Bloody Sunday (film)

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Not to be confused with Sunday Bloody Sunday (film).

Bloody Sunday
Theatrical release poster
Directed byPaul Greengrass
Screenplay byPaul Greengrass
Based onEyewitness Bloody Sunday
by Don Mullan
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyIvan Strasburg
Edited byClare Douglas
Music byDominic Muldowney
Production
companies
Distributed byParamount Classics
Release dates
  • 16 January 2002 (2002-01-16) (Sundance)
  • 25 January 2002 (2002-01-25) (UK)
Running time
111 minutes
Countries
  • United Kingdom
  • Ireland
LanguageEnglish
Budget£2,000,000
Box office£482,117

Bloody Sunday is a 2002 film written and directed by Paul Greengrass based around the 1972 "Bloody Sunday" shootings in Derry, Northern Ireland. Although produced by Granada Television as a TV film, it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on 16 January, a few days before its screening on ITV on 20 January, and then in selected London cinemas from 25 January.

Bloody Sunday is an international co-production of the United Kingdom and Ireland. Though set in Derry, the film was mostly shot in Ballymun in North Dublin, with some location scenes were shot in Derry, in Guildhall Square and in Creggan on the actual route of the march in 1972.

Content[edit]

The film was inspired by Don Mullan's politically influential book Eyewitness Bloody Sunday (Wolfhound Press, 1997). The drama shows the events of the day through the eyes of Ivan Cooper, an SDLP Member of the Parliament of Northern Ireland who was a central organiser of the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association march in Derry on 30 January 1972. The march ended when British Army paratroopers fired on the demonstrators, killing thirteen and wounding another who died four and a half months later. In addition to the deaths, fourteen other people were wounded.

A live version of "Sunday Bloody Sunday" by U2 plays over the closing credits.

Casting and production[edit]

Cooper is played by James Nesbitt, himself a Protestant from Northern Ireland. In recognition of the role his book played in achieving the new Bloody Sunday Inquiry, his book's role as inspiration for the movie, and the fact that he was a schoolboy witness to the tragedy, Don Mullan was asked by director Paul Greengrass to appear in the film as a Bogside Priest. A number of the military characters were played by ex-members of the British Army, including Simon Mann. Gerry Donaghy was played by Declan Duddy, nephew of Jackie Duddy, one of those killed on Bloody Sunday. Big Brother 2007 housemate Seány O'Kane was also in the film.[1]

Notable actors[edit]

Reception[edit]

The film was critically acclaimed.[2] It won the Audience Award at Sundance and the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival (tied with Spirited Away), in addition to the Hitchcock d'Or best film prize at the Dinard Festival of British Cinema.[3]

Bloody Sunday appeared a week before Jimmy McGovern's TV film on the same subject, entitled Sunday (shown by Channel 4). McGovern subsequently criticised Greengrass's film for concentrating on the leadership of the march, and not the perspective of those who joined it.[4]

It holds a 92% approval rating on aggregate review site Rotten Tomatoes, based on 102 collected reviews, with an average score of 7.9/10. The site's consensus reads: "Bloody Sunday powerfully recreates the events of that day with startling immediacy."[5] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 90 out of 100 based on 31 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[6]

Accolades[edit]

Year Award Category Nominee Result Ref.
2002
 Berlin International Film Festival Golden Bear Paul Greengrass Won [7]
Prize of the Ecumenical Jury Won
British Independent Film Awards Best British Independent Film Bloody Sunday Nominated [8]
Best Director Paul Greengrass Nominated
Best Actor James Nesbitt Won
Best Screenplay Paul Greengrass Nominated
Best Technical Achievement Ivan Strasburg Nominated
European Film Awards Best Film Bloody Sunday Nominated [9]
EFA People's Choice Award - Best Director Paul Greengrass Nominated
Best Screenwriter Nominated
Best Cinematographer Ivan Strasburg Nominated
Independent Spirit Awards Best International Film Bloody Sunday Nominated [10]
IFTA Film & Drama Awards Best Feature Film Won [11]
Best Director – Film Paul Greengrass Won
Best Actor – Film James Nesbitt Nominated
Best Actress – Film Kathy Kiera Clarke Nominated
Best Script Paul Greengrass Won
Best Photography Ivan Strasburg Nominated
Best Editing Clare Douglas Nominated
Best Sound Albert Bailey Won
Sundance Film Festival World Cinema Audience Award Bloody Sunday Won [12]
2003
 British Academy Television Awards Best Single Drama Mark Redhead, Paul Greengrass Nominated [13]
Best Actor James Nesbitt Nominated
British Academy Television Craft Awards Best Editing: Fiction/Entertainment Clare Douglas Nominated
Best Photography and Lighting: Fiction Ivan Strasburg Won
Best Sound: Entertainment Sound Team Nominated
Royal Television Society Programme Awards Serials and Single Drama Bloody Sunday Nominated [14]
Writing Paul Greengrass Nominated

References[edit]

  1. ^ Seány O'Kane at IMDb
  2. ^ UKTV Drama Stars Archived 30 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine uktv.co.uk. Retrieved 14 July 2007.
  3. ^ French award for Bloody Sunday BBC News Online, 6 October 2002. Retrieved 14 July 2007.
  4. ^ McGovern, Jimmy (10 June 2004). "The power of truth". The Guardian. London.
  5. ^ "Bloody Sunday (2002)". Flixster. Retrieved 22 February 2014.
  6. ^ Bloody Sunday, retrieved 5 February 2023
  7. ^ "AWARDS ANNOUNCEMENT" (PDF). berlinale.de. Archived (PDF) from the original on 16 May 2013. Retrieved 1 September 2014.
  8. ^ Gibbons, Fiachra (31 October 2002). "Sweet Sixteen named best of the independents". The Guardian. Retrieved 4 October 2021.
  9. ^ "Europejska Akademia Filmowa 2002 - Filmweb".
  10. ^ "Independent Spirit Awards nominees announced". Los Angeles Times. 12 December 2002. Archived from the original on 27 January 2013. Retrieved 22 August 2012.
  11. ^ Pham, Annika (23 January 2003). ""Bloody Sunday" scoops 4 IFTA Awards". Cineuropa. Retrieved 5 April 2023.
  12. ^ 2002 Sundance Film Festival sundance.org
  13. ^ "2003 BAFTA Television Awards" (PDF). BAFTA. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 October 2006. Retrieved 5 April 2023.
  14. ^ "Winners of Royal Television Society awards". www.telegraph.co.uk. 19 March 2003. Retrieved 29 March 2022.

Further reading[edit]

  • Blaney, Aileen (Fall–Winter 2007). "Remembering Historical Trauma in Paul Greengrass's Bloody Sunday". History & Memory. 19 (2). Indiana University Press: 113–138. doi:10.2979/HIS.2007.19.2.113. S2CID 154269051.

External links[edit]

Wikiquote has quotations related to Bloody Sunday (film).
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