With breathtaking verisimilitude, Bloody Sunday posits an immediate, you-are-there re-creation of Ireland's most controversial contemporary tragedy. From dusk to dawn, the events of January 30, 1972, are presented in convincing verité fashion; by employing rapid fade-to-black transitions, director Paul Greengrass approaches two perspectives with equal anticipation of potential disaster, based on facts as reported in Don Mullan's politically influential book Eyewitness Bloody Sunday. Ivan Cooper (James Nesbitt) is, ironically, a Protestant Member of Parliament, leading a peaceful but tensely expectant civil rights march through the Catholic "bogside" of the city of Derry, in protest of the British practice of internment without trial. He watches in horror as his throng of unarmed protesters splinters against British paramilitaries who impulsively open fire. No question where Greengrass's sympathies lie (heard but not seen, the first shots are British), but despite charges of inaccuracy and bias, Bloody Sunday will likely stand as the definitive cinematic representation of that horrible day when deadly confusion reigned supreme. (U2's "Sunday Bloody Sunday" plays over the closing credits; any other choice would have been blasphemous.) --Jeff Shannon
(15 votes)
2.
In documentary style, Paul Greengrass' BLOODY SUNDAY, which chronicles the events of January 30, 1972 in Derry, Ireland, is filmed with gritty gray realness. Surrounding a peaceful protest march staged in contest to British laws that permitted internment without trial, the film charts the progress of the march from the night before it to the night following it. As the final organizing of the march takes place that morning, MP Ivan Cooper (James Nesbitt) rushes from the street where police barriers are being erected to his office where he fields a string of urgent phone calls. Meanwhile Major General Ford (Tim Pigott-Smith) arranges for a heavily armed troop of commandos in fatigues and face paint to be ready to intercept the march if it turns violent. A third persona, Kevin McCorry (Allan Gildea), is a young lad with a prison record who believes in the cause of the march but wants to avoid conflict and any real trouble. As the march proceeds, and chaos ensues, the British militia opens fire onto the unarmed crowds, shooting 27 and killing 13 in one of the most shocking instances of excessive force in Irish history, ending any hope of nonviolent resolution, and stoking the IRA.
(15 votes)
3.
Recreating the events of Sunday, January 30, 1972 in Drerry, Ireland, this film captures a controversial and highly disturbing historical incident.
(15 votes)
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