Filmmakers Take on a Post Troubles Northern Ireland
Filmmakers Take on a Post Troubles Northern Ireland
By Mark Connelly, author of The IRA on Film and Television
Filmmakers found
the IRA and the Troubles of Northern Ireland a rich source of stories and
characters, from Carol Reed’s classic Odd
Man Out to The Crying Game and In the Name of the Father. During the decade between the end of the Cold
War and 9/11, the IRA provided heroes and villains for American action movies
such as Patriot Games, Blown Away, and The Jackal.
Following
the Good Friday Agreement of 1998, writers and directors began exploring a post-Troubles
Northern Ireland. Oliver Hirschbiegel’s Five Minutes of Heaven (2009) focuses on the lasting impact of
violence on its survivors. Liam Neeson
portrays Alistair Little, a fifty year old peace activist haunted by the murder
of a Catholic he committed as an eager seventeen year old Loyalist. A television program arranges for him to meet
Joe Griffin (James Nesbitt), the
younger brother of his victim, for an on-air reconciliation.
Unlike
other films set in Northern Ireland that create a sense of claustrophobia with
scenes of narrow streets, cramped row houses, checkpoints, and walls, Five Minutes of Heaven shows Alistair Little walking through large, open
squares. Trains and jet planes appear in
the distance, suggesting an openness to the outer world. Belfast
is no longer depicted as an embattled warren of barricades and barbed wire but
a busy European city populated by consumers and commuters.
While
Little is prepared to seek forgiveness, Griffin,
seething with resentment, wants revenge and plans to stab Little on television
to earn his “five minutes of heaven.”
The proposed broadcast never occurs.
A knock-down drag-out fight leaves both men exhausted, with Little
telling Griffin that he is not
worth hating. After attending a group
therapy session, Griffin calls
Little and simply states, “We’re finished.”
Little is left walking aimlessly in a large plaza. The Troubles have ended, but the survivors
are left damaged and tormented.
Three
films released in 2006 explore the inability of IRA veterans to cope in a
post-Troubles world. In Johnny Was, Forty-Eight Angels, and I.R.A. King of Nothing disgruntled
veterans, disillusioned by compromise and the loss of a cause to fight for,
attempt one-man attacks “to get things going again.” In all three movies the malcontents are
killed to maintain peace, suggesting that the Troubles have not ended but are
merely suspended, with the IRA waiting in the wings for a fresh opportunity to
strike.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Born in Philadelphia, Mark Connelly completed a masters degree in Creative Writing from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where he received a Ph.D in English. His books include The Diminished Self: Orwell and the Loss of Freedom, Orwell and Gissing, Deadly Closets: The Fiction of Charles Jackson, and several college textbooks. He currently teaches literature and film in Milwaukee, where he is the Vice-President of the Irish Cultural and Heritage Center of Wisconsin.His latest book is The IRA on Film and Television.
You can visit his website at www.theiraonfilmandtelevision.com.
Cool view of the IRA in film! Thanks!
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