‘71.

Its Belfast Northern Ireland, its 1971 and ‘The Troubles’ are at their peak.  Part religious rivalry and part political where generally the Protestants want to remain part of the United Kingdom and the Catholics are looking for independence from British rule.  The main participants on the republican side are the Official IRA and a younger splinter group the Provisional IRA; on the loyalist side are the UVF and UDA. We also have Royal Ulster Constabulary who tend to support the loyalists and the British Army who are there to represent the Unite Kingdom.  At the same time the British establishments ‘legalised killing squad’ The Military Reaction Force, are hard at work with their indiscriminate bombings and killings, employing double agents working from both sides of the paramilitary divide.

 

The Troubles. 

Into this violently explosive situation are sent young rookie soldiers with very little experience of real life let alone of what is extensively a bloody civil war where even children and women are part of the on going conflict. ’71 (2014) tells the story of one such rookie, Gary Hook who shortly after arriving in Belfast is sent out on a mission to protect the RUC’s dirty work and during a riot gets separated from his unit along with another young soldier who gets shot and killed. Hook, abandoned to his own devises unequipped to tell friend from foe and unable to find his way back through the hostile streets to his base, begins to grasp the intricacies of the struggle.    

 

The inexperienced rookie solider. 

Written by Gregory Burke, who is best known for his theatrical play Black Watch and directed by Frenchman Yann Demange, whose debut feature film this is, the movie stars Jack O’Connell in the lead role. O’Connell is a an actor who gets better with every new film for example Tower Block (2012) and the award winning prison drama Starred Up (2013) are two movies to sample if your not familiar with his work. This latest rather gripping and intriguing movie, that up front has a basic ‘lets get home through enemy territory’ narrative, but goes a lot further and give’s us a glimpse in to the underhandedness of the British Government. Its certainly hold’s up its head along side other interesting drama’s that have involved Irelands recent troubles including Fifty Dead Men Walking (2008) and Shadow Dancer (2012).   

Starred Up.

This weeks Robert Burns Centre Film Theatre Film Club showing was a British Prison drama with the tag line ‘we are all different on the inside’. Prison is how society attempts to deter violence: the prospect of being locked up behind a big wall is supposed to be the cure-all. But what deters the violence of people already in prison with little or no hope of release for a very long time and share space with fellow inmates that could possible have worse anger management problems than there own? Or are these men actually in a prison of their own making?

We have recently seen various films on this subject including the gripping Danish prison-drama ‘R’ (2010), the French A Prophet (2009) If I Want To Whistle, I Whistle (2010) a Rumanian film about a young offenders institution or Steve McQueen’s directorial debut film Hunger (2008) which dramatized the events in the Maze Prison, 6 weeks prior to Bobby Sands death and the violence that surrounded that incident. But the film that cast’s the longest shadow over the British prison genre is probable Alan Clarke’s Scum banned by the BBC in 1977 and two years later Clark remade it as a feature film. And of course under the British New Wave banner we had Tony Richardson’s The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962), which covered such subjects as class-consciousness and the incarceration of rebellious youth.

 

Eric Love is moved into his new digs.

Starred Up is a 2013 British ‘family drama’ set inside a prison, which gives you that feeling of dread in the pit of your stomach from the very start. The title is a term used to describe the early transfer of a criminal from a Young Offender’s Institution to an adult prison. 19-year-old Eric Love is transferred into an adult prison two years early after proving too violent for a young offenders' institution. A potentially explosive situation is not made easier by the fact that one of the top dog’s in Eric's new digs is also the man he holds to blame for his violent tendencies. Interestingly the screenplay for this film has been written by a psychotherapist, Jonathan Asser and is based on his experiences working as a voluntary therapist at HM Prison Wandsworth, with some of the country’s most violent criminals all of which had anger management problems.

 

Jack O'Connell reached new heights with this performance. 

24-year-old Jack O'Connell stars as Eric. An actor that served his apprenticeship in such films as This is England[1] his debut film in 2006, Eden Lake (2008) Harry Brown (2009) and recently in The Liability (2012) and Tower Block (2012). Neville Love, Eric’s father, is played by Australian born actor Ben Mendelsohn, who you may know from Australia (2008) Beautiful Kate (2009) Animal Kingdom (2010) Killer Elite (2011) Trespass (2011) Killing Them Softly (2012) The Place Beyond the Pines (2012). The prison’s voluntary therapist, a surrogate Jonathan Asser, is portrayed with some panache by Rupert Friend[2] the English born actor who is best known for his role in the American TV series Homeland where he plays the character Peter Quinn.

Directed by David Mackenzie[3] who is probable best known for Young Adam (2003) a movie set in Scotland and staring Ewan McGregor, Emily Mortimer, Peter Mullan and Tilda Swinton - a film about sex, death and barges. His latest movie was based, but not set, in Northern Ireland in two former prisons HM Prison Crumlin Road in Belfast and HM Prison Maze in Lisburn. The budget was around 2 million and it took 24 days to shoot the film. So far it has won the following awards: The British Independent Film Awards for Ben Mendelsohn Best Supporting Actor, the Dublin International Film Festival gave Jack O’Connell Best Actor and the London Film Awards recognised Jonathan Asser for Best British Newcomer.

 

Eric joins the therapy class! 

The film has been well received by the critics and the description’s I particularly agreed with were “Intense, visceral and immersive”[4]. ‘Jack O’Connell is dangerously riveting, scary, tragic, explosive an actor you can’t take your eyes off’[5]. And I would add that O’Connell is blossoming into a first class actor and that the director certainly impresses with his feel for realism and successfully shocks his audience with the unflinching brutality of prison life. Ken Loach asked recently if the best films have a significance beyond there own narrative I would say in the case of this movie that the answer would have to be yes.

