Some Mother's Son (1996)

Director:

Terry George

Writers (WGA):

Terry George (written by) &
Jim Sheridan (written by)

Release Date:

25 December 1996 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

Between love and loyalty... Between life and death... Lies a choice no mother should have to make.

Plot:

Based on the true story of the 1981 hunger strike in a British prison, in which IRA prisoner Bobby Sands...

Plot Keywords:

British | Prisoner Of War | Strike | Prison | Hunger Strike

Awards:

4 wins

Cast

Helen Mirren	...	Kathleen Quigley
Fionnula Flanagan	...	Annie Higgins
Aidan Gillen	...	Gerard Quigley
David O'Hara	...	Frank Higgins
John Lynch	...	Bobby Sands
Tom Hollander	...	Farnsworth
Tim Woodward	...	Harrington
Ciarán Hinds	...	Danny Boyle
Geraldine O'Rawe	...	Alice Quigley
Gerard McSorley	...	Fr. Daly
Dan Gordon	...	Inspector McPeake
Grainne Delany	...	Theresa Higgins
Ciarán Fitzgerald	...	Liam Quigley
Robert Lang	...	Government Minister
Stephen Hogan	...	Young Turk

Also Known As:

Sons and Warriors (video catalogue title)

MPAA:

Rated R for language and some political violence and suffering.

Runtime:

112 min

Country:

Ireland | USA

Language:

English | Irish Gaelic

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR

Certification:

Iceland:12 | South Korea:15 | Germany:12 (bw) | Spain:13 | Sweden:15 | UK:15 | USA:R | Ireland:15 (re-rating on appeal) | Ireland:18 (original rating)

Filming Locations:

Skerries, Fingal, County Dublin, Ireland

Company:

Castle Rock Entertainment

Trivia:

First full length feature film of Tom Hollander.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: Outside the prison you can clearly see an Austin Metro Mk2 which was not released till late 1984. This film is based in 1981.

Quotes:

Farnsworth: We want to make the prisons an asset, not a liability. It is in the prisons that we will break the backs of the IRA.

Movie Connections:

Version of The Rising of the Moon (2002)

Soundtrack:

Star of Desire

something that everyone needs to understand

I only loosely knew about the Irish Hunger Strikers when I saw "Some Mother's Son". It shocked me what the movie portrayed. It's about not only the men themselves, but how two of the mothers have to try and maintain hope as the men remain in jail, starving because they dared to resist the British occupation. True, the whole situation in Northern Ireland may be a controversial one, but this movie gives it all a humanizing aspect, showing what it really feels like to have to experience the oppression every day. Helen Mirren, as one of the mothers, turns in as good a performance as we can expect from her (why has she never won an Oscar?) as does Fionnula Flanagan, as another mother. Definitely a movie that I recommend.