NOTHING PERSONAL
A film review by Ben Hoffman
Copyright 1997 Ben Hoffman
In Ireland, it's referred to as "the troubles." And what a terrible euphemism it has been and continues to be. By this time, with a half dozen films dealing with the subject of the Catholic IRA and the Protestant paramilitary (both of whom believe in the same god, Jesus), it would seem that every moviegoer would know everything there is to know about that small piece of North Ireland territory. Each movie seems to have tackled a different aspect of "the troubles" but NOTHING PERSONAL" explains somewhat better what iS going on.
The recent, THE DEVIL'S OWN, NAME OF THE FATHER, MOTHER'S SON, to name but a few, have touched on the consequences but not on the root cause. This film, while not pointing a finger, does do some enlightening.
Kenny (James Frain), Protestant and Liam (John Lynch), Catholic, were childhood friends. No longer; When a pub frequented by Protestants is blown up, all hell breaks loose. Like the gangs in the U.S. who hold their "turf" so dear they will kill to keep others off it, the Catholics and Protestants have their own. A piece of jagged metal separates the two neighborhoods but the metal is only symbolic; a new increased hatred is on the loose.. Anyone found wandering in the other's part is fair game. "Nothing personal;" that is just how it is. Cooler heads such as Leonard's (Michael Gambon) of the Protestant faction arranges a truce with the local IRA leader but nothing can stop the crazed, fanatic Kenny gang from seeking revenge.
Liam's son is missing, apparently having wandered into the enemy sector so Liam has to find him before anyone gets shot. But Liam gets caught by the Kenny gang and held and beaten while being questioned. And the internecine war goes on with seemingly no end in sight.
A very tense film packed with powerful emotions.
Directed by Thaddeus O'Sullivan.
3.5 Bytes
4 Bytes = Superb 3 Bytes = Too good to miss 2 Bytes = Average 1 Byte = Save your money
Ben Hoffman
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews