SOME MOTHER'S SON
A film review by Cynthia A. Bussiere
Copyright 1997 Cynthia A. Bussiere
Ireland Feature Film
[This review was first posted to CINEMA-L on January 16, 1997.]
Director: Terry George (directorial debut) Screenwriters: Terry George and Jim Sheridan Producers: Jim Sheridan, Arthur Lappin, Edward Burke Associate Producer: Helen Mirren Music: Bill Whelan
Principal Cast Kathleen Quigley: Helen Mirren Annie Higgins: Fionnula Flanagan Gerard Quigley: Aidan Gillen Frank Higgins: David O'Hara Bobby Sands: David Lynch Danny Boyle: Ciaran Hinds
In the late seventies, when (or shortly before) Margaret Thatcher took office in her first term as Prime Minister, the British government embarked upon an apparently harder line toward the IRA and its imprisoned volunteers than had previously been adhered to. In the words of the film, the government adopted a three-pronged policy of "isolation, criminalization, and demoralization." "Isolation" referred to a policy of geographical containment under which the British set up a system of road blocks and closures to hamper the movement of the IRA throughout Northern Ireland. "Criminalization" referred to a policy under which IRA prisoners were denied previously held "special category" status as political prisoners and, instead, were treated by the criminal justice system as criminal terrorists. "Demoralization" referred to a policy of breaking the will and the morale of imprisoned individual IRA volunteers and of the organization as a whole.
SOME MOTHER'S SON, a docudrama, focusses on the criminalization and demoralization prongs of that policy, although the story is set in motion by the isolation prong. As such, the film telescopes into the time frame of its story various events that actually occurred in Belfast in response to the British hard line. These events culminated, as the film culminates, in a prisoners' hunger strike in the Maze prison between March 1 and October 2, 1981.
Twenty-one prisoners went on the strike, and ten of them died. Of the ten, only one was sentenced to a life term. (Terry George states on the film's web site that, had they lived, all of the nine non-lifers would have been released by 1987.) Among the dead was Bobby Sands, beautifully played in the film by John Lynch. Sands was a prominent IRA member and a leader, within the prison, of the hunger strike. During his prison term, he was elected to Parliament. He was a member of Parliament when he died.
The strike didn't end until the mothers of the remaining striking prisoners exercised their powers as their sons' legal guardians and authorized medical intervention to save their sons' lives. By doing so, these women effectively took their sons off the hunger strike. Of course, the dilemma faced by each of these women was horrendous: By saving their sons' lives, they betrayed their sons' convictions and destroyed the cause for which their sons had fought so long and hard in the first place.
Thus, the film centers on the common dilemma of two mothers whose imprisoned sons have joined the hunger strike. On the one hand, there is Annie Higgins, played by Fionnula Flanagan. Annie is a farmer's wife and dedicated IRA supporter. By the time the film opens, one of her sons has already been killed by the British and her remaining son Frank, played by David O'Hara, is an IRA fugitive from justice. Her third child is her fabulous smart-mouthed, quick-tempered, red-headed daughter named Theresa who takes after Annie. On the other hand, there is Kathleen Quigley, played by Helen Mirren. Kathleen is a teacher in a Catholic girls' school. She is politically uninvolved to the point of naivete, but she hates the IRA for the violence for which it stands. Like Annie, she has three children, two sons and a daughter. Unbeknownst to her, her elder son Gerard, played by Aidan Gillen, is an IRA volunteer. Her younger son, as shown by a brief but illuminating moment in the film, may or may not grow up to emulate his older brother. Her older daughter, played by Geraldine O'Rawe, has her hands full just coping. Both mothers are the mainstays of their families: Annie's husband is quite elderly and physically unable to work. Kathleen is a widow.
The film follows the gradual leftward politicization of Kathleen after her son Gerard's arrest, trial, and conviction on a charge of attempted murder. Annie's son Frank, tried jointly with Gerard, is also convicted. Both young men are sent to the Maze to serve their sentences. The courtroom scene in which these events take place is highly sensational and quite moving in its brutal brevity.
When Gerard immediately joins the series of small ongoing protests conducted by all the IRA prisoners in his cell block, Mirren portrays Kathleen as having no choice but to resort to political action to pro- tect and ensure his welfare in prison once the authorities begin retaliating against the prisoners. In effect, his cause becomes her cause, and she takes it up lovingly and ungrudgingly. The film realistically charts her progressive politicization in a way that smoothly and efficiently advances the story. Along the way she engages in her own small rebellion against her Catholic school employer and its principal, the formidable and implacable Sister Bernardina (the nightmare nun of everybody's Catholic school education in the fifties and early sixties).
Concurrently with Kathleen's political progress, and equally real- istically, the film charts the progress of the budding friendship between Kathleen and Annie. The two women begin as openly hostile to one another. They then gradually warm up to each other, bond very closely, and then gradually come a bit apart again. This progression features, among other things, a hilarious car ride along a beach that is meant to be funny, despite the fact that it stands for more than it is. Structurally, these personal developments are woven into Kathleen's political development, because it is Annie, whose political convictions and activism are in place by the time the film begins, who involves Kathleen in specific political activities.
