Bloody Sunday
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Movie Reviews of Bloody Sunday
Movie Review: British Film that tells the truth about Bloody Sunday
Summary: 5 Stars
Many who watch this film may think that the IRA made it. The truth is that it is a British movie. If you do not know what Blood Sunday is then allow me to explain. On January 30th, 1972 - Catholic Irish demonstrators took to the streets of Derry in Northern Ireland for a peaceful march. On the lanes they where met by the British army who had set up barricades to keep them moving in a certain direction and away from the Protestant areas of the city. At one point some demonstrators broke away from the main group and began to attack a police barricade. Shots where heard and the army moved in with high velocity armed paratroopers turning the whole demonstration into a war zone. Innocent people where shot and killed. Some may even have been executed. The whole scene was like something out of a nightmare with British soldiers moving along the streets in uniform motion taking pot shots at what they believed to be armed IRA members. Whether or not armed IRA members where there the British army somehow managed to kill a lot of innocent people in the process and a cover-up followed to protect leading political figures - for example: How did some soliders fire more rounds than they where allocated? How did some innocent people who where shot dead end up with weapons in their pockets "after" the British army gathered them up? Who gave the order for the paratroopers to operate in the way that they did and why did groups of paratroopers go rogue and not respond to their chief in command?Bloody Sunday plays out like Saving Private Ryan with Irish catholic civilians on the receiving end instead of Nazis. It is mostly one big "action" film that could also be compared to the likes of Black Hawk Down for its urban setting. All of the cast are functional and the film does grip you and at times is extremely violent and harrowing especially when innocent people are getting shot up. This is an urban nightmare of a war film. You should try to see it. It will certainly take you by surprise and is very well produced.
It is not a film that you will enjoy but you will be very glad that you watched it to know a little more about the historical conflict in Northern Ireland. This film depicts a very REAL event that happened and looks as real as it did then.
Excellent production.
Movie Review: A day to remember
Summary: 5 Stars
When I saw that a movie called "Bloody Sunday" was playing at a local theater, my first thought was, "Oh, that's the U2 song." I knew it referred to a Northern Ireland civil rights protest where shooting broke out, but the song was basically the extent of my knowledge of the event. Once I decided it would be an interesting movie to see, I tried to avoid reading anything about what happened, in an attempt to go into the film with an open mind, to be completely receptive to director Paul Greengrass's vision. I saw the movie, and left the theater shocked, saddened, enraged, and bewildered, but with the firm impression that I had seen a truly remarkable film.The movie is shot documentary-style, with many quick cuts and fade-outs to black to end a scene. It took a while to get used to this modus operandi, which at times seemed choppy, disrupting the flow of the movie. But as you lose yourself in this film the style makes sense and seems less obtrusive.
The acting is superb, lead by James Nesbit as protest organizer Ivan Cooper. And while it is fairly certain where Greengrass believes the blame for the tragedy lies, the film at least makes an attempt to explain the scenario from the British military's point of view. But instead of merely looking to reveal "who started it?", what should be taken from this view of events is that tensions were so elevated on both sides, that it took comparatively very little action to set off large-scale and vicious reactions. Such is the madness of war, which is basically what unfolded on the streets of Derry that day...
Greengrass's camera leads you right into the middle of this battle, from start to finish. The results are visually and emotionally jarring; the you-are-there feeling is intense. And at the end, almost as a reward for making it through the film, you are treated to a live version of U2's famously haunting song.
It is a travesty that this film was not nominated for (and chosen as) Best Foreign Film at this year's Oscars- supposedly an airing on European TV made it ineligible. Hopefully it will be honored in some other manner. "Bloody Sunday" is far from an uplifting movie but is definitely an important one, and nothing less than a marvel of modern filmmaking.
Movie Review: Gutwrenching; real; expertly made.
Summary: 5 Stars
Bloody Sunday is one of the most emotionally powerful movies of the last 20 years. There are a lot of films that touch on some aspect or events of "The Troubles" in Northern Ireland, but Bloody Sunday is, far and away, the best of them all.
The acting is superb. James Nesbitt, as Ivan Cooper, the protestant MP and civil rights activist, gives an Oscar-caliber performance. Regrettably, films like this get almost no attention from The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences or other similar groups. The cast around him all perform impeccably.
