Some Mother's Son (1996)

User Rating:

7.4/10   

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:

Prison | Prisoner Of War | Hunger Strike | Beach | Dying Man

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	...	Father 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:

Continuity: The film is clearly set in a border seaside fishing village in Ireland. However, Kathleen is clearly seen voting in the Fermanagh-South Tyrone by-election: a completely land-locked constituency.

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 Hunger (2008)

A harrowing and haunting reminder of the Irish hunger strikes

There are some excellent, nuanced performances in this movie, particularly from the two leads, Helen Mirren and Fionnula Flanagan (an underrated character actress best known for her work in "The Others"). But by no means is this easy to watch - and it's best appreciated, whatever your view on the long-standing conflict, if you have some idea of the history first, and the passion that still surrounds Bobby Sands. Tim Pat Coogan's "The Troubles," while a mammoth volume, summarizes the death and destruction that have been visited on all three of the major players - British, Catholic, Protestant.

Interestingly, Helen Mirren also starred in "Cal", another movie about the "Troubles" of Northern Ireland, playing a Protestant widow who falls in love with a Catholic man. In both movies, Mirren's character endures the unthinkable - watching the people she loves best being torn by sectarian violence. Yet in "Cal," Mirren's character is more passive, having things "happen" to her. In "Some Mother's Son", Mirren and Flanagan take action, their passion for their children stirring them to activism, right or wrong.