I’ve asked my Northern Ireland team to watch this movie. I thought I would post some of my thoughts about it.
Truth?
The controversy of this film is that it is extremely slanted towards the Sein Finn side. At least, that’s what the press said about it. In the way that it is produces, a very strong case is made about the U.K. Army firing upon a rowdy, but peace minded crowd that day. It shows that the Army was very interested in making a point and showing off their might. On the flip side, their must have been something else that was missing on that fateful day. Some precursor or predicating event that led to that level of hostility in 1972. They made a brief mention of “we’ve lost 42 soldiers in Belfast” and I can see how that would elevate tensions “in the box.” But since the film was so slanted towards the Irish side, it was tough as an ignorant American to figure out.
The Movie
I thought the movie’s style was choppy and poor. It looked and felt like The Blair Witch Project for a lot of the time. Jumpy camera angles and strange angles. At the same time, they did manage to capture some of the battlefield confusion like Saving Private Ryan. All-in-all, I thought the quality was terrible. But that isn’t why I bought the DVD, I bought it for it’s content. As an Ignorant American going to Northern Ireland, I felt like it was good to see the slanted angles of that day.
Northern Ireland’s September 11th, 2001
The reverence to which the characters were treated in the film made it clear that these people had become the stuff of folklore. In an American context, the 27 people shot were a lot like the 2000 who died in New York, Washington D.C., and Pennsylvania.
Much like 9/11 was in the United States, the same was true for Bloody Sunday 1972. It acted as a call to arms for young men to take up the fight. While Americans are uncomfortable with that militia mentality after something terrible… It is a reality and it did bring to the world’s attention the many problems of oppression in Northern Ireland.
Overall, I am glad I saw it and would recommend it.