Movie Review--Bloody Sunday

* * * * * What a powerful film!

from netflix:
"On Sunday, Jan. 30, 1972, in the Catholic Bogside district of Derry, Northern Ireland, 13 unarmed civilian demonstrators were shot and killed by members of the British Parachute Regiment. Director Paul Greengrass's documentary-style drama -- nominated for an Independent Spirit Award -- depicts the massacre blamed for turning relatively peaceful dissent into two decades of civil war and inspiring thousands of young Irish men to join the IRA."

The documentary-style of the film (hand held cameras mostly) puts you right there in the middle of the story and you forget that it's a film. The acting is just fabulous, especially James Nesbitt, who plays the local Catholic councilman. I've been to Derry and the north of Ireland (1994--one week prior to the IRA cease-fire) where the British Army was still running the streets in tanks and with machine guns. I had to watch this movie in sections since I would get so angry I had to turn it off. At one point, I shouted at the computer, "f*&#ing British!"

There is one scene, in the hospital where the camera is moving around in a circle, taking in everything going on with all the background sounds and the realization comes over the councilman's face of what has just happened. Very powerful. The other amazing thing is that many of the actors were first-timers, chosen from the Derry neighborhoods where this happened nearly 30 years prior.

Very highly recommended. But turn on the subtitles since the Derry accent can be hard to understand.