Bloody Sunday is a 2002 film written and directed by Paul Greengrass based around the 1972 "Bloody Sunday" shootings in Derry, Northern Ireland. Although produced by Granada Television as a TV film, it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on 16 January, a few days before its screening on ITV on 20 January, and then in selected London cinemas from 25 January.
| Bloody Sunday | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Paul Greengrass |
| Screenplay by | Paul Greengrass |
| Based on | Eyewitness Bloody Sunday by Don Mullan |
| Produced by |
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| Starring |
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| Cinematography | Ivan Strasburg |
| Edited by | Clare Douglas |
| Music by | Dominic Muldowney |
Production companies |
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| Distributed by | Feature Film Company |
Release dates |
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Running time | 111 minutes |
| Countries |
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| Language | English |
| Budget | £2,000,000 |
| Box office | £482,117 |
Bloody Sunday is an international co-production of the United Kingdom and Ireland. Though set in Derry, the film was mostly shot in Ballymun in North Dublin, with some location scenes were shot in Derry, in Guildhall Square and in Creggan on the actual route of the march in 1972.
Content
editThe film was inspired by Don Mullan's politically influential book Eyewitness Bloody Sunday (Wolfhound Press, 1997). The drama shows the events of the day through the eyes of Ivan Cooper, an SDLP Member of the Parliament of Northern Ireland who was a central organiser of the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association march in Derry on 30 January 1972. The march ended when British Army paratroopers fired on the demonstrators, killing thirteen and wounding another who died four and a half months later. In addition to the deaths, fourteen other people were wounded.
A live version of "Sunday Bloody Sunday" by U2 plays over the closing credits.
Casting and production
editCooper is played by James Nesbitt, himself a Protestant from Northern Ireland. In recognition of the role his book played in achieving the new Bloody Sunday Inquiry, his book's role as inspiration for the movie, and the fact that he was a schoolboy witness to the tragedy, Don Mullan was asked by director Paul Greengrass to appear in the film as a Bogside Priest. A number of the military characters were played by ex-members of the British Army, including Simon Mann. Gerry Donaghy was played by Declan Duddy, nephew of Jackie Duddy, one of those killed on Bloody Sunday. Big Brother 2007 housemate Seány O'Kane was also in the film.[1]
Notable actors
edit- James Nesbitt as Ivan Cooper
- Tim Pigott-Smith as Major General Robert Ford
- Nicholas Farrell as Brigadier Patrick Maclellan
- Gerard McSorley as Chief Supt. Lagan
- Kathy Kiera Clarke as Frances
- Allan Gildea as Kevin McCorry
- Gerard Crossan as Eamonn McCann
- Simon Mann as Col Derek Wilford
- Mary Moulds as Bernadette Devlin
- Carmel McCallion as Bridget Bond
- David Clayton Rogers as Dennis
Reception
editThe film was critically acclaimed.[2] It won the Audience Award at Sundance and the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival (tied with Spirited Away), in addition to the Hitchcock d'Or best film prize at the Dinard Festival of British Cinema.[3]
Bloody Sunday appeared a week before Jimmy McGovern's TV film on the same subject, entitled Sunday (shown by Channel 4). McGovern subsequently criticised Greengrass's film for concentrating on the leadership of the march, and not the perspective of those who joined it.[4]
It holds a 92% approval rating on aggregate review site Rotten Tomatoes, based on 102 collected reviews, with an average score of 7.9/10. The site's consensus reads: "Bloody Sunday powerfully recreates the events of that day with startling immediacy."[5] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 90 out of 100 based on 31 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[6]
Accolades
edit| Year | Award | Category | Nominee | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2002
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Berlin International Film Festival | Golden Bear | Paul Greengrass | Won | [7] |
| Prize of the Ecumenical Jury | Won | ||||
| British Independent Film Awards | Best British Independent Film | Bloody Sunday | Nominated | [8] | |
| Best Director | Paul Greengrass | Nominated | |||
| Best Actor | James Nesbitt | Won | |||
| Best Screenplay | Paul Greengrass | Nominated | |||
| Best Technical Achievement | Ivan Strasburg | Nominated | |||
| European Film Awards | Best Film | Bloody Sunday | Nominated | [9] | |
| EFA People's Choice Award - Best Director | Paul Greengrass | Nominated | |||
| Best Screenwriter | Nominated | ||||
| Best Cinematographer | Ivan Strasburg | Nominated | |||
| Independent Spirit Awards | Best International Film | Bloody Sunday | Nominated | [10] | |
| IFTA Film & Drama Awards | Best Feature Film | Won | [11] | ||
| Best Director – Film | Paul Greengrass | Won | |||
| Best Actor – Film | James Nesbitt | Nominated | |||
| Best Actress – Film | Kathy Kiera Clarke | Nominated | |||
| Best Script | Paul Greengrass | Won | |||
| Best Photography | Ivan Strasburg | Nominated | |||
| Best Editing | Clare Douglas | Nominated | |||
| Best Sound | Albert Bailey | Won | |||
| Sundance Film Festival | World Cinema Audience Award | Bloody Sunday | Won | [12] | |
2003
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British Academy Television Awards | Best Single Drama | Mark Redhead, Paul Greengrass | Nominated | [13] |
| Best Actor | James Nesbitt | Nominated | |||
| British Academy Television Craft Awards | Best Editing: Fiction/Entertainment | Clare Douglas | Nominated | ||
| Best Photography and Lighting: Fiction | Ivan Strasburg | Won | |||
| Best Sound: Entertainment | Sound Team | Nominated | |||
| Royal Television Society Programme Awards | Serials and Single Drama | Bloody Sunday | Nominated | [14] | |
| Writing | Paul Greengrass | Nominated |
References
edit- ^ Seány O'Kane at IMDb
- ^ UKTV Drama Stars Archived 30 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine uktv.co.uk. Retrieved 14 July 2007.
- ^ French award for Bloody Sunday BBC News Online, 6 October 2002. Retrieved 14 July 2007.
- ^ McGovern, Jimmy (10 June 2004). "The power of truth". The Guardian. London.
- ^ "Bloody Sunday (2002)". Flixster. Retrieved 22 February 2014.
- ^ Bloody Sunday, retrieved 5 February 2023
- ^ "AWARDS ANNOUNCEMENT" (PDF). berlinale.de. Archived (PDF) from the original on 16 May 2013. Retrieved 1 September 2014.
- ^ Gibbons, Fiachra (31 October 2002). "Sweet Sixteen named best of the independents". The Guardian. Retrieved 4 October 2021.
- ^ "Europejska Akademia Filmowa 2002 - Filmweb".
- ^ "Independent Spirit Awards nominees announced". Los Angeles Times. 12 December 2002. Archived from the original on 27 January 2013. Retrieved 22 August 2012.
- ^ Pham, Annika (23 January 2003). ""Bloody Sunday" scoops 4 IFTA Awards". Cineuropa. Retrieved 5 April 2023.
- ^ 2002 Sundance Film Festival sundance.org
- ^ "2003 BAFTA Television Awards" (PDF). BAFTA. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 October 2006. Retrieved 5 April 2023.
- ^ "Winners of Royal Television Society awards". www.telegraph.co.uk. 19 March 2003. Retrieved 29 March 2022.
Further reading
edit- Blaney, Aileen (Fall–Winter 2007). "Remembering Historical Trauma in Paul Greengrass's Bloody Sunday". History & Memory. 19 (2). Indiana University Press: 113–138. doi:10.2979/HIS.2007.19.2.113. S2CID 154269051.