Sunday Bloody Sunday
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Movie Reviews of Sunday Bloody Sunday
Movie Review: LEGENDARY CLASSIC RETAINS ITS POWER.
Summary: 5 Stars
While I concur with many of the reviews posted here, there is not enough praise bestowed on the sublime Glenda Jackson, who remains the great lost actress of her generation. Though the recipient of two Oscars ("Women In Love", "A Touch of Class") and two other nominations ("Sunday.." and "Hedda"), as well as a criminal snub for the landmark "Stevie", Ms. Jackson seems to be little remembered today. It seems inconceivable now, since in the early Seventies, only Jane Fonda and Vanessa Redgrave could be considered her equals. For me, her Alex in "Sunday, Bloody Sunday" is my favorite of her rich performances. She is conflicted with her obviously unsatisfying affair with her bisexual (and, more importantly, shallow) lover, unfulfilled at her job, and basically adrift, just marking time in her life. The simple, yet powerfully suggestive emotions Jackson offers do much to help us identify strongly with her character. Who hasn't felt that, at times, their life is merely counting days, waiting for weekends which ironically do little to feed our spiritual or emotional needs? And the pattern continues, which to me is what the somewhat cryptic title implies. So much pressure is put on "the weekends" to make us happy that we can easily just wish our lives away, as Alex seems to. Its hard to find the final straw which Alex finds to salvage her life and begin again without this crippling relationship, but Jackson's brilliantly layered performance is a wonder throughout. Mr. Finch received many plaudits and is very respectable, but seems to be playing it safe here. His Dr. Hirsch is supposed to be the emotional, reasonable center of the movie, but Finch is a bit too reserved; the events don't seem to really happen to him at all. He stands curiously to the side, which may have been the author/director/actor's intent, but we don't have enough of the character's back-life for this to register. Murray Head is simply a cipher, which is all that is required, but a pleasant one. And any chance to see the divine Peggy Ashcroft and Bessie Love again is welcome. When this movie first came out, it had that wonderful aura that many of the pictures of that era did: the essence of the forbidden--the promise that new and undiscovered worlds and situations would be examined that had never been dealt with in film before. I remember the same feeling accompanying "Cries and Whispers", "McCabe and Mrs. Miller", and "Women in Love", movies which have stood the test of time. "Sunday, Bloody Sunday", though not without its flaws, has also held up. Its a perfect time capsule of a certain period of time and change for working-class Londoners still woozy from the Sixties and not anywhere near ready for what would be the Eighties. Its also a remarkable document of a brilliant actress at the height of her estimable powers. Highly recommended.
Movie Review: "It Is So Seventies !"
Summary: 5 Stars
I have loved this film since it was first released in Canada. I saw it at a theatre on Yonge Street in Toronto at a Saturday matinee where the kiss between the two men started a mini-riot sparked by some teen-aged boys in the audience. They were probably expecting a gangster movie !
I have over the years recommended the film, and loaned my VHS and DVD copies to people younger than myself who universally seem to have the same reaction, "It is so Seventies !" Never mind that it is one of the best acted films of its decade, and that it unflinchingly examines complex relationships with an honesty and integrity that would not be equaled for many years. (Possibly until BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN.)
Essentially it is the tale of a complex triangle, one part straight, one part gay, where both relationships are going down the tubes simultaneously. The young man (Murray Head) at the center of both relationships is unaware of, or indifferent to, the hurt that he is causing his two lovers.
The acting of Glenda Jackson and Peter Finch is superb. Jackson is subtle and fascinating throughout, and Finch reaches a heartbreaking integrity in his final little speech spoken directly to the audience. Murray Head is better as the young artist who ignites the passions of the two others than he was generally given credit for. You need to see both his allure and his indifference, and he handles this tricky dichotomy very well.
Although it is very dark in mood much of the time, there are some sparks of humor, some of them provided by Bessie Love as a nosy operator at an answering service shared by the three protagonists. The children that are being babysat by Jackson and Head on the "bloody" weekend alluded to in the title, are a very smart observation of bright over-indulged children of the well educated upper-middle class. Jon Finch puts in a brief and disturbing appearance as a hustler that Finch has known sometime in his past.
I seem to remember reading that the "bar mitzvah" reception scene in the film was the most expensive food scene ever in film up to that time because they had to keep re-shooting it. It too provides some humor when Finch is sat down next to a recently divorced woman by his well intentioned and unaware family.
The gorgeous terzetto from Mozart's opera COSI FAN TUTTE that provides the frequently repeated "theme" for the film is an ideal choice. An operatic scene with a gorgeous melody which is about benevolent farewells
provides a moving sonic envelope for some of the most moving moments.
Is the film 'too seventies !' I think not. That the seventies were a time of overly casual sexual relationships is a media commonplace that doesn't really hold up to close scrutiny. There is nothing casual about the relationships ending in this film. At least two of the protagonists will be affected by their breakups for the rest of their lives.
Movie Review: Lovely Bloody Lovely
Summary: 5 Stars
This civilized movie, of autumnal sadness, is such an actors' film.Especially when those actors are Peter Finch and Glenda Jackson.
