"71' (15)

*****

After a house search goes horribly wrong, new recruit Private Gary Hook is abandoned behind enemy lines in Belfast, 1971. Alone and afraid in a city that is tearing itself apart, Hook must negotiate the dangerous streets of war-torn Belfast to make it back to his barracks.

The quality of filmmaking on display here can only be considered as excellent, so the fact that it is directed by a relative newcomer, Yann Demange, only makes it more remarkable. Focusing his attentions on abandoned Private Gary Hook (Jack O’Connell), Demange escorts the viewer around the brutal and bloody landscape that is Belfast in 1971, building the tension to almost unbearable heights as various factions of Irish militants close in on our young soldier. The violence is shocking and unflinching, but never gratuitous, and at times I had to turn away to avoid witnessing another bloody execution. There is one particularly gruesome moment involving the detonation of a bomb that is very hard to watch, but it is filmed and acted so well that you find yourself compelled to continue watching even though you are appalled. The action on screen is supported by a chilling score, which adds to the feeling of dread and unease that runs throughout the entire film, and supports the mounting tension. In the final act, I was so gripped by what was happening on screen that I almost forgot I was watching a film – I was in that block of flats with Hook, desperately searching for a way out.

O’Connell, surely one of the best young stars of our time, fronts a universally brilliant cast as Hook, a new recruit inexperienced in combat and wholly unprepared for the situation in Ireland. Hook is a fairly monosyllabic character, but O’Connell has an impressive and magnetic screen presence so that even when he is only muttering the odd word, you are still away of his character’s motives and fears. The supporting cast are equally excellent, with Martin McCann as a silent gun-toting assassin, Sean Harris as a seedy army officer, and Sam Reid as the wholly ignorant Lieutenant Armitage, whose incompetence in the face of adversity leaves Hook alone in Belfast. Particularly worthy of note is another newcomer, Barry Keoghan as the radicalised youth, Sean. He and Hook mirror each other, both being young, inexperienced, and handed a weapon that they know very little about, and Keoghan handles the role well.       

A hard, but ultimately very moving, watch that packs a powerful bunch, and doesn’t feel the need to excuse the violence with a positive ending. O’Connell is outstanding as Hook, and I was gripped throughout. At 99 minutes long, it is far from overly-long, and the filmmaking and storytelling skills on display are truly exemplary – without a doubt one of the best films of 2014.