Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Jack O’ Connell, Paul Anderson, Sam Reid, Seam Harris, Charlie Murphy, Sam Hazeldine, Killian Scott, Richard Dormer, Barry Keoghan, David Wilmot, Martin McCann, Corey McKinley, Valene Kane, Paul Popplewell, Amy Molloy, Joshua Hill, Eric Campbell, Ben Peel, Jack Lowden, Nicola-Jayne Wells, Lee Bolton, Babou Casey, Liam McMahon, Denise Gough, Paul Bergquist, Dawn Bradfield.
In any war there are always two sides to the tale. Both sides normally deserve airing, with certain objections to history and they deserve to be told with the greatest of respect and humility; a chance for an understanding to be reached before the apportioning of blame, retribution and justice can be sought.
Whatever the point of view taken, whatever the name or chosen euphemism you care to call it, be it the troubles, the continuation of the civil war or any number of historic words people put upon it, the period of time that saw the Northern part of Ireland go up in flames was one in which the U.K. was slowly realising it was at war with itself and the people who resided there were caught between religious intolerance and hatred, on both sides, and the British Army.
’71sees the war that raged just a few short miles away from the Liverpool coast, where soldiers boarded ships to take them to a place in which could be seen arguably as a vision of Hell in some eyes and where the two sides were ready to destroy each other, some crossing the divide to reach out in the name of peace and some confusingly eager to help their opposite number if it meant a continuation and escalation of the bitterness and hatred heaped upon the streets of Belfast.
Thrown into the deep end after a raid on a house in which it was suspected that firearms and weapons were being stored, a young soldier from Derbyshire is cut off from his company and the nightmare scenario starts to play out as soldiers from both sides start to hunt him down. In a world without friends, sometimes an ally comes in the least looked area.
Whilst not glorifying in the near carnage that appears on the screen, the writer imposes a certain brutal discipline into the heated exchanges, the gun fire and petrol bomb, the inherent bigotry and loathing, and comes up with a film that reeks of pitiless ferocity and damnation. Nowhere is this exchange captured more than in the relationships between the missing soldier, the young loyalist child, the undercover Captain and the emerging leader of the Provisional I.R.A., all played with stunning conviction by Jack O’ Connell, Corey McKinley, the excellent Sean Harris and the consummate Killian Scott.
’71 is a film of decent quality, of assuredness and above all one that keeps out of the line of fire in terms of taking any particular side, with evil intent, of maliciousness and the poignancy of a nation tearing itself apart as it fails to understand the complexity of its own state of mind. A terrifying glimpse into a world that many under a certain age will only have vague notions of, but for whom many still shudder at the thought of what could have happened. Gripping and explosive!
Ian D. Hall