This has been a very Irish week for my posting. So one more won't hurt, right? I downloaded Bloody Sunday from eMule today and (of course) watched it this afternoon instead of studying. Here's my take on the movie.

1) For a great historical treatment of Bloody Sunday, check out the CAIN project. Really, if you want to know anything about the Troubles, I recommend the CAIN project. I can't say enough about how great the site is. I think watching this movie would be pretty hard without some very basic knowledge of the background of the Troubles (ie who are the Provos and who are the paras, why British soldiers were there anyway, etc).

2) During the march itself much of the camerawork was jerky, supposed to look handheld. This technique often comes across as self-consciously arty, but I here I think it fits. It really reminds the viewer of the chaos that the soldiers were experiencing which must have impacted their decision to shoot. It was a bit nauseating to watch, though: maybe a little less would still have gotten the point across without making me want to run to the bathroom to throw up.

3) I'm probably not the right person to ask about the comprehensibility of the accents. I was brought up among accents not very different from the Irish ones (my grandparents and most of their friends were from a city in the north of Ireland, and many of my parents' friends were also). But I had a problem understanding Gerry Donaghy a couple of times with the accent and the mumbling and the bad sound quality. It really didn't detract from the movie though. You didn't need to understand every single line to understand what was going on.

4) About bias. Of course it's present in this movie. It's present in everything. I don't think it's particularly bad in this movie, though. Maybe the director could have emphasised the fear that British soldiers must have felt, the chaos of the moment, the violence of the preceeding days. But it's a two hour long movie and some things have to be demphasised, though they were mentioned in the movie. The director does not hypothesise about who fires first and he does not make the ridiculous claim that no PIRA members were present at the march. All in all, I thought this was a remarkably well-balanced account of a divisive event.

5) More than that, though, it is a really powerful movie. The acting is wonderful, particularly James Nesbitt as MP Ivan Cooper and most of the British paratroopers. A scene in the hospital near the end was really touching. Cooper walks around to talk to people who have lost friends and family to give them the news. All you can hear is people crying and Cooper whispering, too quietly to understand. The camera cuts around to show the faces of the mourners, the faces of the paratroopers, and Cooper himself. It's a truly wonderful piece of filmmaking, and I cried.

I really recommend this movie. It's an explanation of the PIRA's hold on the minds of Catholics in the Six Counties. Bloody Sunday increased enrollment in the PIRA and destroyed the peaceful process towards civil rights for Catholics in Ireland. Many more than thirteen people died as a result of Bloody Sunday.