Das tödliche Patt

I have had "Harry's Game" in my video collection for about 12 years and I have watched it many times. Nothing released by mainstream cinema, British or American, comes anywhere close to touching the fear and desperate tension felt by the troops on the ground of both sides in the Troubles. It is an intelligent, very well made, exciting and despairing film which deserved wide release in cinemas throughout the world - pity it was made for television. Like Mark Leeper I have been strongly recommending "Harry's Game" to anyone interested in first quality film-making.

I read the Seymour novel in the eighties and really enjoyed it then. It was remarkably potent and pithy, with immensely satisfying characters, plot and subplots all so well developed. Finding a copy of the DVD of the miniseries was an opportunity too good to miss. It's great television, and actually gains from the lack of big names, and from the austerity of the production and performances. Credible portrayals in the vein of "the professionals", and even "edge of darkness". To their credit the actors all give a degree of subtle authenticity to their roles that's commendable, and combined with the great plot, HG makes for evocative if nostalgic viewing, especially for enthusiasts of the genre, period or subject matter. Not flashy, but rewarding.

Those of us who were fortunate enough to see Harry's Game in 1982 on TV were watching a stitched together version for broadcast distribution. It was originally made as a TV mini series in three one-hour parts. The recently available British DVD (PAL region 2) is shown in its original episodic format.

The other postings have said enough to describe the story, so I won't go into it. We've seen the story in many incarnations, but the real attraction to this film is the film making.

Typical of British cinema, it is very Spartan: no superfluous music, sound, or special effects. The costumes are "everyday," and the sets are actual row houses, typical of the times and area. This gritty story plays out without cinematic distractions or any of the nauseating political correctness which has become "de rigueur" in today's films.

It has been said about music that a simple melody well played is far more beautiful than a symphony butchered. Similarly, one can say about film that a simple, believable story well told is far more captivating than a howler of a story tossed together with a dog's dinner of special effects. Think of this film in terms of Zen.

** I will say the very opening of the film with the haunting Celtic vocals by Enya and Clannad instantly caught my attention. At the time Enya was merely the vocalist in the family band, Clannad, and in 1981, was an unknown in North America. However, I knew immediately this was a voice destined for greatness. For Enya fans who only know her music, the "Theme to Harry's Game" refers to this marvelous film.

This is yet another example of the abysmal ignorance of marketing on the part of the British film industry. Evidently the owners of the property don't like making money. The only thing this film lacked was a marketing budget and someone to market it.

For film lover's who are disappointed by the dearth of North American releases of marvelous British, Aussie and European films, I would highly recommend purchasing a region free DVD player, and ordering your films from England. There are several sites which sell them very cheap. Also, if you like French cinema, set your browser to detect French language hits also when you search film titles. Lots of great used titles available on ebay.fr or amazon.fr.

I spent several months scouring DVD stores and P2P networks, looking for Harry's Game, simply because I'd heard from numerous sources that it was the most authentic portrayal of the N. Irish troubles on film. I finally got my hands on a copy, and I was very excited to see what I believed was going to be the best depiction of life in N. Ireland under the shadow of the war.

Dear GOD. The acting, the accents, the dialogue, the camera work, the directing; is there anything in this friggin' series that doesn't seem like it was under the control of a high school media student?

This is the worst - yes, the WORST - depiction of the Troubles I've ever seen, and I've seen some pretty abysmal Troubles-inspired movies, let me tell ya! There are two things, and ONLY two things that make this series tolerable enough so that I could sit through the full three hours. First, the overall visual "bleakness" of the series. It really "felt" like Northern Ireland, and certainly the Northern Ireland of the 80's. As long as no one spoke or acted out anything other than walking around, it was quite authentic. Then again, this probably had nothing to do with the director's/producer's vision and more to do with their budget, but we'll give them the benefit of the doubt. The second positive point is that it appears to have been reasonably well-researched in terms of the "operating procedures" of both the IRA and the British intelligence apparatus. In that respect, it's no more or less authentic than any other half-decent attempt to portray the N. Irish Troubles.

I found myself shaking my head in both disbelief and anger every time someone did or said something on-screen. The casting appears to have been made up predominately of weak B actors, somewhat-known British TV actors, and a handful of N. Irish natives who probably hadn't acted in their lives. The accents...God almighty, the accents. Every single "N. Irish" person in the series - other than those actually FROM N. Ireland - seemed to have developed their own bastardization of the N. Irish accent. They may as well have been from different planets. Some were so bad that I burst out laughing...others were just bad enough to make me cringe. The dialogue was no better; the writer was putting words into the mouths of these characters that they'd never say, and making them spew out their moronic lines at inappropriate/unnecessary times. It just felt weak and unrealistic, which is quite staggering considering the fact that the one word that everyone associates with this series is "authenticity".

The Clannad theme song for the series is a fine piece of music, and the fact that it plays during the end credits is probably a wise choice - end credits, good music; a fair pay-off for having wasted several hours of your life.

Overall Authenticity = 4/10

Overall Entertainment Value = 2/10

This is bog-standard, low-budget 80's TV. Don't expect anything more, and don't expect a history lesson about N. Ireland.

A British agent tries to infiltrate the IRA to find an assassin and capture him before he himself is found out. I keep trying to get people to watch this film. This is the best treatment I have seen about the Troubles in Northern Ireland, the causes and the futility. Both the British and the IRA are intelligent, and we see the reasons each side does what it does. The tension is very well handled. The film PATRIOT GAMES pays tribute by borrowing some of the music, but it does not match the quality of the storytelling.