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| "My God your Irish accent is worse than Gerard Butler's" |
25. Widows Peak
24. The Van
23. Dancing At Lughnasa
22. Ryan's Daughter
21. Da
20. The Quiet Man
19. The Commitments
18. Waking Ned Devine
17. Michael Collins
16. The Wind That Shakes The Barley
15. Cal
14. The Crying Game
13. Holy Water
12. High Spirits
11. The Devils Own
10. PS I Love You
9. The Snapper
8. Irish Jam
7. Angela's Ashes
6. Darby O'Gill And The Little People
5. Far And Away
4. Hidden Agenda
3. The Match Maker
2. Leap Year
1. A Prayer For The Dying
Some good Irish films?
Bloody Sunday, My Left Foot, Hunger, The Secret of Roan Inish, December Bride among others...
18. Waking Ned Devine
17. Michael Collins
16. The Wind That Shakes The Barley
15. Cal
14. The Crying Game
13. Holy Water
12. High Spirits
11. The Devils Own
10. PS I Love You
9. The Snapper
8. Irish Jam
7. Angela's Ashes
6. Darby O'Gill And The Little People
5. Far And Away
4. Hidden Agenda
3. The Match Maker
2. Leap Year
1. A Prayer For The Dying
Some good Irish films?
Bloody Sunday, My Left Foot, Hunger, The Secret of Roan Inish, December Bride among others...
72 comments:
As usual, I haven't seen most of the films on that list, but I'll always have affection for The Quiet Man, condescending though it is.
I Went Down, The Guard and Perrier's Bounty are all good fun.Good swearing in all those films.
Paul
The Quiet Man is not a terrible film. Great fight scene.
Thanks for the list, have seen about 10 of them, but look forward to checking the others out, and see what I think of them. What bucket would "Resurrection Man" fall into, if you have seen it? A bit too "surreal" the way it was filmed, I thought, but good acting overall.
Michael Fassbender's story about the 'wee foal' in "Hunger" is just awesome.
Sean
I havent seen the film. But I've read the book and liked it a lot. I had a long discussion with Eoin once about the filming of Ressurection but Eoin can put them away and by the end of evening I was so plastered that now I have almost complete memory loss as to his feelings about the whole process.
Adrian- I also liked the book very much. The film had sort of an acid trip feel to it. Pretty cool you got to hang out and get hammered with the author.
Sean
Yeah Eoin is a great writer and a cool cat.
I notice The Commitments and The Snapper are on your list. How do you rate Roddy Doyle's books?
David
Some are better than others. But the films, oh Jesus the films...
Worst line in the history of cinema:
"Dubliners are the blacks of Ireland."
Sean - "Resurrection Man" is an amazing book - "The Ultras" is even better - but I can't imagine it as a movie. It seems like the voices in the story are just as important as the images, and even though it's told in the third person, you can hear all of the characters somehow speaking through the narrator; I can't really explain it. I kind of thought it might make a good one-person play, with one gifted actress or actor speaking in all of those voices, and maybe it could be filmed, sort of like "Swimming to Cambodia". I'm sorry for being pretentious; I just think it's a great book.
I saw "Hunger" too, and I think I liked it, but I'm a little surprised you liked it too, Adrian. The London Times said that Steve McQueen "should be allowed to make more films", but that Bobby Sands was "an unworthy subject" for a biographical film. Even after reading "Biting at the Grave" by Padraig O Malley, I still don't know how I should feel about Bobby Sands.
I don't know much about modern Irish history; what bothered you about "The Wind that Shakes the Barley"?
Anon
Try Orchid Blue.
"An unworthy subject"? Thats a pretty silly thing to say. I thought that as a work of art Hunger was outstanding.
For more of my thoughts on Bobby Sands and the Hunger Strikes try my upcoming novel The Cold Cold Ground pluggity plug plug.
Adrian - I'm glad you called "Hunger" a work of art, because I didn't have the nerve; I was afraid I might offend someone. I thought the London Times' choice of words - "an unworthy subject" - maybe said more about the critic's attitudes towards Irish people than it did about Sands or McQueen. One American critic called Steve McQueen a creep for having made the film.
I live in the US, and I'm still waiting for "Falling Glass" to be published here, let alone "Cold Cold Ground"! Eoin McNamee's novels for adults don't get published here anymore, either.
PS: What's "Orchid Blue" about?
Anon
Its a historical about the last man hanged in Northern Ireland in 1961.
Nice article about Joe Frazier here:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/boxing/8877218/Joe-Frazier-was-a-king-of-the-ring.html
Adrian -
I think maybe I read "Orchid Blue". O r something like it, by Eoin McNamee; only here in the US, it was called "Blue Tango". It was excellent.
Adrian: What, no Titanic?
How did you survive anything as bad as A Prayer for the Dying?
On the other hand, has anyone seen James Nesbit and Liam Neeson in Five Minutes of Heaven?
Joe Frazier, mistreated and misunderstood. Perhaps my favourite sport book is Mark Kram's Ghosts of Manila.
Anon
Havent seen Five Minutes Of Heaven.
