Bloody Sunday

Using a gritty cinema vérité style and unfamiliar actors, writer-director Paul Greengrass has fashioned a technically brilliant, emotionally resonant recreation of the clash between British troops and civil rights marchers in Derry, Northern Ireland on January 30, 1972. In the ensuing violence there were 27 casualties, including 13 dead, and the carnage virtually destroyed the movement for peaceful change in the country for a generation. Skillfully weaving together personal episodes and broad political observations, Greengrass creates a poignant, thought-provoking study of good intentions and sad miscalculations, and while he challenges the official explanations that exculpated the military by placing blame on IRA agitators, he refuses to paint the characters on either side of the conflict as either plaster saints or malevolent villains. Sporting performances that are so natural it's hard to believe that the cast is composed of professionals (James Nesbitt is astonishingly good as the Protestant leader of the protest), it's a pity that Bloody Sunday has been excluded from Academy Award consideration on a technicality (it was broadcast on British television prior to its theatrical release). Subtle, shocking, and surely one of the finest films of 2002, this is highly recommended. Editor's Choice. [Note: DVD extras include both domestic and U.K. theatrical versions, audio commentaries (one by writer-director Paul Greengrass and costar James Nesbitt, the other by co-producer and Eyewitness Bloody Sunday author Don Mullan), a 13-minute “History Retold” featurette, and the seven-minute featurette “Ivan Cooper Remembers” with the real-life Cooper (who's played by Nesbitt in the film). Bottom line: a fine extras package for an excellent sleeper.] (F. Swietek)[DVD Review—May 6, 2014—Warner, 110 min., R, $17.99—Making its latest appearance on DVD, 2002's Bloody Sunday features a great transfer and Dolby Digital 5.1 sound. Extras include two audio commentaries (one with writer-director Paul Greengrass and star James Nesbitt; the other with Don Mullan, the co-producer and author of Eyewitness Bloody Sunday), and the behind-the-scenes featurettes “History Retold” (14 min.) and “Ivan Cooper Remembers” with the film's subject—Irish former politician Cooper (7 min.). Bottom line: long out-of-print on DVD, Greengrass's powerful historical drama makes a welcome return.]