The Best and Worst of Ireland on screen…Part Three.

Welcome back to the best and worst of Ireland on screen! The series where we talk about good and bad representations of Ireland in film and television. Whether it’s the culture, the history or just the accents, this series will give you a good view of some things to watch (and to avoid!)

In Part One, we discussed the wonderful, and in Part Two we discussed the weak. Now, we’re jumping back to finish our look at some of the best that Ireland has to offer.

1. The Commitments (1991)

My family has a personal connection to the Commitments, it was one of the first dates my parents went on together. As the story goes, because the film has a lot of slang and features characters from Dublin speaking with natural Dublin accents, my dad (Irish) decided to translate everything for my mum (English) while they were in cinema. For example;
Movie character: How’re’ya?
My dad: That means “how are you”.
And they’re still together, funny how things work out.
The Commitments is a wonderful film that follows the story of Dublin’s first (and seemingly only) jazz band made up of a group of working-class friends. While the story itself isn’t amazing, the writing and characters make this the legendary film that it is. Nearly every sentence is hilarious, characters insult each other the way that only friends can do and the relationships come across like you’ve known these people for years. That’s not to mention an amazing soundtrack and great musical performances in the film.

A truly funny and occasionally heart-breaking film, this has become a frequently quoted classic in Irish cinema for a reason.

2. Hunger (2008)

If you have kept up with this series, you might remember in Part One we discussed a film called ‘The Magdalen Sisters’ that I described as “NOT A FUN FILM”. Well, we’re going back to amazing films that are not fun with ‘Hunger’, one of Michael Fassbender’s early films. This historical drama was directed by Steve McQueen (who would continue to work with Fassbender in ‘Shame’ and ‘12 Years a Slave’) and, like ‘The Magdalen Sisters’, is set during a very important but infamous moment in Irish history, specifically, the seven-month long hunger strike among Irish prisoners in Northern Ireland’s Maze Prison in 1981.

This is a dark and intimate view of life in the prison, following Bobby Sands (played by Fassbender) during the seven months. If you know about the real history, you know where the story goes, but that doesn’t stop the film punching you in the face with brutal reality. Again, I cannot recommend this if you want to have a fun evening watching an Irish film, but if you want to see a beautifully directed and performed tour of some pretty horrific history, you can’t do any better than this.

3. In Bruges (2008)

So, Martin McDonagh has done well, hasn’t he? He’s won Oscars for his screenplays, he’s been able to work with some of the biggest and most important people in Hollywood. Good for him, well done. But, for me, nothing compares to his first film. ‘In Bruges’ is my favourite dark comedy from Ireland, one of my favourite comedies full stop. It was released in 2008 (the same year as ‘Hunger’…what a good time for Irish film) and instantly exploded; everyone was talking about it, everyone was quoting it, the world hadn’t seen anything combine tragedy and comedy so perfectly before.

The script, the direction, the cinematography, the acting, the dialogue…it’s just close to perfection. The story follows two hitmen (played by Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson) who are forced to hide in Bruges after a job goes wrong and we see all the “adventures” they go on while sightseeing. The two actors work so well together, bouncing off each other like old friends and leading us perfectly into the different situations. To be clear; the film is brutal, the violence and language can be shocking at times, but it all just works so well together.

If you are into darker styles of comedy, you really cannot go wrong with this. Please watch it.

And there it is, the end of our positive discussion. The world of Irish media is huge and there are so many good films to find beyond the ones in this series. But unfortunately, we must now dive back into the dark world of media so bad it’s just bad.

Until next time.