Titanic Town

Very good film about Northern Ireland and the early troubles. Excellent acting by Nuala O'Neill and especially Julie Walter who not only carried the accent well but acted superbly also. Thankfully unlike so many other films based on the troubles in NI this one shows a realistic view of events. Highly recommended.

"Titanic Town" is a journeyman drama with a low budget feel which revisits Belfast, NI (circa 1970's) when the IRA and Brits waged war in the streets. The film tells of a housewife and mother who gets fed up with the violence and takes the initiative waging her own war of peace through mediation. Open ended and relatively uneventful, this film has little to offer save the curious and sometimes humorous juxtaposition of a "mom" amongst considerably more sagacious combatants. Not a bad small screen watch for moms but pretty trite stuff by cinematic standards.

I saw this at the 1998 Montreal Film Festival and found it a moving and challenging film on the complexities of personal and political response to a longstanding and divisive issue. Well acted and cinematographed, this film added a dimension that has been rarely touched upon in other depictions of the "troubles in Northern Ireland." It compliments "Every Mother's Son" and "In the Name of the Father" with a moving story of the long-lasting and indiscriminate effects of violence and an attempt to question its limits as a political strategy. This is not a simplistic film, and its power comes from the depth of its critique of all the players in this ongoing political struggle.

I notice that a lot of comments such as 'Yawn, yawn. Another film about Northern Ireland' were written by people who don't actually live there. Well, I was born in Belfast in 1960 and lived there till 1982, and I can tell you that when you were yawning at the news about people being murdered, tortured, kidnapped, beaten, burned out of their homes, intimidated and imprisoned without trial, the people I lived among were going through it. I think this is an excellent film and very realistic. Julie Walters' accent is spot on, and the humour is, too. People who suffer greatly stay sane by developing a kind of gallows humour. If you think it is a trite film, you must have had an easy life. You've probably spent too much of your time watching movies. This is a luxury accorded to those who live in peace; be grateful you do.

Oh dear not yet another black comedy featuring the troubles in Northern Ireland . Haven't we seen enough of these type of stories on television ? Do we also have to endure them turning up at film festivals and cinema chains ?

Sorry if I've got a serious problem with this type of story but it's a medium best suited for television written by someone of the calibre of Graham Reid ( Check out the author's BILLY trilogy from the 1980s ) and the problem with TITANIC TOWN is that the script is far too obvious . A mother in a republican estate of Belfast in the 1970s decides she's had enough of the violence and stands up for the peaceful majority . It's the type of story that's supposed to have the audience angry one moment , weeping the next and smiling a moment later . Unfortunately what we get is cyphers giving speeches followed by silly things then back to the speeches again . It's always the innocent who suffer from political violence , thanks for pointing that out because I didn't know . YAWN