important film

Rating: Null/10 (17 November 2002)

Bloody Sunday 8/10
"Bloody Sunday" retells the events occurring on January 30, 1972 in the Northern Ireland town of Durry. 13 people were killed and 14 more wounded. It is generally considered that it is since that day that the
The film is not a documentary, yet it is extremely realistic and quite exact in its reconstruction (merely some dialogue is fictional, all the rest of the film is based on documentary material) except for some conclusions made at the end (apparently; since I am not too much familiar with the events themselves, I can't really judge for myself).
The film is very well done, it successes in showing the confusion, anger and pain experienced on that day. It blames the British as well as the IRA for the killings. It is hard to watch, but that of course is only because reality is not beautiful and nice and all. However Paul Greengrass' film misses to give the audience the maybe necessary background about the situation in Northern Ireland at the time. If the spectator doesn't know what exactly is opposing Protestants and Catholics, he won't be able to really understand some turns of the events. Of course as the film focuses on the day itself the massacre happened this would have been extremely difficult.
"Bloody Sunday" won several festival prices, among them the Golden Berlin Bear from the 2002 Berlinale (though tied with Miyazaki's "Spirited Away ").
It is an important film, so: Go see it.