Director - Yann Demange
Writer - Gregory Burke
Starring - Jack O'Connell, Sam Reid, Sean Harris, Paul Anderson
Afternoon all,
I'm fit and healthy again which is wonderful as its time for this week's review.
'71 is a film that I came across by chance, I was on IMDB, flicking through the upcoming projects of the budding star that is Jack O'Connell and found this. A list of very promising actors with a director I had never heard of... I was intrigued. Fast forward a few weeks and '71 is getting rave reviews from basically everyone who has seen it, I watched the trailer and decided it would be perfect for this weeks blog.
'71 makes for a great comparison to 'Gone Girl' in that although they come from totally different stratospheres, in terms of budgets. 'Gone Girl cost $60million and '71 only $8million. But both films aim to grab the audience from the start and tighten their grip until the final moments. As 'Gone Girl' did, '71 succeeds in doing so too.
The story revolves around a group of trainee British solders thrust into Belfast to suppress the IRA riots of 1971. Jack O'Connell plays Gary Hook who becomes separated from the rest of his troop while trying to control a violent mob. O'Connell is probably recognised by most for his role as Cook in one of the later series of Skins. Like most of his Skins co-stars O'Connell drifted, but came back into the public eye a totally different man and actor three years later in 'Starred Up' which is fantastic incidentally. He is on a fast track to becoming a serious super star with a lead role in Angelina Jolie's directorial debut 'Unbroken' finishing off a great year for the 24 year old. O'Connell displays a great variety of emotions here, his most convincing moments come when he becomes vulnerable to the point where you can really see the fear hiding behind what seems an angry young soldier primed to fight.
The person who deserves the most credit here though is Yann Demange, the film's director. An unknown quantity to most, his talents with a camera are instantly recognisable. The film is technically brilliant. Demange manipulates light and colour in the manner of a Renaissance painter. Each shot is like a work of art, with some of the gory images of war reminding me of the intensity of a Goya painting. There's a majestic moment when our band of soldiers are huddled together on the transport truck only for a ray of light to shine through a hole in the canvas, perfectly highlighting the terror encasing every man. Its an image that has lodged in my mind.
Its a really thrilling film, one that brought genuine gasps from some of the audience at certain moments. That being said there are some quite obvious plot holes that for me held the film back from being really classy. I think that can always be a slight problem when a thriller film mainly focus's on just one character. I always have in the back of my mind they will probably make it through the whole film in one piece. I don't want to include any spoilers but let's just say that a lot of things seem to fall a little too perfectly into place for Gary Hook. I think this made me slightly drift back into the real world and not stay inside the story as I would have liked to.
Despite its setting '71 does well to stay away from making a massive political statement regarding the troubles that occurred in Northern Ireland at this time, instead it gives its main focus to the look and feel of the film and for that I credit all involved. Gregory Burke, the writer, couldn't completely resist from giving his view on war with one character summing it up as "posh c*nts telling thick c*nts to kill poor c*nts". Its a pretty shocking line, but its not something the film dwells on so neither will I.
Even with a few plot holes '71 is a really intense thrill ride that gives a real sense of the horrific state of Belfast at the time with burning cars in the road being a common sight. It's a film that I would highly recommend going to see even just for its visual quality. Its a film that most of you probably won't have heard of and it doesn't have a hollywood a-list hook but it represents the start of something very special for both O'Connell and Demange.
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