It is a pleasure to watch them at their craft. John Schlesinger has
directed Penelope Gilliatt's script with an eye for rich detail, and
such seemingly minimal emotions of the leads that comes through
the performances so perfectly, as delicately formed and precise as
snowflakes. They feel deeply, do Daniel (Finch) and Alex
(Jackson). Though they must not let on. It would be bad form to.
That they both love Bob (Murray Head) seems a conundrum. But
Daniel and Alex are of an age when there might be no one else,
save Bob, who is one of those curious, mercurial people who can
go from person to person, without caring one bit, beginning,
during, after. He literally feels nothing, save the rudimentary ( the
word is full of them) but he is perhaps seen by Daniel and Alex as
what they want him to be. Such is love. They recreate him from his
vagueness. And of course they must not be jealous of Bob's other
lovers. Such as Bob always require that, and consider otherwise to
be so bloody selfish.
He doesn't intentionally hurt anyone. He uses people as things, so,
to him, they are replaceable. When he is the replaceable one, if only
they could see it. He is not worth their integrity, and intelligence
and complexity of heart. Yet, when one loves, one cannot think of
him or her without making them, perhaps, mythic. To someone
else, they would be just another person, for others see them as
ordinary. This, the film explores with such finesse and grace.
Daniel has a monologue, told to us personally, the words of which
are beautiful and touching, that just about rips your heart out. Finch
adds to the words, so seemingly somewhat matter of factly saying
them, ( a person has to comport themselves properly after all)
though from deep inside, with such thought and honesty, and
searching still in these later years, and with no apology. You see the
worth and goodness of the man most especially then. You want to
put your arms around Daniel and Alex and hug them, for their love
is doomed, as they know too well. They are having to deal with the
loss, the void, to reconcile themselves to it, even during Bob, and
learning how to get through the day, routinely, like everyone else
pretends to.
"Sunday Bloody Sunday" is a film that one feels honored to see. Its
ad line-- "This is a story about three decent people. They will break
your heart." Indeed.
Movie Review: Complicated love
Summary: 5 Stars
What a treat to see Glenda Jackson and Peter Finch in the film about midlife love for a young, uninhibited artist (Bob). We see two middle aged, upper class intellectuals (Alex and Daniel) both deeply in love with the same person. The object of their love is young, handsome and talented young man who is also unintentionally cruel to them both. By sharing his love with male and female lover(s) he is torturing them with uncertainty of his commitment to either one of them. His doe like eyes and agreeable demeanor is so sweet that neither one of his lovers can truly get angry with him since he seems, in his undecisiveness, to float amongst them almost as air. While both of his lovers know about each other's existence they seem to tolerate it in some naive form of belief that their patience, love and tolerance will tip the young man in one way or the other. Both are wise and middle aged and they know that their amorous choices at this point of their lives are limited. They are fortunate with a little bit of happiness in their life that is brought by this carefree individual. But life is not a sum of happy parts -- it is far more complicated that that. And any time complications seem to surround them: large family with lots of children, responsibilities both professional and personal, friend's arguments, young Bob (Murray Head) seems to withdraw himself from either one of them as if there is a world somewhere far, far away (like America for example) where everything is simpler, or bigger, or better, or easier. And as their young lover leaves them both - his female companion with his pet parrot and her realization that she will remain alone, eternally free and unattached from the quarters of a safe marriage; and his male lover alone with his tapes of italian language practice excercises, and coming to terms of his own homosexuality and aloneness that comes with it, we start to fully appreciate the complications of our lives and compromises we are willing to make as human beings to fulfill our basic need for love and acceptance by people we care for the most, no matter what the (emotional) price we have to pay. Truly artistic movie with all of its complexity. Probably one of the best performances I have seen. Also a trip thru time when all of our communications were carefully managed by impossibly patient female telephone operators who served as confidants, secretaries and quiet observers of long distance social interactions.Movie Review: Superb Mature Examination Of Adult Relationships Starring A Sublime Glenda Jackson
Summary: 5 Stars
"Sunday Bloody Sunday" starring Glenda Jackson, Peter Finch and Murray Head was a truly groundbreaking film in so many ways when it was released in 1971. It takes a totally different slant on the examination of what relationships are between men and women than what audiences had seen before. The film was also remarkable by the intelligent way it depicted a relationship between two men as being both natural and loving at a time when gays, if they were even depicted at all on screen, were usually portrayed either as psycho's or degenerates or as effeminate objects of ridicule. The film portrays a highly sophisticated romantic triangle played out by the three main characters, a mature Jewish doctor and his younger artist partner who in turn shares his time with an older woman who works as a Employment Consutant. Three average people all with their needs, complexities and vulnerabilities beautifully played out by the three leads. The acting especially from Glenda Jackson and Peter Finch as the two people who must share the man they both love is a tour de force and both totally deserved the Academy Award nominations they received. Glenda Jackson's beautifully modulated performance only heightens the real sense of loss lovers of well acted cinema have in her having left films for a career in politics. It truly is one of her best performances right up their with her outstanding work in "Women in Love" the "Elizabeth R" mini series "A Touch of Class" and "Stevie". The films non sensational treatment of homosexuality makes it an important piece of film making that can still nevertheless be appreciated by all types of audiences, gay or straight. The film's examination of love between ordinary people with all their joys and pains gives "Sunday Bloody Sunday" an almost timeless quality relevant to any age and it's a piece of cinema that I find myself enjoying more each time I view it.