'71

**Spoiler Alert**

Director: Yann Demange/Starring: Jack O'Connell, Sam Reid, Sean Harris, Martin McCann, Killian Scott, Charlie Murphy and Barry Keoghan

Yann Demange makes his directorial debut with '71; a tough, harrowing, brutal and sometimes nail-biting drama that takes place in war-torn Belfast in 1971. Demange and screenwriter Gregory Burke weave a byzantine plot where allegiances are sometimes ambiguous and agendas murky as the combustible atmosphere of Protestant and Catholic Ireland is made more so with the presence of British troops.

Jack O'Connell (served with a better script and director than the Unbroken debacle), plays new British army recruit Gary Hook, whose unit is assigned duty in the troubled streets of Belfast. Innocent and untested, Hook learns he is to participate in dangerous house searches and to weigh further on his unfortunate assignment, the operation is to take place in the most soldier-unfriendly neighborhood; an area known to be an IRA stronghold.

It also doesn't help that his commanding officer; a greenhorn in his own right, eschews riot gear in favor of less threatening berets.

Joining the troops in their operation is a Protestant police force, who pursue their objectives with a more brutal modus operandi and a three-man, shadowy, plainclothes unit who conduct their own clandestine warfare on the Catholic population.

Demange effectively sets a mood of tension as the pounding drumbeat in the score keeps the audience on edge.

As we watch Hook sit at the rear of the truck transporting his unit, we see the anxiety and fear in his face. When the troops disembark, they watch a group of kids target the unit with vegetables and garbage. The soldiers take it all in stride and laugh as one kid exposes his bare bottom. But the situation darkens, for the women in the neighborhood begin banging trashcan lids on the sidewalk to alert everyone to the troops presence. And what began in a somewhat humorous manner with mooning kids quickly becomes an agitated scene as a shouting crowd approaches the soldiers; quickly becoming belligerent. As the police unit threatens a family with violence for supposedly keeping weapons in their apartment, Hook's commanding officer orders him to assist in the house search but instead finds himself the object of a police officer's angry scorn.

When he returns to the street, he finds the mob has already started punching and kicking at the soldiers and pelting them with stones. When a kid captures a downed soldier's rifle, he sprints away from the mob. Hook gives chase and is followed by a comrade for support. But the situation suddenly becomes ugly and frightening as the two men suddenly find themselves surrounded and savagely beaten. Worse still, the two soldiers are abandoned by their comrades when their unit drives back to base. When a woman humanely intervenes in the assault, a young tough, Paul Haggerty (Martin McCann, from the Oscar Nominated short Boogaloo and Graham) accosts the two soldiers; shooting Hook's friend in the head, killing him instantly. Before Hook suffers the same fate, he runs from the gun-wielding tough, while others join the chase. After desperately eluding his predators, he manages to find a temporary hiding place but in doing so, he also finds himself alone in hostile territory.

The film maintains a heightened sense of fear as numerous parties; some benign, others not at all, take an interest to Hook's status. And as Hook tries to make his way back to his unit, the story becomes a web of conflicts and warring parties with opposing agendas. Internal strife and a power struggle leave an IRA cell at odds with their leader while the plainclothes military operatives prove to be a complicated group as well, as their contempt for the soldiers is commensurate to their disdain for their IRA enemies.

And as Hook finds himself in the unlikeliest of places. he often finds his alleged enemies--Irish-Catholic residents--aren't beyond compassion--sometimes at the risk of endangering themselves. I don't know that I've ever seen a film about the conflict in Northern Ireland that was sympathetic to both sides. We see that kindness isn't peculiar to one side or the other. But we see that malevolence is also a multilateral trait; the plainclothesmen and the group of vicious, IRA youths serve as the darker elements of the conflict.

Demange, for being a freshmen feature-maker, already shows a remarkable instinct for suspense; keeping all narrative threads tight and exciting.

I particularly liked O'Connell's performance as the beleaguered Hook, as well as Sean Harris as the chilling Captain Sandy Browning; whose mere gaze is enough to unnerve the viewer. Killian Scott and Martin McCann are also terrific--and scary--as the leaders of the rogue IRA faction who hunt Hook with single-minded fury.

I've grown accustomed to seeing one-sided narratives about the Irish struggle; films like The Wind That Shakes the Barley, In the Name of the Father, Hunger and Michael Collins often portray the British (not without just cause) as unyielding, single-minded antagonists. '71 is a refreshing departure from what's come before.

It's also welcome relief from the mediocre sludge of the season.