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Black '47

Black '47 is a revenge western set in Ireland during the Great Famine of 1845-1849. I saw this at the Luna Leederville as part of the Revelation Film Festival a week or so ago. There was even an intro from an actual Irishman, Dr. Enda Murray, who curates the Irish Film Festival.

The story follows a young Irish fella who returns home after fighting with the British Army in various exotic climes. He lands bang in the middle of the famine to find most of his family gone, primarily at the hands of the Brits he was fighting for. Needless to say, this shits him a touch. Though this guy, Feeney, played by the Aussie lad from Animal Kingdom, James Frecheville, is nominally the protagonist, it's his supposed nemesis, Hannah, played brilliantly by Hugo Weaving, who is the real star of the film. It's a clever angle that the villainous Englishman, who murders an Irish rebel at the start, can turn out to be the pseudo-protagonist by the end. A hint may have been that the first and final shots of the film are of Weaving.

Another nice moment was seeing Stephen Rea on screen again. He's always great and here was no exception, playing Conneely, a chancer with questionable loyalties, who tags along with Hannah and crew in the hunt for Feeney. This crew is made up of a proper posh twat, Pope, played by Freddie Fox and Hobson, played by the impressive Barry Keoghan. Most films of this ilk tend to portray the British as moustache-twirling, morally bereft rotters but even the aforementioned toff, Pope, has an inkling of shade to his character by the end. Admittedly, Jim Broadbent's character, Lord Kilmichael, is fairly irredeemable.

The pacing of the film is pretty solid, albeit after a slowish beginning and the miserable vistas are nicely shot. The images of loads of houses without roofs scattered through the countryside made me wonder what the deal was with 'tumbling' - ripping the thatched roofs from houses. Was it for feeding livestock? Burning for warmth? Or just an evil British ploy to freeze people out of their homes?

I'd recommend this film, mainly for the performances and the nuanced treatment of characters. There are some neat set-pieces and the final scene is just about perfect, a very Coen-esque ending.

See also:

Ken Loach's excellent The Wind that Shakes the Barley (2006) and for more Stephen Rea, try Neil Jordan's The Crying Game (1992).

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