Last night we assembled as a family to honour two birthdays and to watch a film, Belfast. As we're all Irish to some degree, it seemed fitting, though fifteen minutes in we had to pause the movie and explain some things, as it seems school kids these days haven't a clue about the Troubles. I think I lost most of the audience when I started off the explanation by saying, "first we need to go back about seventy years before this films begins". -p
The film itself is fantastic. Perfect, no, of course not, and Belfast itself has an ugly connotation for my entire family, as does Northern Ireland in general. Seeing the hate being openly taught and preached brought back a lot of memories, and I suspect that's what the film creator was trying to achieve. The music was poignant, Van Morrison was a great choice for many of the selections. If you at all interested in this time period, another conflict that was going on during the same era that the American invasion of Vietnam was taking place, this is an excellent take on the turbulent Irish problems.
