Belfast [2021]

Year:	2021
Country:	UK
Language:	English
Genre:	Drama
IMDB:	IMDB Page
Rating:	1.0 Rate
Collection:	Seen It Wishlist
Community:	4 Have Seen


Director	Kenneth Branagh
Selected Cast	Caitriona Balfe as Ma
	Jamie Dornan as Pa
	Ciarán Hinds as Pop
	Judi Dench as Granny

Images

Comments and Reviews


zabadak 11th Oct 2022		BFI London Film Festival 2021 mailout :read: With his trademark warmth and wit, and drawing on his own experiences, Kenneth Branagh captivates with this tale of a young boy living in Belfast in the late 1960s. It’s 1969 and the imaginative, free-spirited Buddy (major discovery Jude Hill) knows every inch of and every person in his street of Protestant and Catholic families. He pops into neighbouring houses as though they were his own and people look out for him while his working-class parents (Jamie Dornan and Caitriona Balfe) hustle to make ends meet. But this blissful sense of security is about to be broken by sectarian violence and the tanks that sweep through the city. Belfast might be Branagh’s most reflective and personal film to date, but he brings to this intimate tale the same gift for big canvas filmmaking as seen in previous work. Shot in lustrous black and white by Haris Zambarloukos and accompanied by a rousing Van Morrison soundtrack, the film sees Buddy’s child’s-eye perspective on the increasing social unrest give way to imaginings inspired by his love of movies. Ideas of ‘home’ are so often a mix of trauma and nostalgia and here Branagh balances melancholy and poignancy with moments of wonder and joy. With a world-class cast that also includes Judi Dench and Ciarán Hinds as Buddy’s beloved grandparents, Belfast is a big-hearted ode to a city, its community and to family. Tricia Tuttle



Quad5point1 23rd Aug 2022		@alexlincs At least Val Doonican could hold a tune and didn't sound like a drunken donkey getting strangled ;-))



alexlincs 23rd Aug 2022		@Quad5point1 Even Val Doonican might have been considered cooler than Van Morrison.



Quad5point1 23rd Aug 2022		Rated 1/10 I just watched this film last night and being born and brought up in North Belfast I can categorically state that this movie is totally and utterly inaccurate in it's depiction of not only the areas involved but historical inaccuracies are rife throughout the movie. Me thinks that Mr. Brannagh has spent too much time in England. One of the opening scenes had the army coming down the street with a Tank, there were never Tanks deployed in Belfast or anywhere else in Northern Ireland and the first armoured vehicles deployed by the army were the infamous "PIGS", it wasn't until a few years after that they deployed Saracens with machine guns mounted on the top but absolutely never ever were there Tanks on the streets of Belfast. There's also in the opening shots a newsagents at the end of the street which said General Store, Tobacconists and Off Licence. Alcohol sales in Northern Ireland were very much restricted to Pubs, Clubs & Off Licences, normal ordinary everyday Newsagents would never have been allowed to sell Alcohol unless it was under the counter. There was also a shop owned by the "Singh" family, there were absolutely no shops in Belfast owned and run by the Indian community, in fact, you could've probably counted the number of Indian families in Belfast on one hand. It wasn't until the mid 70's that Chinese Takeaways started to open. On one of the Bus Stops the word "Omnibus" appears, again this is another inaccuracy, the word in relation to Transport just didn't exist. For me the biggest travesty of this film is the use, or should I say, the overuse of Van Morrison on the soundtrack. Van Morrison was somebody who didn't figure on the music scene here at all, he was regarded by many a complete numpty and I never knew a single person who had any of his records. The music soundtrack to Belfast of the late 60's and early 70's was very much either Pop music or in my case Progressive Rock and Psychedelia. In our circle Van Morrison was the epitome of "Uncool", he was a grump Extraordinaire who never missed the opportunity to rubbish Belfast. Peter Sarstedt and the Archies were cooler than Van Morrison and in my crowd it was more about Led Zeppelin, The Moody Blues, Captain Beefheart, Traffic and The Beatles. If anybody is looking for any historical accuracy in this film or even thinks that it's anywhere near accurate they are sadly deluded. For me it gets the big Raspberry, the hype surrounding the film was better than the end product and Kenneth Brannagh really needs to research his material before committing anything to film. Total Rubbish 2 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?



jaimeeduardo 20th Sep 2021

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