’71

Directed by Yann Demange (2015) ***

Set during the height of the “Troubles” in Belfast, ’71 has enough political and moral complexity and ambiguity to make John le Carre’s head spin. And yet, it’s sustained by a powerful and compelling through-line: one soldier’s fight for survival during one night. Some may be reminded of James Mason’s predicament in Sir Carol Reed’s Odd Man Out (1947), which also took place in Belfast and involved the Irish Republican Army.

Jack O’Connell, hot off of Unbroken (2014), plays British soldier Private Gary Hook, sent on a routine mission with other new recruits into a burning contested Irish neighborhood, near a “fault line”, where Protestants and Irish live near each other. Upon the arrival of the British troops, a growing group of Irish citizens become a mob, attacking the new recruits. Private Hook and a fellow soldier, soon shot in the head, are inadvertently left behind and Hook’s goal becomes to stay alive long enough to make his way back or be rescued.

Without giving away spoilers, it’s essential to state that Hook’s predicament is worsened and made more complicated by the competing and overlapping power structures involved. The Catholic Nationalists’ IRA is splintered, with conflicting factions. Hook also becomes a threat to the British side when he inadvertently happens upon the tactics of the MRF (Military Reaction Force), a British counter-insurgency unit which, in ’71, was using unspeakably violent acts as a pretext to retaliate against the IRA. The Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) plotted and implemented similar attacks against the IRA.

A threat to both sides, Hook has practically no one to trust. Most of ’71 is shot at night; cinders and flames waft the air in a world of limited color and danger in the dark, unseen corners. Brown and orange are predominant, with the glinting blue steel of stairwells for counterpoint.

Though largely unknown here, the cast of ’71 was expertly chosen and groomed. The early ’70s sideburns and ungainly mustaches might be a cause for humor were it not the sadness and seriousness of the proceedings: David Wilmot, Sean Harris, Sam Reid and Richard Dormer all play competing figures in an elaborate game.

It’s worth noting that viewers may wish to watch the film on DVD with English subtitles, for the accents in ’71 are thick. A manager I talked to at a theater screening of the film admitted he couldn’t understand a single word of one of the characters in the film and suggested viewers use, in the future, one of the theater’s Sony glasses featuring closed captioning. Not a bad idea.

—Michael R. Neno, 2015 April 2