In the midst of a violent riot in a Catholic Belfast neighborhood during the height of The Troubles, a British military squadron accidentally leaves behind one of its members. Gary Hook (Jack O’Connell) is the young stranded soldier, fresh out of boot camp, who is caught in the crossfire between IRA gunmen and Loyalist paramilitary groups. He must find a way to survive the night by relying on his quick wits and military training.
‘71 is a movie that does not let up. The film is driven by a you-are-there immediacy and a thumping rhythmic score, like heartbeats pumping at a triple-time-speed along with the rapidly pumping legs of the soldier as he runs for his life down claustrophobic alleyways and up over stone walls. Tonally and thematically similar to thrillers from the late 70s and early 80s like Marathon Man, Escape From New York, and The Warriors, where a man or a group of men must embark on a life-or-death journey through a nightmarish urban landscape, this movie wears its influences with pride while doing something that feels fresh.
Director Yann Demange and his screenwriter Gregory Burke deftly avoid taking a political stance by humanizing the players on all sides and giving them each equal screen time. This isn’t a film where the good guys or the bad guys are clear cut along national or religious lines, rather this film drops you into the midst of the gray fog of a nation at war with itself propelled by the fiery zeal of angry young men ruthlessly committed to a cause that is simultaneously religious, political, and deeply personal.
There is relatively little dialogue in the film’s opening scenes, and it proceeds that way for most of the film’s running time with this young strong and silent-type soldier serving as our emotional entry point into the oftentimes confusing and violent world of Northern Ireland in the 1970s. O’Connell, who displayed ferocious physical intensity and a profanity laced bravado in his star-making turn as a prison inmate in last year’s Starred Up, is perfectly cast here as a young man on the “right” side of the law who takes in his surroundings with a quiet and gentle curiosity. Given the minimal dialogue, his character is revealed through actions not words, much like the rest of the characters in this breathless thriller.
The divide between Protestants and Catholics drives the conflict. When a would-be helper asks the soldier if he is Protestant or not, Hook replies genuinely that he does not know. What connects this soldier to the people he meets, both Catholic and Protestant, is not religious, political or national allegiances, instead it is based simply on the fact that he is from a hardscrabble, working class background just like they are. The question that looms large in the film is what difference can one man make in the midst of a tragic situation he does not have a real stake in and does not fully understand?
While being eerily reminiscent of the recent conflicts in the Middle East as well as unrest in the United States in places like Ferguson, Missouri in that there are white men with guns policing a civilian population with little to no trust or goodwill on either side, this film does not seem to have an axe to grind with a particular group. If the movie does take a stance it seems to be that cycles of violence are endless unless people are willing to put down their guns and stop fighting. By the end of the film, one thing is clear: the situation will not be sorted through more tanks, guns, or bombs.
A little over ten years ago while living in Northern Ireland and working with The Peace and Reconciliation movement as a YWAM missionary, I was able to spend time with disillusioned Northern Irish youth, many of whom were the same age as the young people depicted in this film. I was able to witness firsthand the aftermath of the destructiveness of sectarianism. Here in microcosm was the whole bloody history of Christendom for the past 1000 years or more, and it was an ugly picture of divorce, where the blame for the breakdown in the marriage belongs equally to both parties. Understandably, these young men and women were fed up with religion. I would tell them God had not forgotten about them even though the people acting in his name on both sides of the conflict had screwed things up so royally for the nation.
Participating in a foot washing ceremony where Catholics and Protestants washed each other’s feet left a lasting impression on me. This is what the Body of Christ needs to look like – Christians putting their guns down (both literal and figurative) and humbly loving and serving together to bring the vibrant light of the Christian message to an increasingly dark world. That’s a vision worth our lives.
In his groundbreaking study of the conflicts in Northern Ireland Ed Cairns of the University of Ulster wrote, “The assumption is that deep down everyone would like to forgive but in fact many people don’t want to—especially in Northern Ireland where the wounds run deep.” The unasked question implicit in the film then is this: What can we choose to forgive? What needs to take place for enemies to let go of their desire for revenge in order to be reconciled with their fellow countrymen? How would our world be changed if we were to choose mercy over judgment and love over hatred?
You might also find this review of ’71 helpful:
Elijah Davidson’s original review of the film from the 2015 Sundance Film Festival