The immediacy is overwhelming...an extraordinarily powerful film.
Bloody Sunday (2002)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:101
Fresh:93
Rotten:8
Average Rating:7.9/10
Consensus: Bloody Sunday powerfully recreates the events of that day with startling immediacy.
Theatrical Release:Oct 4, 2002 Limited
Box Office: $555,414
Synopsis: In documentary style, Paul Greengrass' BLOODY SUNDAY, which chronicles the events of January 30, 1972 in Derry, Ireland, is filmed with gritty gray realness. Surrounding a peaceful protest march... In documentary style, Paul Greengrass' BLOODY SUNDAY, which chronicles the events of January 30, 1972 in Derry, Ireland, is filmed with gritty gray realness. Surrounding a peaceful protest march staged in contest to British laws that permitted internment without trial, the film charts the progress of the march from the night before it to the night following it. As the final organizing of the march takes place that morning, MP Ivan Cooper (James Nesbitt) rushes from the street where police barriers are being erected to his office where he fields a string of urgent phone calls. Meanwhile Major General Ford (Tim Pigott-Smith) arranges for a heavily armed troop of commandos in fatigues and face paint to be ready to intercept the march if it turns violent. A third persona, Kevin McCorry (Allan Gildea), is a young lad with a prison record who believes in the cause of the march but wants to avoid conflict and any real trouble. As the march proceeds, and chaos ensues, the British militia opens fire onto the unarmed crowds, shooting 27 and killing 13 in one of the most shocking instances of excessive force in Irish history, ending any hope of nonviolent resolution, and stoking the IRA. [More]
Starring: James Nesbitt, Tim Pigott-Smith, Nicholas Farrell, Gerard McSorley
Starring: James Nesbitt, Tim Pigott-Smith, Nicholas Farrell, Gerard McSorley, Kathy Kiera Clarke, Allan Gildea, Gerard Crossan, Mary Mouldes
Director: Paul Greengrass
Director: Paul Greengrass
Screenwriter: Paul Greengrass
Producer: Mark Redhead
Studio: Paramount Classics
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Reviews for Bloody Sunday
'...the film’s considered approach to its subject matter is too calm and thoughtful for agitprop, and the thinness of its characterizations makes it a failure as straight drama.'
The film could have been one of the year's finest, if only it was more accessible.
Goes some way towards explaining how the tragedy occurred and its enduring legacy today.
What's most striking about Greengrass' film is just how real it all feels.
Bloody Sunday demonstrates an historical thesis formulated in retrospect, which fits oddly with Greengrass's continuous-present technique.
Greengrass sacrifices character and plot to a chilling impressionistic stylization.
As an act of filmmaking, it is superb: A sense of immediate and present reality permeates every scene.
Rarely do gunshots elicit such shock. Rarely does violence feel so horrific.
As atuações viscerais e a direção pseudo-documental recriam com contudência um dos episódios mais revoltantes da história da luta irlandesa contra a dominação britânica.
Assumes familiarity with the background of the 'troubles' and proceeds viscerally to portray the British as murderers of Irish demonstrators in 1972.
There is no solace here, no entertainment value, merely a fierce lesson in where filmmaking can take us.
The handheld camerawork and bleached-out color palette suggest something more akin to combat footage, and candid moments recorded on the sly give Bloody Sunday a chilling realism.
Latest News for Bloody Sunday
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March 30, 2006:
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