Route Irish (2010)

Route Irish: Directed by Ken Loach. With Mark Womack, Andrea Lowe, John Bishop, Geoff Bell. The story of a private security contractor in Iraq who rejected the official explanation of his friend’s death and sets out to discover the truth.

“In contrast to the most successful war or Iraq war film this century so far..u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI remember going to see u0026#39;The Hurt Lockeru0026#39; with high hopes because I had been sold on the hype, it had a female director tipped to win awards and I really liked what she(K.Bigalow) did years before with u0026#39;Point Breaku0026#39; a fun(and sometimes funny for the wrong reasons) crime caper.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAfter the credits rolled I was in two minds(similar to when I first saw u0026#39;Point Breaku0026#39;) because I appreciated the technical aspects of the film but something seemed to be missing… My big problem became clear when I overheard people talking on the way out. In particular, I heard two teenagers summary comments to each other, that it was u0026#39;pretty goodu0026#39;,u0026#39;a bit of funu0026#39; and u0026#39;there were some really good special effects and action sequencesu0026#39; which to me, is a summary of what most people said to me to date about the film. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eNo one seemed to care that they had for the purpose of entertainment just sat, popcorn in hand, and watched a film about a war that was still ongoing outside the cinema(albeit five thousand miles away) at the same time…u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eSo, I left the cinema feeling like Walt Disney had final cut on the production and it was financed by Haliburton and McDonalds etc. I was in a state of mild mental shock… Sickened, disgusted and annoyed with the world, to be more precise… u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAnyway, I am generally interested in u0026#39;factsu0026#39; and the u0026#39;detailsu0026#39; of what is going on around me and why things happen the way they do. Cinema for me is not about entertainment. Going to the u0026#39;moviesu0026#39; to be entertained, escapism etc. is fine. I do it but itu0026#39;s a different experience. If I go to see a film about a current war I would expect it to say something meaningful. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eSo for me, the Hurt Locker is the benchmark epitome of total bullshit filmmaking in the 21st century and so offensive(even just in itu0026#39;s inception alone) on so many levels that I really wouldnu0026#39;t know where to start or finish for fear of ranting into oblivion…u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAnyway, I have seen many documentaries, read many articles watched endless news footage, reports and interviews on the current War(S) in the middle east and Iu0026#39;m still not 100% sure what is actually going on.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eOne thing that I do know for sure though, is that all other feature length films related to the Iraq War in the past decade(apart from a few documentaries) portray the allied forces as the victims and all are dedicated to their military forces… WTF is that all about…?u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eEverything in the u0026#39;Route Irishu0026#39; story by K.Loach, although fictional with use of some artistic license, has happened in real life!… It will also continue to happen again as a matter of fact…u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIf you want escapism and have to be entertained all the time then you know where to go for your fix.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eSome people are still rolling out the same old polemic argument about Loach/u0026#39;Route Irishu0026#39; that he/the film is lefty, over-long, boring, preachy, flawed in acting,writing,direction and it sometimes looks like it was made for 50 quid. etc. etc. …But we must appreciate him, social justice, national treasure etc. etc. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eBLAH BLAH BLAH….u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eTrust me, the film is not perfect by any means but see it for yourself because those people are idiots…u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003e-If you are one of them you can stick it in your Hurt Locker…u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003e:Pu003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eDubman.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe u0026#39;…unique angle*u0026#39; being the people who are the real victims and the people who are really responsible…u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003e_______________________ u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eu0026#39;Cold Hard Reality is always so boring and difficult to watch…..u0026#39; -Another complete idiot.”