Review of '71 (2014) by Warwick B — 29 Oct 2014
Debut film feature from director Yann Demange, set at the height of the Troubles in 1970s Belfast.
Jack O'Connell stars in a well crafted, tense thriller about a newly drafted young British soldier, Gary Hook, who on the first day of his first tour of Northern Ireland gets separated from his unit during a riot after a house to house search goes wrong.
On the run, lost and injured, Hook must decide who to trust whilst trying to figure out how to get back to the barracks through a warren of streets in a desperate fight for survival.
This riveting, behind enemy stylised thriller, uses a series of well executed shocks, to sledgehammer home the horrors and senselessness of the conflict.
O'Connell is terrific as the shell shocked raw recruit, whose performance brings, heart, soul and hope to this pulsating movie. After impressing with his role in the prison drama Starred Up, 2014 is proving to be a breakthrough year with another star turn in Angelina Jolie's biopic Unbroken about Louis Zamperini, the Olympic athlete taken prisoner by the Japanese during World War II.
This review of '71 (2014) was written by Warwick B on 29 Oct 2014.
'71 has generally received very positive reviews.
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