| BLOODY SUNDAY Rating:  Director: Paul Greengrass Producer: Mark Redhead Writer: Paul Greengrass Director of Photography: Cast: James Nesbitt, Tim Piggott-Smith, Nicholas Farrell Visit the IMDB page for full cast and crew |
 Click the photo to buy merchandise from Bloody Sunday |
Review by: Dan
Tester
10/08/02
Bloody Sunday depicts the tragedies of January 30th, 1972 when British soldiers massacred thirteen civilians partaking in a civil rights march in Derry, Northern Ireland. It is told very effectively in a semi-documentary form that allows the viewer to seemingly witness the tragedy without the complications of forced sentiment. To be sure, director Paul Greengrass has a political agenda that is a bit "in your face," but it is the structure of the film that shields it most of the time, allowing instead for the bloody events to unfold in a realistic way.
The march was organized by the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association in protest of the newly introduced "internment without trial" policy of the British government. It was to be a peaceful show of solidarity, but the British authorities were already under daily attacks from the Irish Republican Army and defiant local youths and were determined to curtail the exhibition.
I am three-quarters Irish, so I am fairly familiar with the basic facts involving the conflict in Northern Ireland. At family reunions of my youth, there were two things that were never mentioned: Potato famine and Northern Ireland. Even the most casual mention of one of the aforementioned topics could cause such a passionate debate amongst my family that it could sometimes end in casualties, even though everyone in the room was on the same side. It is a very touchy subject, this British occupation of the northern section of the Emerald Isle, and a little more exposition as to the history of the conflict certainly would have been appropriate in the film's opening. However, Bloody Sunday ultimately tells a rather basic story of the oppressed versus the oppressor, I suppose, and it surely will work fine on that level for those unfamiliar with the details.
James Nesbitt (so horribly miscast as the suave prisoner in the dreadful Lucky Break earlier this year) is fantastic here in the lead role of Ivan Cooper, the Derry civil rights organizer who fancies himself a sort of "Irish" Martin Luther King, and who orchestrates the fateful march with naïve ambition. But he is a tragic figure because his ambition is not selfish, but instead steadfastly patriotic. Nesbitt is charming in the early scenes as he recruits the townsfolk for the march, and heartbreaking later on as he is overwhelmed with agony and regret as the day goes horribly wrong. I was extremely moved by his performance, and Nesbitt's final comments to the British officials, regarding the ramifications of what they have done, is really very effective and true. Timothy Pigott-Smith is solid as the stoic British Major General Ford, who is responsible for the split second decisions of "crowd control." There are great scenes involving Ford and his underlings tracking the march on a large wall map, slowly realizing things are rapidly getting out of control.
When there are reports that the march has split apart at a point of concern, and that shots have been fired from the crowd, chaos ensues, and rubber bullets turn to real ones as the Major General's orders are misconstrued and soldiers react with testosterone pumping instincts. In one stunning scene, a herd of unarmed protesters hustle across an open yard toward cover, and they are picked off one by one by confused soldiers like targets in a shooting gallery. And the film's final moments detail the results of a biased inquiry by the British government that is as amazing and maddening as anything I have heard since the O.J. verdict.
Bloody Sunday will not be everyone's cup of tea I suppose, but I highly recommend it to anyone who has an interest in the subject matter; or just an interest in solid, effective film making.
But as always, it is only one man's opinion.
(A Paramount Classics release. Opened
in New York on October 4. Opens in L.A. on October 18. Will expand
to more cities at later dates)
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