Some Mother's Son

This is a remarkably uninflammatory film about the 1981 IRA hunger strike, led by Bobby Sands in the Maze prison of Ulster. Iron Maiden Maggie Thatcher and her minions are skewered, but all other sides are given due consideration. Directed by Terry George, with Jim Sheridan as producer and co-writer, this is a companion piece to the stirring In the Name of the Father, written by George and directed by Sheridan. The film centers around the always-estimable Helen Mirren, and also Fionnula Flanagan, as the mothers of two of the hunger strikers. When it comes to Ireland today, this is thankfully distant history, but the issues of terrorism as a political vs. a criminal act are as current as the latest news from Gitmo. This film admirably puts a human face on the question. (1996, Sund/T, n.) *7*

I am in the middle of two tv miniseries that I will write about when I finish them, the first season of HBO’s Deadwood on dvd, and the Masterpiece Theater adaptation of Bleak House on PBS.

I’ve also been catching up with some unseen oldies on Turner Classic Movies’ “31 Days of Oscar,” notably F.W. Murnau’s Sunrise (1927) and Laurel & Hardy’s Way Out West (1937.) The former is important, one of the great culminating silent films, frequently on lists of the best of all time, well worth watching especially with double time to get through the really slow parts -- it reminds one how amazingly quicker we “get it” these days. There are very few title cards at all, but when they have to bring back a two-sentence piece of dialogue for a second read, you know the old audience was a little slow on the uptake. So it’s hard to recommend viewing this film, despite the striking Expressionist visual style, imported from Germany to Hollywood, contrasting city and country life. Janet Gaynor won the very first Best Actress Oscar for her role as “The Wife.” I suspect I may have watched Way Out West on tv as a kid in the Fifties, certainly there was a lot of Laurel and Hardy on the tube back then, so the memories were engaging if the movie was not.