’71 (2014)
Certified: 15
Duration: 99 minutes
Directed by: Yann Demange
Starring: Jack O’Connell, Richard Dormer, Charlie Murphy, David Wilmot, Sean Harris, Killian Scott, Sam Reid, Barry Keoghan, Paul Anderson, Martin McCann, Babou Ceesay, Corey McKinley, Jack Lowden
KRS Releasing Ltd
’71 is set in the times of The Troubles when Belfast was a war zone and the conflict between the IRA and the British forces was at a bloody and hate-filled stage.
Jack O’Connell plays Gary Hook, who has not long been in Her Majesty’s Service as a soldier. He is an orphan and his brother (Harry Verity) lives in an orphanage. Life has dealt him a very bad hand until now and enrolling into the army seems to be the logical and most sensible thing to do.
Hook and his mates on their first assignment are thrown into the cauldron when they are sent to Belfast where they are to be the peacekeepers in a town that is about to explode as Protestant Loyalists and Catholic Nationalists are at each other’s throats.
The platoon enters in a raid in the Catholic part of town without being given the proper riot equipment.
The result is that the mission goes south and Hook and Thommo (Jack Lowden), his mate, end up left behind.
Hunted by the IRA Thommo is shot dead and Hook runs for his life.
Looking for him is the IRA, his commander Armitage (Sam Reid) and the Military Reaction Force.
The latter is a special service unit who do not want Hook to stay in this part of town as he may learn things that they do not want him to be privy to.
The film places us at the deep end and it’s quite a harsh view
’71 is a film that throws the audience into a dark period of recent European history.
Through this fictionalised account it really shows how much things are foggy in these events and how much a simple event can become shaded over time by different perceptions.
French director Yann Demange here has delivered a film of high intensity, balance and tight atmosphere that goes beyond the simple storyline which at first glance one might deem the film to have.
The movie is realistic and heart thumping in its drive as it takes in this moment in time and encapsulates its realities so well.
There are no heroes or villains in this film, no black or white. There is only a desperate need to survive. This in its own way may have been the real feel of the times, a need to survive and make it through another day, another night without getting killed.
With this young soldier placed in the middle of such a harsh and bloody confrontation, it is easy to see why he is so lost. He knows this is unforgiving territory, to say the least.
The film places us at the deep end and it is quite a harsh view. It is in this view that the film realises its greatest judgement of how stupid things become when all reins are let go and insanity takes over.
Demange’s camera works us over like a wrestler as we take in the view of the conflict through Jack O’Connell’s eyes.
This is an actor who is going places. Here he brings well to the screen the fears, emotions and tension of a young, inexperienced soldier who gets caught in a situation that is simply crazy.
Seeing him running around the back streets of Belfast is like running through a maze and the camera helps to intensify this.
David Holmes, delivers a musical score that keeps things moving at a pace that increases the film’s feel as it places us in at the deep end in what is a very strong movie.