A Prayer For The Dying is actually fine if you treat it as a comedy. Thats also what I did with The Crying Game.
David
I remember being allowed up or possibly I was woken up to watch The Thrilla in Manilla. It certainly lived up to the billing as fight of the century and it could have gone either way.
Many of these are gripes about what you see as the distortion of history, aren't they?
I confess to liking the Crying Game at the time, although I think you persuaded me that it wasn't as good as I thought. Unfortunately, I forget why.
I liked the movie I Went Down when I saw it. Brendan Gleeson is always good. And another small film of the same time called Intermission with the ubiquitous Colin Farrell among many others.
Of course one of my very favorite Irish movies was In Bruges. Even though its set, well, in Bruges.
John Huston's The Dead is a great Irish film. Bloom, a version of Ulysses with Stephen Rea as Leopold, was interesting. If someone made a movie out of At Swim-Two-Birds I'd go see it.
'I see a dark stranger' with Deborah Kerr. Condescension perhaps but effectively satirizing a particular form of nationalism - and a bit of fun.
There was a recent NY Times article which called DiCaprio one of the gutsiest actors out there. Right. Let me know when he does two films like Hunger and Shame like Fassbender.
Gutsy, yes, but not always good.
I'm not rational about Irish films. I've never met an Irish man-or Irish actor-I didn't like. Although you pretty decimated most of the films I've seen, but I would see them differently. I, too, loved "In Bruges.'
By the way, I have "The Cold, Cold Ground on order from The Book Depository. Reasonable and "free" shipping, I live in the States.
Anon- Thanks for the skinny on "The Ultras"
More than a few people have recommended "The Wind That Shakes the Barley", and I also really liked "In Bruge"
There's also a film from the 1980, called "The Outsider" that I would really like to see a buddy recently told me about.
Seana
The distortion of history, the use of stereotypes, shlockiness...that sort of thing. Crapness is not necessarily one of my factors here.
Anon
Huston's The Dead is a pretty good version.
Mark
I'm unfamiliar with that one but Deborah Kerr is always value for money.
Matt
If I recall correctly the headline was "An Actor Who Isnt Afraid To Take Risks". I didnt read the piece because thats the kind of headline that drives me up the wall. I assume they arent talking about flying to Rwanda to deliver medicines to famine victims but rather faking emotions for millions of dollars on a comfortable film set.
Lil
I can introduce you to many Irish men and quite a few women who wouldnt like.
In fact hopefully in Cold Cold Ground you'll get to meet some of them.
And hey thanks for ordering the book!
Sean
It's difficult to hear the dialogue in The Wind That Shakes the Barley because of the noise of the axe grinding constantly and loudly in the background.
I think I pretty much liked watching The Wind that Shakes the Barley--well, likes is the wrong word because it's pretty grim, but then, I had no real frame of reference for it.
I assume most of the American audience who saw it didn't either.
Seana
Ken Loach's heart is not in the right place when it comes to Ireland. That was made clear to me after his film Hidden Agenda with its stereotypes of evil Brits and Protestants. Wind..Barley ploughs the same furrow with a historical bent.
It's a safe card to play. Bashing Brits and Protestants will always go down well in Irish American circles and making the IRA men loveable rogues is another safe option.
Thats why Bloody Sunday struck me so forcefully. A political Irish film with that rare commodity: nuance.
Nice metaphor, but you should have worked in a sickle.
I loved Bloody Sunday. It was brillant to focus it through the eyes of the guy who was just trying to hold the whole thing together. Of course, they had a wonderful actor for it in James Nesbitt.
Good movie to watch for anyone preparing to read Cold, Cold Ground, actually.
Speaking as a Canadian, I actually envy the fact that people make condescending Irish films. We wish people would make condescending films about us. Aside from Canadian-made films, which are few and far between, Hollywood pretty much ignores Canada. I thought The General with Brendan Gleason was pretty good; it seemed to avoid being "Oirish."
Seana
He was robbed of an Oscar nomination at least.
Cary
Its a fair point.
I did love The Barbarian Invasions though.
I saw a bit of The General on telly and liked it. Is Gleason good? Well the question really should be has he ever been bad? Like his namesake, he really is The Great One.
I wasn't crazy about Barbarian Invasions. Despite that, I was curious afterwards to see the related earlier movie, The Decline of the American Empire.
Haven't yet, though the title seems pretty timely now.
Seana
what was not to like? esp the cute short haired junkie girl.
I don't know what was not to like. Death? I just found it a bit tedious. Or pretentious. I've never been all that crazy about reunion movies. Well, actually I did like that one that Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie and all of them did. Mainly because it did actually seem like their reunion in a way.
Nice caption addition, by the way. I watched Gerard Butler's interview. I bet he would be quite downcast to know that I have never heard of him. I gather I should have by now...
Seana
I'm not surprised you didnt see Butler in 300, it was a film aimed at 13 year old boys who enjoy WWF wrestling, World of Warcraft and Drowning Pool (the band).
Needless to say I liked it.
You and half of the younger staff I work with. Not just the guys, by the way.
I'm a bit surprised that I didn't see him in P.S. I Love You, but I missed that one. I think I gave that a miss because my friend's young husband had died not awfully long before.
