Bloody Sunday
Directed by Paul Greengrass.
In the light of current events, those interested in the causes of terrorism should hasten to the Palace-Nova to see Bloody Sunday.
On 30 January 1972, British soldiers opened fire on unarmed civilians participating in a civil rights march through Derry, Northern Ireland. Twenty-seven people were shot, 13 killed. It was a turning point in the Irish troubles, boosting the ranks of the Irish Republican Army and fuelling a long and grim terrorist war.
Greengrass tells the story in the frame of one day and shoots it in documentary style — capturing a sense of urgency and impending chaos, showing us police, demonstrators, religious leaders and British soldiers through the same intimate lens. Nothing looks rehearsed, and each of the dozens of actors seems to respond to the action as it occurs.
The film is essentially a study of events sliding out of control. The organiser of the march, Ivan Cooper (played brilliantly by James Nesbitt) is determined that it will be a peaceful protest. But, despite his best efforts, young ‘hooligans’ insist on confronting the British security forces. And the hard men of the IRA lurk in the background.
The British commander (Nicholas Farrell) is portrayed as a decent man who is not seeking violence. But he has been persuaded to authorise a dangerous plan in which an élite army unit will lie in wait for any ‘hooligan’ activity, and then round them up. Unfortunately, this unit hates the Irish with a passion — and has been issued with live ammunition. Tragedy unfolds before our eyes.
There’s not a false note, no trace of “acting” — just a sense of realism that’s very, very rare onscreen. In a hospital sequence, post-massacre, Greengrass creates an amazing density of detail: families wait for news of the injured, untended bodies line the corridors, nurses scramble for help, and reporters, dazed and helpless, hold notepads.
This cinéma-vérité style will not be to everyone’s taste. One unimpressed reviewer described the cinematography as “so irritating in its unsteadiness that it makes the Dogme films seem static”. But to my mind, Bloody Sunday is a great achievement: tense and passionate, a warning to government forces to act with restraint lest they be hoist with their own petard.
Paul Huntley
