Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

Good start, but then it gets ruined

A Disappointing Continuation

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

Bloody Sunday 8 Nov 1987: At annual Remembrance Day service in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, IRA bomb murdered 12 townspeople and injured another 63. (a 13th, school principal Ronnie Hill, died subsequently). Another IRA bomb (four times larger) was hidden beside the Remembrance service at Tullyhommon, Co Fermanagh conducted by the Boys' and Girls' Brigade, but failed to explode. 4 Feb 1979: Patrick Mackin (60), a retired Prison Officer, and his wife Violet (58), were both shot dead by the IRA at their home in Oldpark Road, Belfast. Robert McCartney was beaten and stabbed to death on Sunday 30th January 2005 in an attack by the Provisional IRA. The five sisters of Catholic Robert McCartney have defied the IRA and waged a campaign for justiceBloody Monday 31 Jul 1972, the IRA detonated three large bombs in the village of Claudy, County Londonderry, murdering nine villagers, including an 8- year-old girl, Kathryn Eakin and Willie Temple aged16. 5 Jan1976: Kingsmills: 10 Protestant civilians were lined up and shot dead by the IRA, when they were returning from work at Kingsmills, near Bessbrook, County Armagh.Bloody Tuesday 9 Feb 1971: Five workers were murdered by an IRA landmine near a BBC transmitter on Brougher Mountain, County Tyrone. 12 Jun 1973; Six Protestant civilians, aged between 60 and 76, were murdered by an IRA car-bomb in Railway Street, Coleraine. 7 Apr 1981: Joanne Mathers (29), a census enumerator, was shot dead by the IRA in the Gobnascale, Derry, while she was collecting census returns. Bloody Wednesday 7 Apr 1976: Three members of a Protestant family were killed by the IRA bomb in their drapery business below the Herron family home. 2 Feb 1977: Jeffrey Agate (59), then Managing Director of the American Du Pont factory in Derry was shot dead by the IRA outside his home. 21 Jan 1981: Norman Stronge (86), a former speaker of the Stormont parliament, and James Stronge (48), his son, were murdered by the IRA in an attack on their home.Bloody Thursday 8 Mar 1973: The IRA car bombs exploded in London, killing one person and injuring over 200, one was planted at the 'Old Bailey' court. Among those found guilty was Gerry Kelly. 28 Feb 1985: Nine RUC Officers were murdered by IRA mortars fired at Newry police station, County Down.Bloody Friday 21 Jul 1972: The IRA's Bloody Friday, Belfast: 26 street explosions; 11 shoppers dead; 130 mutilated. 17 Feb 1978: 12 people were burnt to death when the IRA attacked the annual dinner of the Irish Collie Club with petrol cans packed around a mortar bomb at the La Mon House Hotel. 7 Jun 1996: Garda Jerry McCabe (Irish police), was shot dead by the IRA at Adare, Co Limerick, Republic of Ireland.Bloody Saturday 20 Mar 1993: The IRA exploded two bombs in litter bins in Bridge Street, Warrington, England, murdering Jonathan Ball aged 3 years, mortally wounding Timothy Parry aged 12 years and injuring 56 shoppers. 23 Oct 1993 – two IRA bombers disguised as delivery men entered Frizzell's fish shop on the Shankill, and murdered nine customers, including two schoolgirls. 15 Aug 1998: 31 people murdered by 'real' IRA car bomb placed in Omagh on the busiest shopping day of the year. The dead include 2 unborn girls, 2 babies, and 5 children.

Certainly, anything dealing with "The Troubles" of Northern Ireland will quickly create a great divide between opposing viewpoints, and obviously 'Bloody Sunday' is no exception. For the record, I am no fan of the IRA. On the other hand I am no fan of sending an attacking force into a civil disturbance as police support. History is replete with evidence that this is simply a bad idea and will likely lead to an atrocity. For this I heap far more blame at the feet of British politicians who move their army around like chess pieces rather than at the feet of the army itself. And I believe Paul Greengrass handles this as such. Brigadier Maclellan is portrayed as a thoroughly professional soldier who is very conscientious about handling the march with minimal force yet finds this insurmountable upon the arrival of Major General Ford, who seems determined to have his Paras show those pesky Republicans who's boss. The Paras themselves are an elite attacking unit. They are trained to jump from planes and kill with maximum effect, not to make sure peace marchers remain peaceful. They don't want to be there any more than the Irish Catholics want them to be there. They're not policemen. They are frustrated and angry, but they are the ones with guns, Queen and country behind them. And when told to move in, they move in with a vengeance. Again, sending an assault force into a civil insurrection is just a bad idea. The inquest that followed may have been incomplete, but with all due respect to the Parachute Regiment in an unenviable situation, it was a massacre regardless of who fired first (and again Paul Greengrass does not take sides here and make it obvious where the first shot came from). There is a huge difference between understanding why something happened and attempting to justify it.That said, Paul Greengrass's near pathological attention to detail ceases to amaze me after multiple viewings. Having long been a student of the army in Northern Ireland, there is no fault to be found in reference to the soldiers. The flak jackets worn beneath old pattern Para smocks, the mix of maroon berets and para helmets, the wood stocks of the rifles rather than the later plastic. Paul Greengrass apparently hired ex-servicemen who had done tours in Northern Ireland, thus eliminating the need to train the cinematic soldiers to look like real soldiers. They knew the lingo, they knew how to hold their weapons, they knew how to assault. In fact, Simon Mann, the actor who plays the Para commanding officer, was once in the British Special Air Service (SAS) until 1985, and in 2004 was arrested in Zimbabwe on charges of planning a coup in Equatorial Guinea. Many of the scenes are carbon copies of actual incidents seen in archival footage of the actual march. If you are familiar with such footage, you begin to forget you're watching a recreation. It is a dark and cold film. It is gray and gritty. There is no dramatic score. The camera-work is often shaky. Dialogue is sometimes hard to understand. What is going on is sometimes confusing. And you know what? Life is like that sometimes, and that's what makes this film so powerful and brutally realistic.