Glad you put in Hunger..that film blew me away as I remember the Bobby Sands saga as a youngster and was even back then shocked at the treatment of prisoners.
I spose that was informed by family members who came from the North and were not too fond of the way political prisoners were treated...
Oh the commitments..yeah that kinda sucked...the equivalent of crocodile dundee, all due respect....
doyle can write well at times but the translation to screen...soo much of a turkey it gobbled..
James Nesbitt also puts on a great performance in Resurrection Man. He's very intense.
They may not make movies about Canada, but they sure film them there-everywhere. I saw one that very few others saw where it was really Canada, not pretending to be somewhere else. It was called "Snowcake," and it starred Sigourney Weaver and Alan Rickman. It was a small film, but really a jewel. I'm probably one of, oh, ten people who saw it.
Sean Patrick: You're welcome. Sorry I can't stop raving about McNamee, though.
James Nesbitt's the man.
Lil: Thanks for the Cold Cold Ground info. The Human Season by Linda Dean is a good novel about events leading up to the hunger strikes.
Adrian: You're right about A Prayer for the Dying; I laughed when the cathedral fell on Mickey Rourke.
But few things are more condescending than the British critic who doubted a train conductor could quote Blake like Liam Cunningham in The Wind that Shakes the Barley. I'm guessing the guy was a blowhard and most British people don't think like he does.
Seana
I think he's a pretty good actor and on the basis of that interview he seems quite nice.
Lil - I thought The Mermaids Singing was another good Canadian movie. Have you seen it?
The Brothers McMullen was a pretty bad Irish-American movie, though.
Dan
Well the prisoners did smear their own cell walls with shit so that didnt help much.
Stereotyping is a massive problem in Irish films. I wish I could see a film set in Ireland that had the depth of a picture like Fish Tank.
I've never seen the movie of The Snapper, but I enjoyed the novel so much that for years a colleague and I would great each other with "There now, Veronica. Fuck the neighbors!" We do so occasionally to this day.
======================
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Sean
And he's going to be in the Hobbit.
Lil
Indeed. I remember Jackie Chan's Rumble in the Bronx with mountains in the background.
Anon
Its a good point about the poetry. That I dont fault Ken Loach for. In Ireland you are still forced to memorise poetry and for me that is a very good thing. Call me old school or old fashioned or whatever but getting kids to rote memorise poems is one of the best things a teacher can do!
Anon
Lets not even get into bad Irish American movies. We'll be here all night.
Peter
Yeah the books are better. But then books are better arent they?
Yeah! Fook the movies!
I'm not sure that books are better than movies, though. The best of both are better than the schlock in either.
I don't know if one can say one is better than the other, but I think the damned movie dropped the "There, now, Veronica" line.
As a matter of fact, I think it changed all the names. I seem to recall Roddy Doyle saying at a reading that he retained the rights to the names.
I just happened to be watching Rachel Maddow after I wrote this, and learned that President Reagan preferred his Intelligence briefings to be presented as movies. They've just been declassified. I saw a few, they are now apparently available on YouTube. Frankly, they look a bit like the type of films we were forced to watch in school when the teachers wanted a bit of break.
If I were president, I'd promote the arts by having my intelligence briefings presented in a different form each week: kabuki one week, Indonesian shadow puppets another, graphic novels a third, multidirectional linear narrative carved in marble up a pole like Trajan's Column a fourth, talking drums a fifth ...
======================
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
The premise sounds good, but it wouldn't help the arts much since it would take about twenty years for the security powers to let it be released into the public domain.
Audience of one, really.
I suppose we can admire Reagan for his honesty about how he would absorb info, but full of arcane technical detail these are not.
... finger-painting a sixth, daub-and-wattle hut building a seventh, Mongolian throat singing an eighth ...
Many of these arts have lasted thousands of years. They can wait twenty more.
Did the Reagan movies include a cartoon before the main feature?
======================
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Let's just say that the Reagan era endeavor is not encouraging about this time capsule project.
Seana, that's not a movie, it's a newsreel.
Peter, Seana
Sounds a bit like the Zeitgeist Tape on the Thick of It.
The Zeitgeist Tape bit begins at 5.00
Peter, it's still film--Reagan's medium if ever there was one.
Adrian, I know you've mentioned the Thick of It, but I've never seen it.
I think back on the occasional critic who noted Reagan's occasional confusion of movies with real life. Looks like thay didn't know the half of it.
======================
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Sorry, I missed the link the first time around. Yeah, it's kind of like that, but opposite, because Reagan was sure to get all the cultural references on his own, but not so much the foreign policy ones.
Looks like a good show. I'll have to watch more of them.
Seana
I'm going out on a limb here, but I think The Thick Of It is the best BBC comedy of the last thirty years. Better than The Office if you ask me.
I have not seen many of these films, but I loved My Left Foot; it's in the top 20 of my favorites of all time. Daniel Day Lewis, just brilliant.
No matter what anyone says about Ken Loach, Cillian Murphy was amazing in The Wind That Shakes the Barley.
However, I just listed the other recommended films, including In Bruges posted by commenters.
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