell both sides of the story within a 24 hour time frame. Greengrass gathered as many people connected with the original event as possible and filmed from within them in short segments which fade to black. The result is a startling you-are-there experience. ” 4 1/2 cats
For Laura’s complete review: “http://www.reelingreviews.com/bloodysunday.htm”
Robin says: “The hyper real documentary style that Greengrass uses to tell the events of that horrific day 30 years ago will be compared, frequently, with Gillo Pontecorvo’s 1965 leftist, anti-colonial tome THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS. Both films put you in the middle of the violent action and both point to the imperialism of the parent countries as the cause of the unrest. The succinct day-in-the-life style that the helmer of BLOODY SUNDAY adopts also holds kin to the Ridley Scott’s gut-wrenching BLACK
HAWK DOWN. Greengrass uses brief views into the different facets of the players of that day, separated by blackness, to build the tensions as the two forces come together for the inevitable confrontation. When the actual slaughter of innocents begins, the film becomes a linear telling of the violence that left so many dead and wounded. It is a stylish, yet sickening realistic, depiction of the infamous event.
“Acting is uniformly solid, though the four principle characters are given the best opportunity to flesh out their persona. James Nesbitt is believable as the Parliamentarian, a Protestant, who has the best interests of his Catholic constituents in his heart. He tries to keep the hot heads in the marchers’ ranks under control but has no way to stop the trigger happy British soldiers, many of whom have lost friends at the hands of the IRA. Nesbitt, as Cooper, palpably conveys the struggle of trying to maintain order and the pain he experiences as he helplessly watches his people die.” 4 1/2 cats
For Robin’s complete review: “http://www.reelingreviews.com/bloodysunday.htm”