Far from perfect but a great insight into the uncertainty of 1919 to 1922 in Ireland.
There was huge buzz around this movie where I live due to part of it being shot here and the overall movie being set in the region. However many of the reviews lacerated it for its overly simplistic view of the War of Independence, the Civil War and for its cardboard cutout Brit baddies.
I wasn’t expecting much and I have a very low opinion of Ken Loach and his attempts to shoehorn socialist messages into every movie he makes. However I enjoyed the movie immensely and it refined a lot of my own thinking about that time.
Yes the Brits were almost cartoon like in their badness but the reality of the time was that the Black and Tans were vicious nasty vindictive bastards and showing how they brutalised the population is important to understand the depth of motivation of those in the War of Independence.
I felt he covered many of the differing views and factions very well in the bulk of the movie giving equal time to each. He did shoehorn in a token socialist into the movie but it was necessary to include the Citizen Army somehow.
The strongest scene by far was the courtroom one where the first verdict by a republican court under the authority of the first Dail was handed down and the IRA men refused to abide by it. The argument that ensued was a brilliant insight into the conflicting forces pulling at everyone at that time.
The last section of the movie was much weaker as it was clear that Loach sided with the anti-treaty characters. Having said that, the argument over the treaty was handled extremely well and you understood both sides and why the Civil War happened. A critical point was made which I only discovered recently myself - the main motivation of the anti-treaty side was not partition, it was the oath of allegiance to the King. This makes much more sense to me and I could understand the anger of those who simply could not stomach it.
The ending was a little too heart-string-pulling but some version of it was necessary since the Free Staters did execute many former friends during that time.
If you know only a tiny bit about that period, this film is worth watching just for the educational aspects. It is also solid entertainment.
Comments 1
Great review Conor. The movie never made it to Hawai‘i island, and I had to wait for it to come out on iTMS in order to download and watch it while in NZ. Riveting. It did seem a bit over the top in some places and to favor the philosophies as you describe, but as someone who does not have great knowledge of the era it was quite eye-opening.
Posted 25 Jan 2008 at 8:49 am ¶Post a Comment