Review of '71 (2014) by Syed R — 05 Aug 2015

Featuring a performance by Richard Dormer and critically acclaimed for its action and drama, '71 sounded like a brilliant and exhilarating film.

No matter how many films I've seen, I still find myself without sufficient knowledge on the Northern Ireland conflicts known as "The Troubles", and with every film I piece it together more and more. But as '71 is a largely low budget production, it does not aim to reach the sufficient scale to explain everything in fine detail. But I wouldn't have expected it to. Instead, the story cuts out the need for context and pulls it back to being a small scale thriller focused on the harsh subject matter that is violence without being a conventional action movie.

Hollywood has told so many war stories throughout history with various perspectives and degrees of success. The thing that makes '71 stand out is that it is a British film produced on a low budget and focused more on the experiences of a single character than how many people he can kill. And though '71 is a film without the best extent of context, it becomes dramatically powerful fast because of how it forces the viewers to confront violence really early on. Most war films have a tendency to take a black and white approach to whose side the audience must take, but '71 shows excessive violence on both sides of the conflict which leaves viewers struck by unsuspecting intensity. '71 breaks down the commonly glamourized concept of violence to depict it as it truly is and point out that there are no winners in war, only victims. The violence in '71 is not excessive, but its dramatic effect is so powerful that viewers are going to want to run from it rather than wait for it to come. This adds an unexpected level of dramatic depth to the film, and it becomes expanded upon in the narrative very well because all the characters are essentially either perpetrators of violence or people on the run from it. This puts them in a neutral position where the importance lies not around who they are, but rather the fact that they are human beings who do not deserve to be victimized by crimes of violence. That reminds us what war is really about, human beings and the violence they suffer at the hands of both sides. Frankly, the use of violence in '71 is a brilliant piece of its subject matter which fuels the film with a powerfully intense atmosphere, serving largely as a distraction for the fact that the narrative is intentionally a simple one. I will admit that since the violence is the most powerful theme in '71, by contrast the scenes without it have a tendency to drag on. But even then, the dialogue in those scenes remains consistently fierce. Still, it does not have the same level of effect that the competently structured action scenes in the film do. The action is gritty and violent to match the demands of the subject matter with a slight touch of blood to it, but it is most importantly realistic and far from glamourous.

But since the story is simple, after the climactic presentation of violence at the start of the story, viewers are likely to adapt to the mood of the film. This means that for the rest of the feature, the violence does not have the same level of striking effect. The atmosphere remains intense, but it is not as shocking for the rest of the film and does not fill in the narrative as much as it did at first. Because of this, the general movement of the story in '71 slows down and makes the simplicity of much of the narrative seem a lot more clear. There is a general feeling of inconsistent pace in '71 because it starts out fast, then slows down before mediating between those two sporadically until the end of the film. Ultimately, what begins as a story about a soldier caught behind enemy lines progressively drops in scale and ends up feeling like a crime thriller above anything.

But there is no denying the technical competence of the production. As '71 does not have much music to it, the sounds are predominantly composed of silence, gunshots, echoes, footsteps and rain. This adds realism to the experience, making the general feeling of it all grim, particularly in the action scenes. Like I said, the action in the film is strong, and this is partially because the cinematography is consistently atmospheric over the entire film, zeroing in on the focus of the story with close-ups and appropriately steady shaky-cam at times, all edited at a quick but smooth rate. And it captures a notable colour scheme in the process. Due to the clever use of lighting, the grim scenery of the film is monochromatic yet easily comprehensive while benefiting from a moderated use of shadow. There is a general sense of sepia in '71 which gives the film an older feel to reflect the time of its story context.

And although the genuine characterization in '71 is inconsistent, every cast member in '71 is dedicated to bringing the intensity of the atmosphere to the attention of audiences. The standouts are Jack O'Connell and Richard Dormer.

Jack O' Connell is a strong casting decision for the lead in '71. Known for playing angry and troubled youths, Jack O'Connell steps up to a much more mature role in '71 where his youthful nature is changed into a sense of young innocence that becomes shattered by the violence he faces in the film. His emotional tension is due to the fact that he is constantly shaking or darting his gaze around at the slightest hint of noise, and his innocence shatters early on in the film before he develops into a desensitized soldier on the run. Jack O'Connell doesn't have to say much for his role even though his line delivery is powerful simply because his physical effort carries him the entire way through, and his everyman nature makes him an easily sympathetic protagonist.

Also, after seeing Richard Dormer's amazingly charismatic and hilarious performance as Terri Hooley is Good Vibrations, it is an incredible chage of pace to see him in a dramatic role which is so fierce in nature. Richard Dormer keeps most of the intense power in his role deep inside, making it clearly an internalized effort. And matching the atmosphere of the film, Richard Dormer is consistently tense on a physical level with swift movements as a reaction to the aggressive world around him, and his cold stare of fear makes his status all too clear on a consistent basis. Richard Dormer proves his worth to the cast of '71 excellently.

So '71 has a powerful cast and is rich with atmospheric tension thanks to its exploration of violence, but the story can prove rather simplistic and inconsistent with pacing.