I was looking for something to watch when I came across this movie as something I might like based on A Most Violent Year (a film I didn't watch in favour of this one). It seems a lot of people have trouble understanding what exactly is going on. As a Brit that grew up in 80s/90s England I have no problem with this, but I can see it being an issue if you are otherwise not familiar with The Troubles. Therefore, before you watch this movie it would help if you read some background in to the history of the conflict (just go to the Wikipedia page for 'The Troubles'). Essentially, this story is set in 1971, the early stages of the conflict (it began in 1968), before Bloody Sunday and there was still an air of perhaps naivety from the British (explains the actions of the commander at the beginning not wanting to use riot gear). A soldier foolishly runs behind 'enemy lines' to retrieve a rifle that a kid has picked up and run off with. Not surprisingly, this soldier then proceeds to get a kicking, as does a mate that tries to help him. The mate ends up getting shot but he manages to survive, largely in part due to the sensibilities of the residents present who manage to delay the shooters. He ends up running down alleys to escape, etc, and the rest of the film is portraying his attempt to get back to his barracks. This is when it becomes hard for people unfamiliar with the history find it confusing. He is a target for the provisional IRA (Catholic), whilst the Official IRA (the IRA split in two in 69/70) want to keep him alive, afraid of the consequences otherwise. Then you have the Ulster/Loyalist faction (Protestant, the little boy, etc) who are essentially pro- British and want to kill the Republicans (IRA). Furthermore, you have the shady undercover agents of the British military who are mostly helping the Loyalists (Ulster paras) but also want him dead since he saw them helping with bomb making for the Ulsters. The film is well directed and the acting is first rate. Personally, I found that it held my attention throughout and was a gripping storyline. The cinematography is top notch and it felt as though it was 1971. I have no experience of NI in the 70s, so can't comment on the accuracy of the sets, other than to say it looked how I remember seeing NI in all the news reports back in the day.

Excellent film that apparently was very popular and naturally important in the UK, but not in the USA. A war film from the Northern Ireland conflict. As others have commented, I'm glad this is not a typical Hollywood offering. Jack O'Connell is a young star to be paying attention to. This the second film I watch where he's the lead and I think he's going to shine quite a bit over the next few years, if he gets given the opportunity. This is a film for those who like serious historical movies. War is so convoluted and horribly tragic. Will make you want to learn more about what happened until rather recently in Northern Ireland.

Movies about the IRA and the troubles in Northern Ireland have a few problems. Since due to the nature of this conflict people on different sides tend to look and often sound alike they need to be distinguished very clearly. Unfortunately with the fog of the thick accents and the actors who aren't that different looking from each other coupled with 2 factions of the IRA this movie turned out to be hard to follow.The basic story is a British soldier gets left behind in hostile territory in Belfast. He is chased by the IRA. Then there are some rather complex deals between factions. The bombing was scary and well done. But after that things got too hard to follow. Jack O'Connell of Unbroken is a good actor and he looks like he suffered in the role.Don't bother

Despite the gripping action I found this movie mainly a bit empty without a good script and under the photography and camera aspects either.I do generally like the "run to survive" movies, but this one didn't let me to get involved. Everything flows in a rather flat without much emotion, if not, a couple crude scenes.It is not a bad movie, it is enough gripping for the most of the time, the plot is interesting and it definitely can worth a watch but it was not as good as I expected and as it could have been by paying more attention to some of the above parameters.6+/10