Bloody Sunday

Released 2002
Stars James Nesbitt, Tim Pigott-Smith, Nicholas Farrell, Gerard McSorley, Kathy Kiera Clarke, Declan Duddy
Directed by Paul Greengrass

Both sides agree that on Jan. 30, 1972, a civil rights march in Derry, Northern Ireland, ended with a confrontation between some of the marchers and British army paratroopers. At the end of the day, 13 marchers were dead and 14 in the hospital, one of whom later died. No British soldiers were killed. An official inquiry declared that the soldiers had returned the fire of armed marchers. Some of the soldiers involved were later decorated by the crown.

Beyond this agreement, there is a disagreement so deep and bitter that 30 years later "Bloody Sunday" is still an open wound in the long, contested history of the British in Northern Ireland. A new inquiry into the events of the day was opened in 1998 and still continues today. Paul Greengrass' film "Bloody Sunday," which shared the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival this year, is made in the form of a documentary. It covers about 24 hours, starting on Saturday evening, and its central character is Ivan Cooper (James Nesbitt), a civil rights leader in Derry. He was a Protestant MP from the nationalist Social Democratic Labour Party. Most of the 10,000 marchers on that Sunday would be Catholic; that a Protestant led them, and stood beside such firebrands as Bernadette Devlin, indicates the division in the north between those who stood in solidarity with their co-religionists, and those of all faiths who simply wanted the British out of Northern Ireland.

Summary by Roger Ebert

Although it's impossible to know what truly happened on Bloody Sunday, this movie captures the emotions of the day and makes you feel like you're really there. The Northern Ireland conflict is something I've never understood, and this movie doesn't do anything to help explain it. The movie's written for the involved parties and doesn't do much to help the rest of us understand its context, which is perfectly fine but makes it difficult for the rest of us to grasp the overall picture. The British soldiers reminded me of the American and British troops in Iraq today and how difficult it is to maintain order in such a situation. It also reminded of all the Palestinian punks who constantly throw rocks at the Israeli soldiers. I know they're venting their frustration, but they have no right to become indignant when the soldiers occasionally react. It's not too bright to continually poke a big dog with a stick, because someday he'll bite. --Bill Alward, June 26, 2003