Director: Yann Demange Starring: Jack O'Connell, Sean Harris, Sam Reid Writer: Gregory Burke | 4/5 '71 A few weeks back, Sean Penn and Pierre Morel tried desperately hard to get inject their run-of-the-mill action flick with some real world relevance. Needless to say, it was a failed experiment that I hope will teach both star and director not to dabble in such affairs again. Not every film can be '71, Yann Demange’s debut feature that manages to be both exhilarating and prestige-drama heavy. Only one other director in recent memory has put out films with this matching pedigree, and that is Paul Greengrass. It’s kind of ironic, seeing as how Greengrass also has a film about the deadly situations in 1970’s Belfast. The fact that Demange can make a movie based on the same events in the same style as Bloody Sunday, and it still be a knockout, is a testament to the quality of the director’s skills as a filmmaker. Demange’s first winning move was to focus his story on the tribulations of Gary Hook (Jack O’Connell), accidentally abandoned by his squadron right in the middle of the Traditionalist Catholic part of town. In case you did not pick up my clues, this is the last place a British soldier wants to himself alone at night. Only ninety-nine minutes long and barely any time dedicated to exposition, things get started fairly quickly. Once things start, they do not stop. '71 is a continuously rolling snowball of tension, and you would be smart to just lay back and let it roll on over you. |
A similar battle arises in the wake of a dynamo performance from O’Connell. This on-the-rise actor set 2014 on fire with a pair of unforgettable roles. First, he shocked us all in the similarly brutal prison/family drama Starred Up, then he won praise in his more mainstream role as Louis Zamperini in Angelina Jolie’s Unbroken. He continues his winning streak here, so much so that he pulls the rug out of his supporting cast. None of the actors are bad, but they fall through your memory’s cracks in the wake of O’Connell’s work.
Subplots such as the one involving a rebellious IRA member bent on killing his superior and poisoning the mind of young Sean only make you anticipate the scenes involving the central character. I could not tell you any of the other characters’ names, mostly because I kept asking myself, “Where’s Gary now?” If Demange can take anything from this experience, it is a lesson on how to either reign in the extraordinary to better match the rest or lift up the rest to the level of the extraordinary. I do not mean to complain, though. Everyone should be seeking out their nearest theater showing ’71. (For Hattiesburg locals, that would be New Orleans.)