Irish Cinema

Irish cinema has historically focused on what are known as – ‘the troubles’ –the ongoing struggles between predominant Protestant national forces (loyalists to Brit rule) and the IRA (the IRA Irish Republican Army, made up of radical Irish-Catholics).  The underdog IRA were portrayed as heroes in several popular films of the 80s/90s, most infamously in The Crying Game about an IRA volunteer who has fallen in love with a transgender woman

WATCH: the trailer for The Crying Game 

The Crying Game trailer – CC

Directed by Neil Jordan—responsible for the earlier Brit kitchen sink love story Mona Lisa—Game was part of a series of such films which included Some Mother’s Son (starring Helen Mirren), In the Name of the Father, and the Boxer—the latter two starring Daniel Day-Lewis.  Perhaps the most extreme of the ‘kitchen sink’ style, the Irish ‘voice’ is tough talking and swearing, anti-Church and anti-authoritarian.

(However, the very gritty—but equally entertaining– film The Commitments –about the rise and fall of a small-town band during the 1960s was a big hit.

WATCH: the trailer for The Commitments

With closed captions

Band version: Try a Little Tenderness

 

https://youtu.be/PKfHC5eY5CI

The Commitments Try a Little Tenderness – CC

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