Bloody Sunday 2002, Rated R Paramount

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A Paramount release. Written and directed by Paul Greengrass; starring James Nesbitt and Allan Gildea. Released to DVD on April 22, 2003.

Director Paul Greengrass’ gripping Bloody Sunday recounts the fateful day in January of 1972 when British soldiers opened fire on peaceful Irish-Catholic civil rights demonstrators in the small working class town of Derry. Led by Ivan Cooper (James Nesbitt), a Protestant member of Parliament determined to peacefully end the government’s policy of anti-Catholic discrimination, the marchers took to the streets unaware that the heavy military presence lining their path was looking for a fight. The result was the death of thirteen innocent civilians. Capturing the raw immediacy of the day’s horror, the film—as both history lesson and dramatic recreation—is nothing short of a triumph.

Recalling Gillo Ponte-corvo’s classic The Battle of Algiers, Bloody Sunday has the look and feel of a documentary, with Greengrass using shaky hand-held cameras to give the impression that we’re witnessing a non-fictional account of the massacre; only a distracting romance between a Catholic teen (Declan Duddy) and his girlfriend calls attention to the film’s artificiality. Thrusting viewers directly into the line of fire, Bloody Sunday follows the growing restlessness of Cooper’s compatriots and the behind-the-scenes preparations of British Major General Ford (Tim Pigott-Smith), who warns that, "If there’s any trouble at all, the [paramilitary] are to counter-attack." But as the film deftly shows us, the soldiers were chomping at the bit for some combat. As one grunt puts it, "We’ve got to teach [the protesters] a lesson."

The tension between both sides escalates throughout the day like a slow burn, as the demonstrators’ cautious enthusiasm gives way to the appalling misery brought about by the British troops’ indiscriminate firing on the defenseless crowds. Greengrass makes no bones about his sympathy for the Irish-Catholics in this melee—with two exceptions, the British are portrayed as either bloodthirsty or icily indifferent—but his polemicizing never damages the impact or veracity of the narrative. The image of a corpse draped in a bloodstained civil rights banner aptly symbolizes Cooper’s prediction in the day’s aftermath that the tragedy would simply doom the peace movement in favor of more violence. It also provides an arresting postscript to Bloody Sunday’s desperate plea for cease-fire. The film is a fitting tribute to those who lost their lives on that gruesome day in 1972, and a powerful dramatization of a conflict that remains unresolved thirty years later.

nicholas schager

yes, it's true:

Director Paul Greengrass isn’t the first person in the entertainment world to focus on this particular Sunday. The Irish rock group U2 also wrote their song "Sunday Bloody Sunday" about this day.