Larry’s review published on Letterboxd:
Film Number 7 on PinHeadLarry145's 30 Days 30 Countries Film Challenge!
Ireland, 2002.
"I'll be alright. It's only a march."
Oh how I bet you were eating those words. You poor soul.
Bloody Sunday, for those not familiar, is a film that dramatizes the controversial event of the same name that befell a large group of nonviolent protestors in Northern Ireland in 1972. The march was being put on by the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association and it ended in a massacre when a specific barricade became a rowdy hotspot.
Spoiler alert!
In case you ignored 41 years of history or you couldn't already tell how an event named Bloody Sunday could possibly end.
The film is shot with an "in your face" grainy documentary style. It makes it feel like you are there video taping the events and documenting the scenes like a bystander instead of simply a viewer. It's effective for a while but the shaky cam and frantic firefights tested my patience a couple times. If you are familiar with Paul Greengrass' familiar "never still" directing style, you know what I'm talking about. This time around Greengrass tries to slow things down and look at both sides of the events that took place that day. We meet a handful of major and minor characters as their lives are changed on that day. The build up to the firefight and its fallout is a very tense affair and surprisingly it doesn't focus TOO much on the politics of the situation. There are motives and commentaries on human rights and dehumanization under the surface but I never felt beat over the head with "LOL MILITARY IZ EVILLL #YOLO" messages. I highly doubt it was intended, but the way I saw it both sides were confused and acting with knee jerk reactions and following the lead of comrades. Figures of authority tried to glaze over the situation but the common people involved on both sides were just as shocked and confused as the other. No one could anticipate what would happen and its destruction makes for an entertaining if not a little cold flick.
I also wished they would've used better gun sound effects. Some of those stock sound effects sounded like they were out of an episode of CSI: Miami.
Uhhhh. I guess every movie can't be Heat in that department...
' ].join(''); if ( adsScript && adsScript === 'bandsintown' && adsPlatforms && ((window.isIOS && adsPlatforms.indexOf("iOS") >= 0) || (window.isAndroid && adsPlatforms.indexOf("Android") >= 0)) && adsLocations && adsMode && ( (adsMode === 'include' && adsLocations.indexOf(window.adsLocation) >= 0) || (adsMode === 'exclude' && adsLocations.indexOf(window.adsLocation) == -1) ) ) { var opts = { artist: "", song: "", adunit_id: 100005950, div_id: "cf_async_4cad7949-16e8-45c2-b862-fc4ff3156890" }; adUnit.id = opts.div_id; if (target) { target.insertAdjacentElement('beforeend', adUnit); } else { tag.insertAdjacentElement('afterend', adUnit); } var c=function(){cf.showAsyncAd(opts)};if(typeof window.cf !== 'undefined')c();else{cf_async=!0;var r=document.createElement("script"),s=document.getElementsByTagName("script")[0];r.async=!0;r.src="//srv.tunefindforfans.com/fruits/apricots.js";r.readyState?r.onreadystatechange=function(){if("loaded"==r.readyState||"complete"==r.readyState)r.onreadystatechange=null,c()}:r.onload=c;s.parentNode.insertBefore(r,s)}; } else { adUnit.id = 'pw-4cad7949-16e8-45c2-b862-fc4ff3156890'; adUnit.className = 'pw-div -tile300x250 -alignleft -bottommargin'; adUnit.setAttribute('data-pw-' + (renderMobile ? 'mobi' : 'desk'), 'med_rect_btf'); if (target) { target.insertAdjacentElement('beforeend', adUnit); } else { tag.insertAdjacentElement('afterend', adUnit); } window.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', (event) => { adUnit.insertAdjacentHTML('afterend', kicker); window.ramp.que.push(function () { window.ramp.addTag('pw-4cad7949-16e8-45c2-b862-fc4ff3156890'); }); }, { once: true }); } } tag.remove(); })(document.getElementById('script-4cad7949-16e8-45c2-b862-fc4ff3156890'));
' ].join(''); if ( adsScript && adsScript === 'bandsintown' && adsPlatforms && ((window.isIOS && adsPlatforms.indexOf("iOS") >= 0) || (window.isAndroid && adsPlatforms.indexOf("Android") >= 0)) && adsLocations && adsMode && ( (adsMode === 'include' && adsLocations.indexOf(window.adsLocation) >= 0) || (adsMode === 'exclude' && adsLocations.indexOf(window.adsLocation) == -1) ) ) { var opts = { artist: "", song: "", adunit_id: 100005950, div_id: "cf_async_c543d71d-029d-452d-b558-53b293300bd3" }; adUnit.id = opts.div_id; if (target) { target.insertAdjacentElement('beforeend', adUnit); } else { tag.insertAdjacentElement('afterend', adUnit); } var c=function(){cf.showAsyncAd(opts)};if(typeof window.cf !== 'undefined')c();else{cf_async=!0;var r=document.createElement("script"),s=document.getElementsByTagName("script")[0];r.async=!0;r.src="//srv.tunefindforfans.com/fruits/apricots.js";r.readyState?r.onreadystatechange=function(){if("loaded"==r.readyState||"complete"==r.readyState)r.onreadystatechange=null,c()}:r.onload=c;s.parentNode.insertBefore(r,s)}; } else { adUnit.id = 'pw-c543d71d-029d-452d-b558-53b293300bd3'; adUnit.className = 'pw-div'; adUnit.setAttribute('data-pw-' + (renderMobile ? 'mobi' : 'desk'), 'sky_btf'); if (target) { target.insertAdjacentElement('beforeend', adUnit); } else { tag.insertAdjacentElement('afterend', adUnit); } window.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', (event) => { adUnit.insertAdjacentHTML('afterend', kicker); window.ramp.que.push(function () { window.ramp.addTag('pw-c543d71d-029d-452d-b558-53b293300bd3'); }); }, { once: true }); } } tag.remove(); })(document.getElementById('script-c543d71d-029d-452d-b558-53b293300bd3'));
