Evocative, human, emotional and thought provoking

Rating: 9/10 (26 February 2007)

Much of what I'll write has probably already been written, but I'd like to add my own ha'pen'orth.
I've just watched this film here in Dortmund, in a deserted cinema and I was quite taken aback. As a graduated film student I'm quite familiar with Loach, and this piece has many of the hallmarks associated with his work.
I found this film both moving and touching. I don't want to get into the politics, but ultimately, as a man, I believe it has far reaching consequences.
It reaches inside you and grabs you in a place you maybe didn't even know you had, playing with emotions that you may have never felt before - especially not while watching a film.
Yes the 'Black and Tans' are depicted as scum, and they undoubtedly were populated by disenfranchised ex-soldiers/mercenaries, hardened veterans of the Marne and the Somme; Anyone who disputes this should pay heed to the (original) 'Bloody Sunday' massacre at Croke Park in 1920.
But this is not the issue here. This film is not really about Britain or Ireland - although this may sound daft as that's where it's set. It's about people; It's about being human; It's about suffering; It's about fighting; It's about being a man. Ultimately it's about standing up to what you believe in and not folding, not collapsing under pressure.
It asks questions about how far you can take something before you end up behaving in the same way as the very same people you seek to repulse and defeat. It asks questions about who is right and who is wrong.
Personally, I believe that the film is asking the viewer questions about themselves and about what they would do. About how they would react in such a situation.
It doesn't seek to judge Teddy any more than it does Damien. Neither were evil men and both were fighting for what they believed in.
It shows the viewer that the 'occupying' British were evil - but you're allowed to hate them as they are a foreign force, in a country which, we are constantly reminded, they don't belong. But what happens when the enemy is/becomes your fellow countrymen, your friends, your former allies, your family - not some faceless foreigner. People that you grew up with, and whose table you sat round as a child, and now you're shooting at them when you all just want what's best for your country.
Yes, this film does have scenes highly reminiscent of 'Land and Freedom', both in the courtroom and near the end, where people who are 'on the same side' bicker with one another about the best approach to take regarding the treatment of certain people.
This, I believe, just serves to illustrate that the line between what is right, what is wrong, and what is achievable is a very fuzzy one, and that usually in life it's very difficult to get exactly what we want and that we either have to make compromises, or go down fighting, but that, ultimately, everybody loses something.
I implore anyone with a strong enough heart (and stomach) to go and see this film. Watch it and think. You'll be glad that you did.