This Saturday I watched the movie Belfast, which came out in 2021. I saw during the Oscars it got a lot of praise and many people said it was a really good film, so I decided to finally watch it. Honestly I was a teary mess after watching it. Within the first five minutes I was blowing my nose and crying tears. It was just a really powerful movie. It was directed by Kenneth Branagh, who I just saw in the film Dunkirk. It is based on Branagh’s life growing up in the 1960s in Belfast, Ireland. The main character in the movie, Buddy, and his family live through political unrest on the streets and struggle with money, and his dad is always on business in England. The family doesn’t want to leave Belfast because they have such strong roots there, but due to the violence they witness each day they are faced with whether to go with their dad and move to England permanently or stay in Belfast.
It has a really powerful message about home and never forgetting your roots and memories of your life and childhood. When Buddy is talking with his grandfather about the family moving to England, Buddy says he wants his grandfather and grandmother to come with them to England, but the couple wants to stay in Ireland because they have such strong ties there even with the unrest going on. The beginning was super intense because Buddy is just out playing in the street like an everyday kid and enjoying playing with his friends, but then he turns around and sees across from him people shoving each other, yelling and throwing things. The way the camera does it is powerful because it seems time slows down and the fighting in the background is muffled, but as it turns around we see Buddy standing paralyzed, not knowing whether to run or stay because what he is witnessing is so terrifying and vivid. Then someone throws a dangerous object at him and the children and families on the other side, and his mom has to run out and shield him from the fighting. This movie showed me that war can really impact the lives of not just adults, but also children. Buddy watches television with his brother, but also can’t always just go outside and pretend like the unrest doesn’t exist because he and his family deal with it every day.
I’m glad I watched this film because it’s been a really long time since I have been to Ireland. When I was in middle school I took a trip to Ireland and I’m not sure if we went to Belfast, but I definitely remember going to Sneem and Dublin. I was probably too cranky and teenager-y to appreciate Ireland at the time and really didn’t know much about it other than what I had read about during orientation before going on the trip, but it was definitely a beautiful place to be. But I only visited there for a few days and of course, with any place, there is only so much you experience in a few days compared to living there your entire life. As I get older and have studied about world history and read more books, watched movies and listened to people’s stories, I have learned that everyone’s experience about growing up somewhere is a part of who they are. I also didn’t know Van Morrison was from Ireland; I grew up listening to “Brown-Eyed Girl” and so many other hits by him, and so I really loved the music for Belfast because a lot of the songs were by Van Morrison.
The acting was incredibly powerful. I saw Ciaran Hinds in There Will Be Blood and loved his acting in that one, and I loved his acting as the grandpa in Belfast. I also love Judi Dench and loved her role as the grandmother in this movie. The mom also played an amazing role; I cried because there was one scene where she has to run after Buddy because he and his friend are looting one of the stores, and the friend pressures Buddy to steal something from the shop, and when his mom finds out she freaks out and tells him to put the stuff he is stealing back even though it’s stuff they really want but cannot afford. She and her family are sitting in the living room and she cries because she has grown up in Belfast her whole life and has known the community for such a long time, but everything has changed due to the political unrest and no one can live daily life peacefully without the threat of war. But she knows that if they continue to stay in Belfast during this tumultuous time, they are constantly going to be living in fear of war. At the beginning when Buddy encounters the unrest, the family’s car is destroyed when people rioting light the car on fire and it explodes. This shows again how Buddy can’t just live a blissful childhood because he witnesses trauma and war outside his house nearly every day. However, he does get to experience some sweet moments, such as the cute girl he has a crush on in class and wants to marry someday. And the time he and his family are out dancing and his dad is singing and dancing with his mom to the popular song “Everlasting Love” by Love Affair (the first version and only version I heard growing up was the one by Gloria Estefan so it wasn’t until I saw this film that I heard this version of the song.)
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