fact good or bad is still fact ........

Rating: 10/10 (24 September 2006)

as a Englishman with little or no idea of the troubles that arose in Ireland from my school years education in the u.k. i have to agree with many of our Irish friends across the sea , we as a nation are kept in the dark about the the darker sides of our empirism especially as regards our close neighbor's the Irish , and after reading many books and studying the subject with a great deal of interest [ researching my girlfriends Irish descent in cork ] i feel that ken roach has again made a movie that will in time be classed as a true movie classic . history and fact are indeed hard to face when it does not paint a rosy a picture as we would all like , but the facts will always come to light albeit if it takes many years and this film gives a viewer an idea why many neutral Irish citizens were driven to join and fight with the i.r.a. in those troubled years , due mainly to heavy handed tactics and the attitude from Britain is it no wonder that 80% of the Irish populace voted for the sinn fein in the elections in Ireland in 1918 general election , and our then government decided that they would not allow this , now even with my ltd political understanding this does not sound democratic to me .the most powerful part for me in this movie is after the treaty is signed and we see the disagreement with the terms of the treaty and where brother ended up turning against brother , and then seeing Irishman fighting Irishman in a terrible civil war . you must see this film and if it sparks an interest as it did with me to delve further then it has succeeded , the acting albeit mainly unknown actors shows that under masterful direction and with what in this day and age is a substantially low budget can still achieve an remarkable piece of work that will be remembered far far longer than some of the so called big budgeted movies of this year , by far for me the best movie of the year and the most moving , i recommend it highly .