Irish actor James Nesbitt during the shooting of Irish-British film Bloody Sunday, directed by Paul Greengrass. Photo by AFP.

Sunday, Bloody Sunday



Starring James Nesbitt, Tim Pigott-Smith, Nicholas Farrell and Gerard McSorley. Rated MA

Reviewer :: The Big Irish Git

There are probably few people in this, or any other country in the world who haven’t heard or even sang along with Bono as he belts out the words, “How long, how long must we sing this song? ... Sunday, bloody Sunday. Sunday, bloody Sunday”.

But what is Bloody Sunday – apart from a bar-room anthem sung by drunken Paddies – right after Danny Boy?

To avoid any cry of bias, I’ll leave the film’s synopses to the Paramount press release and confine my rating to, as usual, an evaluation of value for money for the average Aussie.

‘On January 30, 1972, British soldiers shot dead 13 unarmed civilians taking part in a civil rights march in Derry, Northern Ireland. This event, now known as Bloody Sunday, was a major turning point in the history of the modern Irish troubles, catapulting the conflict into a civil war, driving many young men into the ranks of the IRA and fuelling a 25-year cycle of violence.

‘This film tells the story of Bloody Sunday in just one day from dawn till dusk, from the arrival of hundreds of troops on the streets of the besieged city to the violent collision between soldiers from the feared 1 Para Regt and the crowds of civilian demonstrators.

‘The film follows soldiers and police, as well as civilians from both sides of the religious divide. It focuses in particular on the stories of four men: Ivan Cooper, an idealistic civil rights leader who shares Martin Luther King’s dream of peaceful change; Gerry Donaghy, a 17-year-old Catholic rebel, yearning to settle down and marry his Protestant girlfriend, but drawn into violent confrontation; Brig Patrick MacLellan, commander of the British Army in Londonderry under pressure to take firm action to stop the march; and a young private, a 1 Para sig, ordered into Derry’s Bogside.

‘Bloody Sunday is a war film about the struggle for peace. Shot in a vivid, ultra-realistic style (read hand-held cameras and the fog-of-war type action reminiscent of Saving Private Ryan), on the streets and among the crowds, in the command posts and in the alleyways, with the stone-throwers, with the activists, with the generals and with the private soldiers.

‘The film is an emotional roller-coaster – a portrait of the collision between the unstoppable force and the immovable object that is the 700-year conflict between Britain and Ireland.’

On limited release around the country, I encourage you to seek it out if you have any curiosity about Ireland and the ‘troubles’ that have plagued the tiny island for more than 30 years with the loss of more than 3000 lives.

I encourage you to seek it out if you have the slightest wish to understand what it is you help Bono to pontificate about over a Guinness or three.

If, on the other hand you want to be entertained for your $13.50, find something else.

The Big Irish Git rates this movie 3 shamrocks

You can view more than 100 other movie reviews by The Big Irish Git on his personal web site www.bigirishgit.com