Eventually, the series of protests at the prison lead to the hunger strike, which both Kathleen's and Annie's sons join. From this moment forward, both women move into the center of a mael- strom of the competing interests of the three major players in these events: The IRA, the British government, and the Catholic Church. The IRA is represented by Danny Boyle, the head of Sinn Fein in Belfast. Well and strongly played by Ciaran Hinds, Boyle is a fictional composite character, not the least part of which is probably Gerry Adams. Boyle stubbornly and aggres- sively supports the prisoners' cause and serves as their repre- sentative in the outside world. The British government is represented by a ruthless counter-terrorism law enforcement official (whose scenes are often intercut with newsclips of Thatcher advocating her government's line), who is determined to break the backs of the prisoners and who, to that end, pursues a zero-tolerance policy and a stance of non-negotiation. Steering a middle ground between these extreme factions, yet supportive of the prisoners, is the Catholic Church. Initially, the Church is represented by the head of the Catholic Church in Ireland, the cardinal who comes to the Maze to say Mass for the prisoners. Horrified at the conditions he witnesses there, he immediately holds a press conference, to the extreme embarrassment and consternation of the government. However, more often, more prosaically, and less dramatically, the Church is represented by Father Daly, the local parish priest, who has the heart-breaking tasks of giving the last sacrament to dying hunger strikers and presiding at their funeral Masses.
Ultimately, each mother, Kathleen and Annie, holds the life of her son in her hands and must make the decision to let him live or watch him die.
All of the performances in the film are strong, accurate, and (with a few exceptions) beautifully understated. Mirren is fabulous. Her Kathleen has a touching diffidence, a surprising naivete, and great quiet courage. She also has flashes of humor that are a tribute not only to Mirren's acting, but also to George's direction and Sheridan's and George's writing. Flanagan, whose character undergoes no political changes throughout the film, has ostensibly less to work with. However, because the depth of her character's personal changes is arguably greater than that of Kathleen's, she alternates brilliantly between hardened political ideologue and blooming, softening private person. In a fabulous piece of acting, her physical appearance reflects these develop- ments by actually changing from within in front of the camera. Hinds, whose strong, quiet presence defined the character of Frederick Wentworth in PERSUASION, is an incredibly compelling screen presence here. His Danny Boyle also radiates strength, but of a steely, threatening, potentially explosive kind. As such, his character is as implacable as that of his British anti-terrorist counterpart -- and that of Sister Bernardina's, to boot. His char- acter is, unfortunately, rather underwritten, especially since it appears that at least one of the real-life characters of which his is a composite had a greater hand in the prison protests than the film conveys. Finally, the actors -- Aidan Gillen, John O'Hara, and John Lynch -- who portray the prisoners display a stunning talent that we rarely see in American actors of the same age. Furthermore, they all have strong film credits. Gillen was in CIRCLE OF FRIENDS, O'Hara was in BRAVEHEART, and Lynch was in IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER. In prison, with their uncut hair and unshaven beards, these young men have Christlike appearances. This imagery is further reinforced by background shots of anti-British posters depicting a young man crucified on the Union Jack.
Bill Whelan's folk-based Irish music is a strong and palpable presence in the film. Whelan, a record producer and theatre and television composer, is probably best known as the composer -- in its entirety -- of RIVERDANCE THE STAGE SHOW.
The film itself is extremely well thought out and therefore very well made. Like Spike Lee's DO THE RIGHT THING, the filmmakers and the actors know what they're talking about. Just as DO THE RIGHT THING conveyed a deadly accurate anatomy of a race riot, SOME MOTHER'S SON conveys a deadly accurate anatomy of a political hunger strike in which the lives of twenty-one young men turn on things like the interpretation of words such as "right" and "privilege" regarding what clothes to wear.
Almost nothing is wasted in this film. Therefore, the smallest occurrences and visuals, such as an apple swiped from a lunch or a member of Parliament smoking a cigarette, take on signifi- cance. The film opens and closes with a view of the Irish Sea. In between, and throughout the film, shots of feet on firm ground, such as marchers' feet in a candlelight vigil, are everywhere. The film also makes sparing but effective use of slow motion. Additionally, some of the editing, such as the intercutting of a portable missile attack with a close-up of girls' feet doing an Irish hard-shoe dance, is stunningly effective. Finally, the two principal crowd scenes -- the candlelight vigil for Bobby Sands and Sands' funeral -- are outstandingly well done. (The funeral alone comprised an entire second unit.) These scenes were not only exceptionally well-choreographed; they were also extraordinarily moving in a way that crowd scenes just usually are not.
Even though the film is essentially a work of fiction, all of the major events it depicts actually took place. These include the hunger strike itself, the various prison protests -- including the infamous "dirty protest" -- leading up to the strike, the cardinal's visit to the prison, the election of Sands to Pariliament, the vigils, the deaths, the funerals, and the secret deals, talks, and negotia- tions surrounding the hunger strike. Furthermore, while the characters in the film, with the exception of Sands and a member of Parliament, are fictitious, they are all composite characters based on real people. It appears that Belfast viewers may be able to recognize and identify the people on whom the characters are based.
The film was shot on location in Skerries, a small village north of Dublin. Skerries stood in for Belfast, where the principal events of the film take place. The Maze, together with its H-blocks where the prisoners were housed, was recreated in some Dublin warehouses.
The bottom line of this film is the interplay between the personal and the political in the lives of its characters. Sometimes the two are inseparable, sometimes they are in sync with each other, and sometimes they are at odds with each other. There is no question that this film has an explicit republican bias. However, there is also no question that the issues raised in the film are ultimately resolved on personal grounds.
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