War of the Buttons

I was entranced by this perky, quirky tale. My teenage daughter even more so. A wonderful family film, but a treat for all lovers of anything Irish, regardless of age.

Three scenes in particular were memorable: The "rain" of buttons Marie bestows on the Bally boys in their HQ, the look that passes between Fergus and Marie after the Bally boys successfully routed their "enemies" by charging them sans clothing, and the exchange between Fergus and Geronimo when Geronimo asks why the "war" ever started in the first place.

The youngsters are believable in their portrayals, and the beauty of Ireland was a treat for the eyes.

I didn't expect much from this film when I rented it. Another Improbable Hero Kid movie?

The fine point of it is: No. If you run screamin' at the mention of Home Alone or Goonies, you needn't be afraid of a movie like this.

The kids impart a genuine, unself-conscious mood to everything in the film, contributing in large part to its subtle and pervasive good humor. I marvelled at the creativity of the Ballydowse kids, and was at the same time satisfied that their rivals were never reduced to mindless obstacles to rouse our sympathy.

As we can see the war from the kids' view, we can see its reflection in their parents, and of course, in adults everywhere. But the film keeps its subtlety here too; we're never beaten over the head with the analogy, but given the right views to delight in it - their creativity and intelligence belongs to all ages.

My one reservation is the soundtrack; it's manipulative and lacks the subtlety of the rest of it.

Three favorite scenes: Little Con breaking his eggs and marooned for a bit with the Carrick boys, the teacher translating Riley's passed note, and the carousal and tractor.

WAR OF THE BUTTONS is a warm film that exudes a wonder and zest seldom seen in even so-called family films. The parable-like movie concerns a feud between two factions of boys in an Irish village, the trophies of war being the buttons the boys cut from captured enemies' clothing. As the battles grow, we see how the rivalry goes back even further than the boys, to their parents' childhoods. Nothing heavy-handed or profound, but a perceptive view of childhood with a great lesson gently imparted. See it!

Ireland is developing quite an interesting film industry. In "War of the Buttons", the children from rival towns are always sparring over buttons. They come up with every neat way to get revenge on each other. One of the reasons that this movie was so interesting was because it wasn't one of these situations where against all odds the ragtag team beats the big guys with all the money; in this case, they were equally matched. Also, we get to see how the Irish are trying to revive their culture: the schools are teaching the native Irish language. The only two cast members whom I recognized were Colm Meaney and Milo O'Shea, but the the whole cast did quite well. An excellent movie.

I want to say hello to the people who read this comment, I think that this movie describes a beautiful and innocent war between the kids of two different villages: Bally and Carricks, but the main idea of the drama is the importance that those kids give to the fact of get the buttons of the contrary rival band.

As usual, the consequence of the fighting is that the parents grouse the kids when they come without their buttons and laces....It's so sad the scene when a poor kid is hit by him father and then goes out of the home crying...But on the contrary, a beautiful moment in the movie is when the kids of the two different villages are fighting with violence and appears a little rabbit injured. Then, the kids come to an agreement.

I'm not a native English-speaking, and there were many words misunderstood, for example BEODO and others that i don't remember.

Thank u a lot.