‘’71’: a unique blend of action and thought

Movies tend to come and go at the Magic Lantern. Occasionally, however, the theater holds worthy films over. And that certainly applies to "'71," Yann Demange's study of a young British soldier running for his life in 1971 Belfast, Northern Ireland. Following is a transcription of the review I wrote of Demange's movie for Spokane Public Radio:

Though each conflict carries its own personal stamp, all wars bear a few unspeakably sad similarities – brutality, torture, terror and death chiefly among them.

The struggle over Northern Ireland, commonly referred to as “The Troubles,” is a particular example. With underpinnings based firmly on the tortuous several-hundred-year history between Ireland and Great Britain, The Troubles generally apply to the three-decade span between October 1968 and April 1998. Throughout that complicated, internecine struggle – fueled by both religious and secular causes – military and paramilitary groups representing a number of competing factions hounded, hunted and often murdered each other. And civilians typically got caught in the crossfire. Some 3,500 people died in the process.

A number of films have tackled the war, from 1993’s “In the Name of the Father” to 2008’s “Hunger.” Some even deserve the tag of greatness: Paul Greengrass’ 2002 release “Bloody Sunday” comes to mind. Each offers its own take on the conflict. And now director Yann Demange’s succinctly titled “’71,” which is playing at the Magic Lantern, gives us something new: a thrilling, if sobering, thinking-person’s anti-war/action flick.

Demange, a British television director working from a script by Scottish playwright Gregory Burke, focuses on a young British soldier named Hook, played by “Unbroken” and “Starred Up” actor Jack O’Connell. A raw recruit, Hook finds himself sent to Belfast to work crowd control in support of the forces – official and unofficial – behind the city’s Protestant-backed majority. It’s during his first operation, led by a well-meaning but seriously naïve and inexperienced officer, that Hook and another soldier get separated from their regiment. And, after a series of savage events, Hook finds himself on the run, dodging those who want him dead and those who want to use him as a bargaining tool, dependent on either those who see him as a curiosity or those who, unable to reject their humanity, want to help him even as they desperately try figure out some way to get him out of their lives.

If Burke’s screenplay has a point, it’s that war – but in particular war as fought during The Troubles – is typically confusing, efficient only in its viciousness, and marked by psychopathic behavior in support of shifting interests brokered in the name of some larger cause. And in this struggle, the foot soldiers are treated – as Hook is told – as little more than meat.

Keying on the riveting presence of O’Connell, whose performance is an exercise in artistic restraint, director Demange tells several stories at once. As Hook runs blindly down back alleys, we are introduced to a range of secondary characters, from the British officer whose undercover activities follow secret priorities only he can fathom to the boy whose inherent sense of command intimidates those far older. By cross-cutting between these subplots – a skill credited to editor Chris Wyatt – and maintaining an action-flick pace, Demange manages to create a film that is both involving and informative.

What’s sad is that the information, old as time itself, needs to be shared yet again: War leads to nothing good.