’71 (2014)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

’71 (2014) – Y. Demange

A British soldier gets stuck in the Catholic section of Belfast and has to escape or die in this searing and intense action flick.  It is a “confused situation” to be sure, and we are privy not only to the soldier’s experiences but also the backroom conversations of members of the IRA and the Ulster Rifles.  Our soldier (Jack O’Connell) becomes a bloody pawn in the political machinations of the times.  And those times are very nicely recreated with cars, outfits, hairstyles, furniture and wallpaper.  In some ways, what we have here is the inverse of Carol Reed’s Odd Man Out (1947) which saw injured IRA man James Mason passing the night (and from life to death) on the run from the law/Brits also in Northern Ireland.  Similarly, we meet an array of characters and situations as O’Connell moves from location to location in and around the Catholic tenement flats but the focus in ’71 is less on creating a parable and more on gritty pulse-pounding action done well.