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Bloody Sunday
Background Information: Bloody Sunday Bloody Sunday is a 2002 British television drama, produced by Granada Television & screened on the ITV network on January 25 2002. The drama concentrates on the events of the Bloody Sunday massacre through the eyes of Ivan Cooper, the Protestant Stormont MP who was a central organiser of the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Movement march in Derry on 30 January 1972 that ended with British paratroopers firing on the demonstrators, killing thirteen. Cooper is played by James Nesbitt, himself a Protestant from Northern Ireland. The production was written & directed by Paul Greengrass. The soundtrack contains only one piece of music, Sunday Bloody Sunday by U2. The film was critically acclaimed but was strongly critcised by the makers of the alternative Sunday for its concentration on the leadership of the march & not the perspective of those who joined it. Bloody Sunday at The Internet Movie Database. DVD Extras: Bloody Sunday absolutely has to be seen on DVD. The slew of extra features not only complement the film, but place it in the overall context of the past, present & future of Northern Ireland. The various interviews with cast, director & producers paint a picture of a film that sets out to heal wounds & build bridges on all sides & to break the cinematic mould. Thus the majority of the cast were not actors but ordinary people from the Derry area, with the majority of the British soldiers played by ex-military personnel, some of whom had served in Northern Ireland themselves. As more & more of the story behind this remarkable film is revealed, so its impact becomes more intense & its aims & purpose more successful.--
If it was a piece of fiction, theyd say that it could never happen. Bloody Sunday is a dramatisation of one of the most shameful episodes in recent British history. Released to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the Derry civil rights march & also the re-opening of enquiries into what really happened, the film is one of the most incisive, explosive works ever to emerge from British cinema. The premise is simple, to follow what took place in the city on 30th January 1972, when an anti-internment march descended into violence & left 13 unarmed civilians dead at the hands of the British army. Abandoning traditional filmmaking methods in favour of a more documentary style, Bloody Sunday is frighteningly realistic, especially when detailing the chaos into which the peaceful demonstration descended. Those who are only familiar with James Nesbitt through his lighter work may find this something of a shock, but he excels in the role of local politician Ivan Cooper. Admittedly there is a danger in presenting historical facts in a dramatic manner, no matter how painstaking the research, even though much of the dialogue here is taken straight from testimony & actual military transcripts. But if any question of bias arises, it’s worth remembering that this film was written & directed by an Englishman, stars a Derry protestant as well as a young man whose uncle was killed during the march, & was produced as an Anglo-Irish project. The result is an unforgettable & unflinching piece of cinema not to be missed. Biography: Paul Greengrass Paul Greengrass is a British writer & film director. He specialises in dramatisations of real-life events. He first worked as a director in the 1980s, for the ITV current affairs programme World in Action. At the same time he co-authored the notorious book Spycatcher with Peter Wright, former assistant director of MI5, which contained enough sensitive information that the British Government attempted to ban it. He then moved into drama, directing made-for-television films such as The One That Got Away, based on Chris Ryan s book about SAS actions in the Gulf War & The Fix, a fictional story of corruption in football. The Murder of Stephen Lawrence told the story of Stephen Lawrence, a black youth whose murder was not properly investigated by the Metropolitan Police & led to revelations about institutional racism in the police. Bloody Sunday, depicted the 1972 Bloody Sunday massacre of Northern Irish civil rights activists at the hands of British soldiers; it shared First Prize at the 2002 Berlin Film Festival with Hayao Miyazaki s Spirited Away.
Editors Choice: Bloody Sunday, The Bourne Supremacy, Kavanagh Qc, View DVDology
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