Review of Bloody Sunday (2002) by Aaron N — 24 Apr 2008

Ivan Cooper: I just want to say this to the British Government... You know what you've just done, don't you? You've destroyed the civil rights movement, and you've given the IRA the biggest victory it will ever have.

This movie is a well handled drama depicting the events of Sunday January 30, 1972 where Northern Irish civil rights march turned into a bloody massacre at the hands of the British Army.

The film is shot as if it were a documentary, shown from multiple perspectives, including a civil rights leader, Ivan Cooper, played by James Nesbit, a local boy who wants to participate in the march, an army commander claiming to want as little harm as possible, and various other point of views depicting the events.

The film was directed by English native Paul Greengrass, who has used his hand held style, seen in what he has done with the Bourne series, to give a gritty and realistic portrayal of these events. As I watched this film it made me think of it as a modern day version of The Battle of Algiers, a similar film depicting the Algerian wars from a very gritty perspective.

Because of the effective style of this film, it all feels very natural. The performers don't seem like actors as much as people who were involved (in fact many of the extras in the march did in fact march on that day all those years ago).

Nesbit, who serves as the closest person to a lead role is particularly good. He starts the film off as an optimistic person hoping to see change by the end of it. He does see change, but in an unfortunate opposite way, as he becomes more and more disillusioned by what he sees occur.

While the film is very well made and certainly gets across a neat recreation of events, the beginning could have better set the audience up for what the conflict was to begin with, especially those who are not aware of the past situations in Northern Ireland.

However, the effective direction of the movie makes it a very good film to watch.

Ivan Cooper: All over this city tonight, young men... boys will be joining the IRA, and you will reap a whirlwind.