York, though Gary is far from a
hardened Snake Plissken figure.
He’s blissfully unaware of the
conflict, at one point comparing
the antagonism of Irish Catholics and Protestants to the rivalry
between residents of the English midland cities of Derby and
Nottingham. By making all three
factions - Catholics, Protestants,
Brits - the villains, and portraying Belfast as hell on earth, Demange allows us to root for his
protagonist in spite of what side
of the political debate we may
fall on.
February 2015
Article Index
It’s taken a lot longer for The
Irish Troubles to receive a genre
treatment than past conflicts
like Vietnam or Yugoslavia, and
I have to admit as an Irishman
it was an almost surreal experience watching a situation I
grew up with handled in such
a superficial but technically accomplished manner. Tragedy
plus time equals comedy, they
say. In the case of ‘71, tragedy
plus time has created an unlikely
genre offering, and possibly the
scariest release we’ll see this
year.
7/10
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