Had trouble sleeping again the other night, too many late night sweets, and thinking about my two posts about ONCE, I came up with an alphabet list for favorite movies about the Irish, with a few letters stumping me.
ANGELS WITH DIRTY FACES (Hollywood version of New York Irish, when I was a kid, but I still dig it and always will—I used a still photo from it on the cover of my first “underground bestseller” book of poems: ROCKY DIES YELLOW)
BOXER, THE
COMMITMENTS, THE
DANCING AT LUGHNASA (the pre-Christian Irish feast the title refers to is coming up, on August 1st) and THE DEAD
E
FIELD, THE
GANGS OF NEW YORK (despite the miscasting) and THE GIRL WITH THE GREEN EYES (who remembers Rita Tushingham, besides me? I had a crush on her in 1964)
HEAR MY SONG
INFORMER, THE and IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER
JAMES JOYCE’S WOMEN (the great Fionnula Flanagan at her best)
K
LEAP OF FAITH, A (a moving 1996 documentary about trying to bridge the gap between Catholic and Protestant children in Northern Ireland amidst the troubles)
MY LEFT FOOT
NED KELLY (the 2004 version with Heath Ledger I mentioned in a recent post)
ONCE
PLAYBOYS, THE
QUIET MAN, THE
R
SOME MOTHER’S SON, THE SECRET OF ROAN INISH and THE SNAPPER
TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN, A (another old-Hollywood version of New York Irish, but poignant and pretty realistic for the times)
U
VAN, THE
WIND THAT SHAKES THE BARLEY, THE
X
Y
Z
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4 comments:
Also Angela's Ashes and the story of the Magdalen Laundries.
"Ryan's Daughter". David Lean's epic released in 1970, set in Ireland during WW I is a masterpiece. All the elements of a classic tragedy; betrayal, love, romance, politics, forgiveness & redemption. Top-notch performances by John Mills, Trevor Howard, Robert Mitchum & Sarah Miles. One of my all time favorite movies.
You MUST, MUST, MUST, see ODD MAN OUT, directed by Carol Reed, 1947, about a wounded Irish Nationalist, James Mason, pursued by the police. stunning
I saw the movies mentioned above when they first came out, and maybe should see them again. I remember being put off somehow by ODD MAN OUT's protrayal of an IRA guy, and Mason's for that matter, a Brit playing the role or whatever, and RYAN'S DAUGHTER I don't remember what I thought at the time, but will definitely check both of them out. I'll watch the others again too and see if I still feel critically about aspects of them.
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