who are we supposed to sympathise with here?

Rating: 6/10 (23 June 2007)

i found this to be a very interesting film but it seemed that our sympathies were meant to lie with the main character Damien, and yet i found myself sympathising instead with his brother Teddy. i'm not sure this is what the director intended
the English, obviously, are presented as being 100% animal trash. that's fair enough given the subject matter being dealt with here but the films flaws reveal themselves through the more delicate subject matter; the parting of the ways of two main factions within the republican movement expressed through the ideological and emotional separation of two brothers.
personally i saw Teddy's path as the harder one at this point, and more admirable.
one odd scene that made me feel uneasy was the section where politics became the domain of a local church, and the priest there was presented as being some kind of aggressive dictator
as evidenced from this scene my general feeling is that the director is trying to make us side with the hard liners, and if that is the case then i think the film fails
a thought provoking film though and generally acted to a very high standard