By Tom Siebert
Hatred is indiscriminate, as evidenced in the harrowing hot open to the brilliant film “Belfast,” when a group of rock-throwing Protestants attack the homes of Catholics in a squalid section of Northern Ireland on August 15, 1969. But Protestants also live in the neighborhood and they are terrorized, too.
In this amazing movie, the maddening murkiness of religious and class warfare is seen through the wide, wondrous eyes of a nine-year-old lad named Buddy, portrayed with eternal optimism by Northern Irish actor Jude Hill, 11, who could become the youngest recipient of the Oscar for Best Actor.
Buddy views the adults in his Protestant family––Ma, Pa, Granny, and Pop––like the larger-than-life Hollywood heroes whom he watches awestruck at the local movie house, such as Gary Cooper in “High Noon” (1952) and Jimmy Stewart in “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance” (1962).
And the boy’s grown-up loved ones are indeed heroic, protecting and pacifying him and his brother Will (Lewis McAskie) through the bloody beginnings of the Northern Irish sectarian struggle, now known historically as “The Troubles.”
Although religious and political differences had simmered in Northern Ireland for generations, a warlike conflict raged between 1968 and 1998, resulting in 3,352 deaths and approximately 107,000 injuries.
The bombings of the pro-Catholic Irish Republican Army (IRA), and the bullets from the pro-Protestant British paramilitary police, did not cease until the Good Friday peace agreement was brokered by the administration of U.S. President Bill Clinton, dividing power between the Belfast-based nationalists and London-led unionists.
The film “Belfast” was written semi-autobiographically and directed masterfully by Kenneth Branagh, who grew up in the capital city and just happened to be the same age as his protagonist is in 1969.
Little clover Buddy sees and hears everything through a glass darkly: broken windows, slightly opened doors, and the whispers of his parents arguing whether it is best to move from their strife-torn neighborhood to safer London, where his father has been working as a joiner to support the family and pay off tax debts.
Jamie Dornan plays the accentuate-the-positive Pa, in the farthest cry away from his sadomasochistic sex trilogy “Fifty Shades of Grey.”
And Irish actress/fashion model Caitríona Balfe is the ferociously protective mother hen Ma, who rushes Buddy back to a riot-trashed grocery store to return a box of detergent that he had stolen.
Granny and Pop are portrayed, respectively, by the legendary Dame Judi Dench and Northern Irish actor Ciarán Hinds. Both deserve Academy Awards for their poignant, word-perfect performances.
Oh, and there’s Aunt Violet (Josie Walker), who cracks wisely: "The Irish were born for leaving. Otherwise, the rest of the world would have no pubs."
“Belfast” is starkly shot in vintage black and white, save for a brief explosion of technicolor from the 1968 musical fantasy film, “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang,” which Buddy and his family go to see and cheerfully sing along with the title tune.
And writing of music, “Belfast” features gorgeous montages set to classic songs by Belfast-born Van Morrison such as “Warm Love,” “Days Like These,” and “Jackie Wilson Said (I’m In Heaven When You Smile).”
Buddy is in heaven himself whenever he sees his pretty, pig-tailed classmate, Catherine (Olive Tennant), who happens to belong to the “wrong” religion, Roman Catholicism, proving once again that love is blithely blind.
“Belfast” is a universal coming of age––and coming together as family––film that will resonate with everyone from often occupied Afghanistan to the divided states of America.
But the movie’s political violence is cause for caution. At its peak power, the IRA had only about 400 members, but they were enough to keep a war going for 30 years.
And on Jan. 6, 2021, a mob of “only” about 2,500 people attacked the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, DC, perhaps signaling the start of our own troubles.
