‘71 2014- Yann Demange

‘71 2014- Yann Demange

A British historical thriller, ‘71 explores the “troubles” in Northern Ireland from all different perspectives such as; The British military's, the catholic nationalists and the protestant loyalists. ‘71 shows the effects of the conflict on all sides. The films intertwining plot effectively achieves showing different perspectives to the troubles in Ireland, this therefore enlightens the audience and gives an unbiased view on troubles.

At the beginning of the film, the training of the soldiers foreshadows later events in the film. The soldiers can be seen training to fight and the corporal(or sergeant) in charge approves their training. Shortly after being deployed into Northern Ireland on the front line, the platoon come across a conflict after the Royal Ulster Constabulary roughly treat members of the public, this then attracts an angry crowd and the protagonist, Hook, and a fellow soldier get into a punching fight. The training at the beginning of the film foreshadows the type of conflicts that will happen later on in the film. For example; the running. Hook is getting chased in numerous scenes in the film and becomes an essential way for him to escape. Another example; The shooting. The soldiers are seen practising shooting, although not used by many other soldiers, hook and members of the non military frequently use a gun.

For the audience, it might be harder to understand what the historical context is behind the troubles in Northern Ireland. Mise en scene plays a key role in giving context for the audience to understand the situation. An obvious part of the Mise en scene in the military’s uniform. This instantly shows the audience there is a strategic conflict element to the film. Furthermore, we can see from the uniform that it is not modern. Comparing it the present uniform, the soldiers are not as well equipped showing the audience the film is in the past. To give the audience an idea of the time it is set, the style of clothing from the public is a way of giving this knowledge to the audience. The public are wearing typically 70’s clothing.

Although based upon the troubles in Northern Ireland, ‘71 was inspired by the LA riots in 1992. The riots could have inspired the riot scenes were the public fight against the military.