When Paul Greengrass was named as the new director in the Bourne series, people had no idea who he was. When he began filming United 93, people wondered what a Brit was doing telling the story of a plane full of American heroes. The answers to these questions always seemed to make mention of the film Bloody Sunday. That reasoning, upon seeing Greengrass's first major film, holds up strongly. What is now my favorite film of his, the story of that fateful day where a peaceful civil rights march ended in bloodshed and murder by the government, is portrayed as realistically and heart-wrenchingly as possible without it being actual documentary footage. It takes guts being English and deciding to take on a tale of injustice by his people over the Irish. When I saw United 93, I left the theatre thinking that no one could have done it any better; this film paved the way, ushering in a new artist able to put emotion and tragedy on screen without ever letting even one moment seem false.The hand-held filming technique that he has utilized so well in his subsequent films is on display throughout. Always inside the action, the camera follows Parliament member Ivan Cooper while he goes around Derry readying his constituents for their peace march to the civil rights rally. He is a man that is loved by all for both his charisma and his willingness to be among the people during their fight for the rights they deserve. The younger generation and high ranking members of the IRA know him and respect what he is doing, but they feel peace won't cause change, that they must fight fire with fire. Because of this, and some previous altercations that left British troops injured or killed, the English government has decided to go in and make an example of their power. What begins as a covert operation, to accompany their roadblocks and strong numbers around the town, with a mission to grab IRA members on their wanted list, soon escalates to a massacre of civilians at the hands of adrenaline pumping soldiers who had to wait too long to get out into the action.All the acting is phenomenal across the board. Young Gerry, played by Declan Duddy, has just gotten out of jail and decides to go with friends to the march, knowing he is risking getting caught again. Duddy does well portraying the love for his girlfriend and his desire to stay outside for her; he knows when he has gotten too close to the troops and tries to go with Cooper's group to the rally, but his mates won't let him. When his cousin is killed with a bullet from the troops, troops whom were supposed to be equipped only with rubber, all that goes away. The horror and shock of what has begun to transpire never leaves his face or actions and what eventually happens to his character is truly tragic and disgusting on the part of the British. On their side, both Nicholas Farrell and Gerard McSorley are great as the men behind the scenes, listening to what is happening on the streets. McSorley's police chief tries to tell Farrell that they should just let the march happen because the kids out there could be too dangerous otherwise. Farrell speaks of how they will use minimum force and throughout the course of events, he constantly tells his men to stand down while they take it upon themselves to move when they have the chance. He is powerless from his position and he knows what kind of tragedy has occurred and that it will end up being on his watch. Standing idle for too long made the soldiers antsy and when they had the opportunity they took it. After the incident, the conversations among the men are atrocious. Bragging about how many they got and the invigorating feeling of it all is appalling, however, not as bad as the one soldier among them who felt remorse at all points, even screaming about the ceasefire while his compatriots continued mowing down innocents. What he ends up doing could possibly be looked upon as worse than the men who actually killed people; his soldier that could have been a voice of truth ends up being a disgusting display of hiding ones' guilt.Shining above all, though, is James Nesbitt as Cooper. An actor that doesn't get enough recognition or work this side of the Atlantic, despite nice turns in Waking Ned Devine and Millions, he is fantastic. His modesty and compassion with the people is contagious at the beginning. He goes through the streets telling the troops that the march will be going, but it will be peaceful, and with every young hooligan he passes he goes to them and says to calm down and join their non-violent demonstration. He tries his hardest to use his political position to stop the riot that begins, but his idealism never prepares him for what happens. What began as Irishmen throwing rocks became two innocents shot down in cold blood. When the hooligans run away to the rally, all hell breaks loose with women and children needing to take cover from the gunfire. Nesbitt's reaction when his friend Barney tries to surrender is heart-breaking and when he goes to the hospital after it all, he is absolutely genuine in his grief. The glue that holds everything in the movie together, Nesbitt's concluding speech to the media is hard to watch. A man full of hope for freedom has finally had his eyes opened to the violence and physical tyranny at hand. He is correct when he says that the incident ended the civil rights movement, from that point on there could be no more peaceful marches. Bullets needed to be matched with bullets and young men on the fence of battle were finally swayed to join the war full steam ahead.

for my as level case study we watched bloody Sunday. we watched this film after watching "in the name of the farther" which everyone in my class enjoyed.however i don't think there was a single person in my class who enjoyed bloody Sunday. im not dismissing the fact that it was an important event, and im not slating it for any reason to do with that. i simply thought much of the acting was poor ( i.e. British troops) and that some of the editing was a bit tiresome e.g. fades.all in all the film was very successful , however in my opinion i felt ti was overrated.