Give us some people, Mr. Loach

Rating: 4/10 (1 October 2006)

Ken Loach is going backwards and gets younger and younger. A proof of that is his characters getting more and more uncomplicated.
This is about a rather forgotten part of European 20th century history, the Irish rebellion. As he's done before, Loach gives us history through the individuals. Two brothers first fight the British, than fight themselves, being on different sides in the civil war.
I'm sorry to say that this very fast comes down to a 50s western film level. The theme is about honor, glory and not selling your ideals out. In fact, it would have been much more interesting if Loach had concentrated on the Irish conflict between enterprise and workers instead. There's a lame try to do that here, but the focus is on a rather one-dimensional struggle between two brothers. And of course the British are shown as nothing like bastards, which they sometimes were of course, but it becomes boring.