Good film, bad politics

Rating: 7/10 (14 August 2006)

It's a good film in the Left-wing realist tradition with a nod to Costa-Gavras (and even Brecht). The politics are simplistic, didactic republican socialist. (Someone should explain to Mr. Loach that socialism is the opposite of capitalism--it works in theory but not in practice.) The film should beef up Sinn Fein's vote in the next Irish election, which is about the worst thing that can be said about it. I don't think any Irish director would have made such a black-and-white film: it takes an outsider to have such a stereotyped vision.
As far as I recall you never saw any sky--the camera was always pointing at the ground. Given the director's politics, I doubt if this was an attempt to show how inward-looking and insular Irish republican politics actually are. One can concede that the explicit Fianna Failism of the film counteracts the tendentious Fine Gaelism of Neal Jordan's *Michael Collins.* But whatever ideals Fianna Fail once had have largely disappeared with power and establishment--which will no doubt also be the case with Sinn Fein, if it ever displaces them as the dominant nationalist party. The truest line in the film is probably the one where the British landlord describes Ireland as a priest-ridden backwater, which indeed it was to remain for many years.
I'm no friend of British imperialism (my grandfather fought against them in Dublin in 1916) but I can see how the Brits might have been a bit peeved at a perceived stab in the back, and them stuck in the mud in Flanders fighting for the freedom of small nations, or something like that.
Also the leading actor doesn't have an Irish facial expression and consequently doesn't look Irish. The accents are very good, although maybe a few sub-titles might have been in order.
Good film, bad politics.