Irish Republican Terrorist Propaganda

Rating: 1/10 (16 November 2002)

Unlike most who comment on this film I've been in Northern Ireland & seen the petty, small minded, nastyness that really lies behind the so called "noble cause", a truth that lies in drug dealing, racketering, international terrorism & sheer thuggery. I find it ironic that there is also a complete lack of any sort of reference in this film to the Marxist roots of Irish terrorism & the support these people got from the US. This must be the only time that the people & government of the United States have given so much money, help & support to a band of Communists since the end of World War 2! What was Korea, Vietnam & the Cold War all supposed to be about then?
The production values of the film also lend nothing to the experience, it's cheap & awful, with a wiggling camera that looks as if it's been suspended from a yo-yo. As an experiment to try to convey the immediacey of the times it's a worthy experiment, but it just doesn't work. What I can't figure out is why the producers didn't register the similar criticism of the TV show "This Life" which used the same technique & attracted the same complaints. The accents I didn't have any trouble with, although I can understand why international audiences might.
The story itself is pure B-S, slanted to the Republican side it loses all credibility by the end. Did members of the IRA open fire? Do you think those involved will ever come forward & admit to it? Are they even still alive? Certain political leaders try to convey that the army had never been shot at before Bloody Sunday, but anyone can read the coroners reports & see for themselves that the army had genuine concerns of ambush & sniper attacks. One major step forward though, for years the likes of Jerry "I've Never Killed Anyone" Adams referred to the protestors as "peaceful marchers", so at least this film has the guts to show that they were anything but peaceful. Such is the world of Northern Ireland, where the truth counts for nothing & if it rains on your day off "It's the fault of the British Government".
In conclusion then "nothing" is the word I would use for this film. It does little to shed new light, nothing to heal wounds, nothing to unveil the truth, nothing except to entrench existing views. It doesn't go into the Irish mentality that you can only solve problems with mindless violence, doesn't deal with the lack of sane community leadership, doesn't mention that the troops were there to initially protect the Catholics (which the Catholics welcomed) & that the progress that was being made regarding their problems was blown away by the mobs who rioted & expected to be rewarded for it afterwards.
The history of Northern Ireland in the last 40 years is undoubtedly a tragedy for all concerned & a litany of opportunities thrown away time & time again, but this film just deals with one fragment which is easily cast in a highly partisan light. Of course it could have dealt with the wider issues, but that would be to undermine the message it tries to peddle & would put the Irish republicans & their cronies in a bad light. The film could have dealt with the inability of the people to accept the responsibility for the increasing mess they were getting themselves into, but it doesn't.
0/10, a pile of rubbish, AVOID AVOID!