Retro Film Review: Some Mother's Son (1996)

George S. Patton said that good soldier should never die for his country; his real duty is to coerce the enemy to make such sacrifice instead. This line of reasoning has recently been challenged by the increasingly popular practice of suicide bombings. This phenomenon has so far been limited to certain religions and certain parts of the worlds, or at least this is the impression shared by most people in Western world. However, there are some examples that show that fanatical disregard for his/her own life is much more universal phenomenon that many of us would like to believe. One of such examples is subject of Some Mother's Son, 1996 drama directed by Terry George.

The plot of the film is fictional account set against the backdrop of real events that have taken place in early 1980s Northern Ireland. In order to finally restore some sort of order in troubled province, British government under Margaret Thatcher has adopted tough new policy against IRA, which includes treating their captured members as common criminals rather than political prisoners. All that is of little concern for Kathleen Quiqley (played by Helen Mirren), widowed Catholic schoolteacher, but the issue is going to become personal when she finds out that her son Gerard (played by Aidan Gillen) belongs to IRA. Young man is captured by British and gets long prison sentence for taking part in attack on British soldiers; once in jail, he defiantly refuses to accept British legal authority and joins protest led by Bobby Sands (played by John Lynch), charismatic leader of captured IRA members. The aim is to force British to treat them as POWs instead of convicted terrorists; the method is hunger strike. Thatcher's government doesn't seem willing to budge, delicate negotiations go nowhere and young men are getting weaker every day. Kathleen, just like all of striking prisoner's kin, is soon going to be faced with difficult dilemma - when the strikers are too weak to make their own choices, she would have either to authorise intravenous feeding or respect her boy's political beliefs.

Terry George, this film's director and co-writer, obviously invested a lot of passion in Some Mother's Son and this is hardly surprising in light of him being native of Northern Ireland and having unpleasant experiences with British authorities. Pro-IRA bias by itself isn't the problem for this film; the acting is excellent, plot goes smoothly and direction, apart from few unfortunate choices, are very good. Unfortunately, that bias stands in the way of the more universal humanistic anti-violent message implied by the very title of the film. The authors are obviously torn between admiration for Sands and his cause on one hand, and critical appraisal of his methods. Those methods don't include only sacrificing their own lives for the cause, but actually committing violence in the first place - the very thing that brought them to prison and allowed them to become martyrs. Terry George doesn't seem to be comfortable with condemning IRA violence; although there are scenes that depict individual British soldiers as decent human beings, in Some Mother's Son their presence in Northern Ireland is source of all of province's problems and their removal is noble aim that justifies all means. This is best seen in the fictional character of Farnsworth (played by Tom Hollander), British official who is presented as Nazi-like thug. In this film even Catholic Church gets a beating for its unwillingness to condone some of more controversial IRA methods.

On the other hand, Terry George (together with his co-writer Jim Sheridan) should be forgiven for failing to make Some Mother's Son as compelling as it could have been. Sad realities of Northern Ireland are so complex that even those film makers familiar with them sometimes get lost. We should hope that the politicians who are now trying to put the subject of this film into history books are able to find they way.

RATING: 4/10 (+)

(Note: The text in its original form was posted in Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.films.reviews on October 22nd 2003)

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