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*** This review may contain spoilers ***
I was in Dublin when I first learned about this film (St. Patrick's Day, 2006). I couldn't get into the premier (it was sold out with a list a mile long of people still trying to get a ticket) so I bought the DVD when it became available. And now I've watched it...and I wish I could say that chasing it down was worth it, but unfortunately it wasn't.The story is very simple -- set during the last days of the Irish rebellion against England in 1920-21, a young man named Denis is in love with Moira, the town teacher, but he puts duty to his country ahead of his own happiness. He joins the IRA (this was back when it was a freedom-fighting force and not a terrorist group), helps fight the Black and Tans (a brutal Branch of the British Army) and kills and is thought killed while Moira is left to fend for herself against a nasty man...all in the most melodramatic fashion possible.Truth be told, there is no real dramatization of a story, here; just plot points meant to indicate a story. Important moments during the rebellion, like the burning of the Customs House, are tossed off with a few shots and a confusing title card. The acting is like turn of the century stage-melodrama with its characters being either really, really good and heroic or really, really bad and villainous...meaning there is no character development, whatsoever. And I'm taking into account this was made in 1926.But...and this is a big one...it does carry actual footage of the burnings of Cork in 1920 and of the Customs House, a year later. And there are fascinating shots of Dublin showing how much (and how little) the city has changed in the last 80 years. And it is one of the very rare examples of Irish film-making from the period. So its real interest lies in its historical relevance rather than its storytelling ability or movie-making quality. But considering the greatness of the writers Ireland has produced, from Oscar Wilde to George Bernard Shaw to John Millington Synge to Sean O'Casey (whose "Juno and the Paycock" and "The Plough and the Stars" came out at the same time this movie was made) the shabbiness of the storytelling is a big disappointment.
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