Banned history

 

By Sean O'Tuama

The video `War and Peace in Ireland' by American filmaker Art McKeague was shown throughout the week in the festivals in north and west Belfast. The film can be shown publicly, but under an infantile British law, it cannot be sold to private individuals.

The film is a gripping and detailed account of British oppression in the north over the last thirty years, and Irish Republicans' response to it.

The video covered all the major events of the conflict and the politics. It included extended interviews with John Hume, Gerry Adams, Albert Reynolds and an IRA commander while he supervised his unit training in the Irish countryside.

It revealed, through a leaked secret document, that the British realised from the mid-1970s that the IRA could not be defeated militarily. Yet this did not stop John Major from bringing the first IRA ceasefire of 1994 to an end by trying to get the Republican volunteers to surrender by introducing decommissioning as a precondition to all-party talks.

The video opens with scenes of RUC brutality towards nationalists in 1997 and identical scenes from the 1960s, highlighting how little this state's attitude to equality and justice has changed.

In his interview Gerry Adams outlined how the torture of internees in the 70s was systematic and designed to try and break Republicans' spirit. A clip of a blanketman in the Kesh defiantly proclaiming ``up the `Ra'' proved that this centuries-old British policy was a complete failure.

Adams went on to say how the struggle had been ``mainly a military one'' in the 70s, but from the hunger strikes on, political and other fronts were opened up to combat the British occupation of Ireland.

The film stated that, despite Articles 2 and 3, the Dublin government had ``always preferred to ignore the troubles'' in the Six Counties, Albert Reynolds being the first Taoiseach to take a more `hands-on' approach to his fellow countrymen in the early 1990s.

Some lighter moments are also depicted such as Adams addressing tens of thousands of Republicans at Belfast's City Hall as ``my fellow Fenian bastards.'' And the many voices of the Sinn Fein President during the period of the British censorship of Republican voices in the media.

The music is courtesy of the excellent Irish-American band Seanachie and includes Irish Republican Rap songs.

The only sour note in the piece is near the start when it's claimed that Michael Collins and the IRA defeated the British empire in 1921; this implies that partition was a victory, which is absurd to say the least.

The film closes showing that, despite the second ceasefire, the RUC and British army patrols in Belfast in 1997 are still harassing nationalists. As one resident put it, ``while the British are here our children's lives are in danger.''

Family troubles

The Castle
Lost in Space
The Castle (as in a man's home is his) is a heartily funny comedy from Australia that warms the heart and chases away the worries, which is just about all that most of us want from a movie not desperate to sell itself as a Hollywood summer blockbuster.

The main character is Darryl Kerrigan, played by Michael Caton, who you may recall as Uncle Harry from The Sullivans. Darryl, a towtruck driver who also breeds greyhounds, is one of life's eternal optimists, and sees the fact that his home is situated at the end of an airport runway and beside high-voltage power lines as a positive feature. The story centres on his fight to save that home when a big company secures a compulsory purchase order in order to expand the airport. The ending is never really in doubt, but getting there is a whole lot of fun, as the straight-talking eccentric and an assortment of eclectic supporting characters combine to brighten even the sort of rain-sodden day this reviewer faced when departing the cinema.

By Martin Spain

 


Lost in Space was my favourite TV programme as a child - the only one I would miss football or hurling to watch. It was a brilliant concept. A family (called Robinson, of course) marooned on a distant planet had to contend with alien threats with only their ingenuity, a protective force field and a friendly robot to rely on. With them was the slimy, selfish Dr Zachary Smith who deserved to be fed to the aliens.

Now the Lost in Space concept has leapt over Star Trek in a feature film with stunning special effects, a modern dysfunctional family (the Robinsons of my childhood were perfectly wholesome), plenty of ironic humour and an equally repulsive Zachary Smith, played excellently by Gary Oldman.

Matt LeBlanc (Joey from Friends) is great as the dim but brave pilot with William Hurt plodding along as the troubled father.

There are the usual host of Hollywood touches, including a pathetically cute alien which is only included to provoke the kiddies' ``aaahh'' response. But overall, one of the better sci-fi blockbusters which doesn't take itself too seriously. The ending invites a sequel, which I'd definitely rush home from school to see.

By Brian Campbell