’71
"The movie, brilliantly directed, is a riveting chronicle of an English soldier's terrifying journey as he negotiates through a gutted Belfast night in search of the unit he was driven away from after narrowly escaping with his life."
Just out of military training, Thommo and Gary are soon on their way to Northern Ireland. There are burning vehicles, bombs and deafening mobs with rocks, bags of excrement and other crude weapons. ’71’ is a brutally unforgiving examination of a war driven at it’s core by the vicious hate that ripped Northern Ireland to shreds during what came to be known as the time of “The Troubles”. It was an era of violence, in which fellow countrymen turned against each other with hostility between Catholic IRA separatists and Protestants loyal to the British Crown. The movie, brilliantly directed, is a riveting chronicle of an English soldier’s terrifying journey as he negotiates through a gutted Belfast night in search of the unit he was driven away from after narrowly escaping with his life. The film is tense and plays like a tightly wound thriller. Brilliantly acted by Jack O’Connell as the combat-naive, sympathetic serviceman. ’71’ a production which absolutely make you transfixed until the very end.
Reviewed by: Maurizio Marchese on August 18, 2015