Greengrass has deliberately chosen to provoke an emotional rather than intellectual response with his film -- but sometimes provocation is much preferred to the British media's maintenance of the status quo.
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.
Runtime: 1 hr 50 mins
Genre: Dramas
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
Reviews for Bloody Sunday
Whether you'd call this 'docudrama', 'faction' or 'factual drama', the result is enough to make you seethe with anger and moral outrage.
Goes some way towards explaining how the tragedy occurred and its enduring legacy today.
Forget about the controversy: this is visceral, rocket-fuelled film-making.
Greengrass' dramatic re-enactment, galvanised by documentary techniques, is so dense and alive with detail that it should be viewed attentively.
Greengrass sacrifices character and plot to a chilling impressionistic stylization.
Watching director Paul Greengrass's explosive Bloody Sunday, you have to remind yourself at moments that you're not looking at a documentary.
Bloody Sunday demonstrates an historical thesis formulated in retrospect, which fits oddly with Greengrass's continuous-present technique.
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.
Captures the horrors of a civil rights march taking a wrong turn in the Northern Ireland city of Londonderry on Sunday, January 30, 1972.
This is tragedy in its rawest form: bloody chaos I couldn't help but watch. . . . The tension is palpable and the brutality is immediate.
The audience is placed right in the center of events in a multi-sensual, horrific 'you are there' virtual reality of social protest that grabs you and never lets go.
The film exudes a universality that may apply to any conflict, especially any that provokes people to become killing machines in the name of nationalism.
Latest News for Bloody Sunday
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