Murphy shines in a savage yet one-sided ordeal

Rating: 8/10 (28 June 2008)

Ken Loach is well known for never transitioning to mainstream Hollywood as many of his contemporaries have, thus it was no surprise to me when I heard about the alleged controversy surrounding this film.
Set In Ireland 1920, the film deals with the unrest that stemmed between the Irish guerrillas fighting for a free Ireland against the British. The film portrays a rather sympathetic view of these fighters, although the characters are indeed well developed - Cillian Murphy is particularly excellent (a big step up from the rather banal 'Red Eye') A powerful story of two brothers journey to find freedom in a part of history that is often forgotten due to its close proximity to the end of World War I; the injustices and terror that plagued thousands of innocent Irish people as Britain tried to keep its tenure on the Empire.
I can see why many English people would find this film offensive; virtually every English character, especially the soldiers are one-dimensional monsters that beat, rape and kill without mercy and that is perhaps my only grips with the film. Yet I can see why it was done - to highlight in the rawest possible way the atrocities that were committed during this time period.
However, Loach does well in portraying the confusion that builds up within the Irish protesters, especially once the treaty which established Northern Ireland is signed, the best scenes of the film indeed exploit this confusion and what is considered traitorous acts or what is 'needed to be done'.
Overall, the film is a powerful story that is shot and told very well, the acting is solid and characters well developed. The film also won the Palme d'Or at Cannes 2006 so it is encouraging that people looked past the only negative of the film (that of the one-dimensional English apart from a select few) and saw the story for the powerful and emotional journey that it is.