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'71 (2014)
Jack O'Connell plays a newly recruited British soldier who finds himself lost "behind the lines" in troubles-era Belfast when a house raid quickly descends into a riot. Unlike other movies where he would be portrayed as a plucky protagonist fighting to get back home, here he's a helpless, bewildered pawn, caught up in the fighting between myriad factions and their own internal struggles. Which of the many people he meets will kill him, or help him is anybody's guess. It's more about the pointless, chaotic, nonsensical nature of sectarian violence, where nobody from child, to adult seems to remember who they are fighting against, or for, or why. It's all extremely tense, harrowing and well acted but I did have a couple of quibbles with the plotting. At a number of points the script puts O'Connell's soldier in a safe situation, then has to contrive ways to get him back into danger again. I was struck by how many actors ''71' shares with 'Dunkirk' and 'Good Vibrations'.
Jack O'Connell plays a newly recruited British soldier who finds himself lost "behind the lines" in troubles-era Belfast when a house raid quickly descends into a riot. Unlike other movies where he would be portrayed as a plucky protagonist fighting to get back home, here he's a helpless, bewildered pawn, caught up in the fighting between myriad factions and their own internal struggles. Which of the many people he meets will kill him, or help him is anybody's guess. It's more about the pointless, chaotic, nonsensical nature of sectarian violence, where nobody from child, to adult seems to remember who they are fighting against, or for, or why. It's all extremely tense, harrowing and well acted but I did have a couple of quibbles with the plotting. At a number of points the script puts O'Connell's soldier in a safe situation, then has to contrive ways to get him back into danger again. I was struck by how many actors ''71' shares with 'Dunkirk' and 'Good Vibrations'.