Geheimprotokoll

Largely forgotten today, the first of two films Ken Loach made about The Troubles generated headlines at the time for a nasty spat at a press conference between Alexander Walker and Loach. As the snappy title suggests it's the nearest thing Loach ever made to a conventional thriller, and although Loach is no Costa-Gavras or Alan Pakula it hold the attention.

Loach inevitably subscribes to the conspiracy rather than the cock-up theory of history, witness the speech that Thatcher's elevation was deliberately engineered rather than simply luck; and he puts a crass and patronising observation about the Irish in a high-ranking Tory's mouth.

A good cast rather surprisingly includes Mai Zetterling making a rare late appearance as an actor in a oddly small part.

Not top-drawer Ken Loach; the "thriller" elements are well-done, but the warmth and depth Loach brings to his working-class stories has no place here. There's a structural flaw in the script, too--it presents itself as a film about Northern Ireland but then jumps headlong into something equally involving but quite different.

It is, all the same, a well-crafted, atmospheric film that never lacks excitement and raises some substantial issues. More importantly, the entire film is sadly prescient. The opening torture narratives could have been translated from accounts of Abu Ghraib prison. Change a couple of proper names and the scenery, and this would be the best film around on the U.S. occupation of Iraq. Even the second half of the story (no spoiler warning, so I give no details) rings truer and truer as time goes by.

Richly deserves reissue.

"Hidden Agenda" - another in a long list of films about the conflict in Northern Ireland - focuses on the investigation by British detective Kerrigan (Cox) of the assassination of an American civil liberties investigator. The film gets down to business quickly as it shows the pervasive and deeply rooted divisive sentiments of Ireland with a straight forward, no frills approach and a whodunnit type plot. A well made location shoot with no frills, "HA" will most likely be appreciated by those with some understanding of the Irish conflict.

"Hidden Agenda" was an enjoyable political thriller. The story was a somewhat typical Irish against the bloody English set in the late 1980's. The strength of the movie was in the fine acting by Frances McDormand, as usual, Brian Cox and many others. The ending some may find unsatisfactory. It tends to be open ended. I thought it provided much speculation on what Frances McDormand would do. I also thought it to be true to life.

Ken Loach has made a career out of directing movies about politically charged topics. A lot of his movies have addressed class issues in the United Kingdom, but he has also looked at foreign policy. One example is "Hidden Agenda", about an investigation into the murder of a human rights lawyer in Belfast. Loach not only indicts the British occupation, but also finds time to take a swipe at Margaret Thatcher's government.* While I was watching the movie I assumed that it was based on the murder of solicitor Pat Finucane. It turns out that the movie is a fictional story, but it still makes sure to show the sorts of things that had become commonplace in Northern Ireland. I read that Loach had the cast members meet with people who had gotten abused by British forces to give them an idea of what the movie was dealing with.

Ken Loach also looked at Ireland in "The Wind that Shakes the Barley", about Ireland's war for independence in the early 20th century. Both movies take unflinching looks at what the English did to the Irish for over 800 years. To be certain, "Hidden Agenda" features a scene that should give people pause in the era of the so called war on terrorism: a man sings a song that has the line "you take our land and call us terrorists for resisting". I recommend the movie. Other movies focusing on Northern Ireland that I recommend are "In the Name of the Father", "Bloody Sunday" and "Breakfast on Pluto".

*After Thatcher died, Loach proposed that her funeral should be privatized, since she would've wanted it that way.