Movies of this kind tend to romanticize or glorify the fallen. The writers and producers of this movie honored the dead without making them martyrs or without a sort of too-sweet sentimentality. The suffering of the victims' families is real and raw, their losses very palpable and human.
What makes the emotional impact so tremendous is the realism of the cinemetagrophy and dialog. The attacks by British Paratroopers on the civil rights marchers feel real, terrifying. Many of shots were made with hand-held cameras, so the viewer feels as if he/she is right in the middle of the event. There is not a silly, superfluous, corny or overly-dramatic bit of dialog in the film. The screams, the cries, the conversations, the speeches, etc., all are what you would expect to hear in or around an event like this.
Critics might argue that the film is not balanced, that it portrays the British military in a bad light. It's true that the British Paras are clearly the "bad guys," but over 30 years of information-gathering about this dreadful event has strongly tended to show that the soldiers were primarily to blame for "Bloody Sunday." If you have issues with the objectivity of the film, perhaps those concerns should be addressed to the scores of historical (eyewitness, expert reconstruction) accounts on which the movie is based.
Nothing entertaining or light-hearted or uplifting is to be found in Bloody Sunday. It's dark, sad, even angering. But you'll not find too many other films as gripping and meaningful as this.
Movie Review: Bloody Brilliant!
Summary: 5 Stars
From the moment the opening credits begin (with a haunting and brooding score punctuated by nervous military radio banter) to the sombre closing credits (with a fine live version of u2 performing Sunday, Bloody Sunday) this picture, dramatising the unfortunate events of 30 January 1972, in Londonderry, N. Ireland grips you and--slowly, surely--winds the tension up like a spring.
Whilst I will avoid recounting the events of that terrible day (the previous reviews do that very well) and will avoid commenting on its historical accurateness (there's certain to be inaccuracies cited in this telling by historians, and, truth be told, the British do not represent well at all here [seeming so hateful and criminal as to be, at times, difficult to believe--but, maybe that's the point) I will say that the film feels amazingly real-that is, it is utterly convincing. Through a documentary styled presentation showcasing amazing and sharp acting performances, you are drawn in completely-you believe you are there.
Technically, this DVD is beautiful. The picture is presented in a gorgeous anamorphic 16x9 transfer with solid blacks and crisp and tight (if intentionally muted) colours. The audio is likewise full and punchy. You will notice that there are two feature audio track options: 1. A `Domestic' audio track (which is, in fact, a U.S. mix (domestic would mean the U.K., the film's place of origin), and 2. A U.K. release mix. The difference between the two is that the U.K. track has a much more spacious and pronounced ambient/surround mix, whereas the `domestic' mix reduces much of the ambience in favour of a louder (centred) dialogue track (most likely to aid the N. American audiences not conversant with the Irish accents and varying dialects featured so prominently in the film.)
I cannot recommend this film too highly. It is a fine example of what art can aspire to when embedded with a strong and passionate message.
Movie Review: Must-See
Summary: 5 Stars
This movie has a lot of bearing on current and future events, particularly in the middle east. As mentioned previously, its a real shame this film didn't get the exposure it deserved when it came out in the theaters. If it had it would have been interesting to see the extent to which it would have gotten slammed for being "sympathetic to terrorists" or some other such smear.In anycase, as for the movie itself, it is an extremely compelling film to watch from its start til end. Very well made as well. I've heard people compare this to "Black Hawk Down" in its "gritty realism" etc. Personally I think such a comparison is probably not well made, although superficially there may be some similarity in filming techniques (use of handhelds, etc.).
This is just a really well-made and chilling movie to watch. The special features are very informative as well, including an interview with the real Ivan Cooper (the main character in the movie) and a mini documentary on the making of the film, which reveals how most of the actors were not trained, an many of them were community members from Derry itself who had lived through the events or the legacy of the event of Bloody Sunday. This includes a commentary by an eyewitness who was 15 at the time of the actual massacre. The director also used former British soldiers as well to portray the ones in the movie.
This is a must-see film, at least in terms of its artistic value. The degree to which it "accurately" portrays events is a debate that, like in a lot of movies with so called "political messages", won't go away. But in the sense of its story-telling value, it is essential to see this perspective - an unpopular one in this country at least given recent events. At its core it asks the question: when you're bringing armored vehicles and armed troops into occupied territories and shooting at civilians, perhaps its time to rethink debates about "the roots of terrorism." See it now.