 

A wee family drama?

The discussion following the screening centered on whether our young protagonist would ever become ‘rehabilitated’ the audience seemed pretty much split down the middle over this question. The prison system in general was discussed and also how in Scotland the crime level has been reduced in all but violent acts and sex crimes! The question was raised about the authenticity of the movie, most agreed that it felt genuine but had some trepidation about the ‘hanging’ scene. Our audience all agreed that Mackenzie and his cast and crew were all to be commended on producing a very tough and accomplished film.

---

[1] He played Pukey Nicholls.

[2] English film actor, writer and director, who is best known for his roles as Mr Wickham in the 2005 film Pride and Prejudice, Lieutenant Kurt Kotler in the 2008 film The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, and Prince Albert in the 2009 film The Young Victoria. He currently plays Peter Quinn in Showtime's multiple Emmy Award-winning television drama, Homeland.

[3] His eighth feature film.

[4] Angie Errigo – Moviemail.

5 Angie Errigo – Moviemail

The Liability.

This rather enjoyable Tarantinoesque low budget punchy British comedy thriller started life some 15 years ago as a screenwriting project for film critic John Wrathall something he shelved for many years. When he finally got around bring it to fruition in 2012 he completely rewrote the screenplay. Shot in Northumberland in four weeks and set in the North East of England it comprises a cracking cast which includes Tim Roth, Jack O'Connell, recently seen in Tower Block (2012), Movie Ramble's old friend Peter Mullan, Talulah Riley and ex EastEnders regular Kierston Wareing whom film goers may know from Ken Loach’s It’s a Free World (2007) and Andrea Arnold’s Fish Tank (2009).

 

Peter doing what Peter does best, although I'm not sure if Kierston appreciate's it?

The Numpty and the Hit Man.

Director Craig Viveiros far-fetched crime drama develops some pretty explicit violence but in a very casual ‘off hand way' that is both comedic and brutal at the same time. The Liability (2013) of the title is a young 19 year old numpty called Adam (enjoyable played by Jack O'Connell) who we first meet writing of a £60k Mercedes C-Class that belongs to his mothers (Wareing) gangster boyfriend (a menacing Peter Mullan doing what Peter Mullan does best). Under the pretext of getting the lad to repay the 60 grand he gets him a driving job with a hit man called Roy (ironically played by an excellent Tim Roth) who is about to carry out his final job before retirement and attending his daughters wedding. At the same time as this murderous pair are traveling north there is a psycho on the loose carrying out a spate of killings by hacking off the hands of the victims. When Roy and Adam catch up to their quarry they also hack his hand’s off to make it resemble the work of the psycho and hopefully send the police on off on the wrong track. But while their carrying out their gruesome task they get spotted by a passing backpacker (Riley), which sets in motion a series of unexpected events. A truly guilty pleasure!

Is this the end for our young backpacker?

Tower Block

It was reported recently that Ben Wheatley next movie would be an adaptation of J G Ballard's 1975 novel High Rise. It’s a story that takes place in an ultra modern, luxury high-rise block consisting of 40 floors and 1000 apartments and involves the breakdown of society. Shooting is due to start next year with a script by Wheatley's normal collaborator Amy Jump. On the back of this news I decided to indulge in a little guilty pleasure and watch 2012's Tower Block the first feature film for the James Nunn/Ronnie Thompson partnership.

Before the action begins we get the following information posted on the screen: The Tower Block was first built for affordable living after the Second World War. Communities welcomed them as their excellent views made them popular places to live. They deteriorated and become breeding ground for crime and violence. Redevelopers took over knocking them down. However, it's not easy moving out existing tenants.  Serenity House awaits demolition. The top floor residents are the final people left to be rehoused.

 

Murder on the top floor of Serenity House.

Two hooded men chase another to the top floor of Serenity House, they beat him to death, a young women Becky (Sheridan Smith) leaves the safety of her flat to help the stricken man. She gets a good kicking for her trouble and is left unconscious. The police interview all the top floor tenants but no one admits seeing or hearing anything of the murder. We find out that the occupants are paying a young thug called Kurtis (Jack O'Connell), another tenant's of the top floor, to protect their homes. Other residents include a young married couple, a single mum who neglects her two kids, a computer game addict who lives with his mum (Scottish actress Julie Graham) and dad, a pair of drug dealers, an alcoholic (Russell Tovey) and a middle aged couple (Ralph Brown, Jill Baker). Three months pass and the developer is still struggling to evict the remaining tenants, and then all hell breaks loose when a sniper opens fire from an adjoining block changing the demographics of the top floor considerably.

 

Sheridan Smith.

Jack O'Connell.

This tension filled British thriller is ultra violent, has lots of killings, it's full of the clichés and it demands the suspension of your disbelief. But what it does do is entertain, gives plenty of jumpy moments and is well acted. Jack O'Connell, who has been in This is England (2006) Eden Lake (2008) and Harry Brown (2009) steals the show as Kurtis the buildings obnoxious racketeer. TV, film and acclaimed West End actress Sheridan Smith runs him a close second as Becky a character who’s determined not to go down without a fight. The sound effects are really good; every time a bullet is fired from the high-powered snipers rifle you leave your seat! This films never going to win prizes but it does what it say's on the tin it's gripping, entertaining and builds the anxiety suffered by the ‘victims’ of the Tower Block’s top floor with immense skill. I don’t care what the critics say: I liked it!!