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 Bloody Sunday
(2002)
Director:
Paul Greengrass
Stars: James Nesbitt, Allan Gildea, Christopher Viliers, Tim Pigott-Smith
Release Company:
Paramount Classics
MPAA Rating: R
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Ulster's Bloody Sunday. 13 Die... Army Accused of Massacre
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And the battle's just begun
There's many lost, but tell me who has won
The trench is dug within our hearts
And mothers, children, brothers, sisters
Torn apart
Sunday, Bloody Sunday
Sunday, Bloody Sunday
For thirty years U2's ubiquitous song was one of few prominent media creations to educate the world audience about the horrific events of January 30, 1972 when a non-violent protest march the North Ireland town of Derry erupted into bloody chaos. Now Paul Greengrass cinematically paints human faces on the event with Bloody Sunday, a noble effort that navigates the scenario as even-handedly as possible. It almost survives another U2 lyrical onslaught until the closing credits, but what the hell. You can always leave the theater at that point and examine the credits on the Internet Movie Database at your leisure.
Had digital cameras been around thirty years ago, raw footage might have been available to document the event like the amazing cinema verite piece by the Naudet brothers that captures 9/11. Lacking actual footage, Greengrass works from Don Mullan's book of the same name and from eyewitness accounts to splice together a 24-hour account beginning the night before.
It's not an easy film to watch. Continual fades to black between brief segments irritate as much as they help differentiate points of view or time passage. Although the device is designed to give the impression that objective "news" footage is used, the fact that we know the 107 minute film is docu-drama makes this feel artificial and manipulative. Causing more seasickness are the dizzying hand-held sequences where the cameraman runs for his life—a similar effect reached in Ridley Scott's Black Hawk Down through fast and choppy editing. Using the long takes of the jittery hand-held camera lends credibility as does the working class grainy quality of the film stock, but the jerkiness could have been limited with better effect.
A little background knowledge going in (beyond what you know from U2's song) would help orient the viewer, since Greengrass plops you right in the middle of Derry the night before the protest. Heading the planned peaceful march is local civil rights leader Ivan Cooper (deftly played by James Nesbitt), a Protestant working among the Catholics who fashions himself after the non-violent methods advocated by Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King. Throughout the film Cooper bravely forges through the crowd to urge his comrades towards peaceful protest until they must all seek safety from British bullets. Even then Cooper is at the forefront, desperately attempting to stop the insanity and seeking medical assistance for the dying and wounded.
Greengrass' camera offers three other vantage points:
1. Innocent civilians
2. Uniformed grunts—the Derry police and the British Paratroop Regiment
3. Military officers
Gerry Donaghy, a young Catholic engaged to marry a Protestant, is poignantly played by Declan Duddy, whose uncle died in the real Bloody Sunday. He personifies the innocent civilian who joins the protest rather casually, thinking that his peaceful participation might actually make a difference in the seven-century conflict with Great Britain. After all, what can come of a short peaceful march down the street to hear the locals call for local rule and a ceasing of Catholic-Protestant hostilities? His main interests are personal with his upcoming marriage close at hand.
More politicized are the views of the military, who are determined to continue British domination over the Emerald Isle. Intensely loyal to country and Queen, Major General Ford (Tim Pigott-Smith) and Brigadier Patrick MacLellan (Nicholas Farrell) plan strategies behind the scenes like the march is a life-and-death chess match that must be controlled at all costs. Even scarier are the attitudes of the uniformed men on the front lines with rifles cocked and ready. Adding realism to these scenes, Greengrass employs a number of actual soldiers stationed in Northern Ireland. When local Derry hooligans fail to follow the peace march organizers, pelting soldiers with rocks, a one-sided bloody riot ensues�twenty-six civilians are seriously wounded, and half of them die.
Surprisingly, it's during the most chaotic scenes that Bloody Sunday finally crystallizes and makes the most sense. The scenes capturing the soldiers firing point-blank at fleeing civilians are so chilling that you'll probably flinch a few times; it's here that the film most feels like it's real because the actors become panic stricken, and the camera is right in the middle. Attempting to present the even as objectively as possible, the hand held camera spans the spectrum—from the rock tossing hooligans, to the knee jerk reactions of the soldiers, to the desperate military cover-up.
Ending much like Costa-Gavras' Z, the military investigation asks penetrating questions (like how can you justify firing twenty-two rounds without any return fire?) without arriving at justice. Although cinematically flawed, Greengrass' film achieves its purpose: It illuminates a moment that galvanized the IRA and educates a wider audience about the significance of Bloody Sunday in ways that a pop song cannot achieve. There's a vast difference between cold American newspaper accounts about a protest that results a few casualties that the British government declares unfortunate (but justified) and seeing a believable cinematic re-creation. We'd all like to believe idealistically (like Cooper) that peace can be obtained by peaceful means, making his final statements all the more chilling and prophetic:
" You have given the IRA the biggest victory it will ever have. You will reap a whirlwind."
Bloody Sunday won't be the most entertaining film you can see this year, but it is one of the most important. For that reason, many will overrate this film and call for it to receive the top awards from the film community. I wouldn't go that far, but it's certainly worth riding the rough whirlwind digital camera for insights that U2 can only hint at.
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