Ken Loach

[Steve Crook]

Ken Loach has won the Palme d'Or at Cannes for The Wind That Shakes The Barley
See BBC News and Politics Returns to Cannes

Steve

[theuofc]

(Steve Crook @ May 28 2006, 09:30 PM) Ken Loach has won the Palme d'Or at Cannes for The Wind That Shakes The Barley See BBC News and Politics Returns to Cannes Steve

I'm looking forward to seeing this Loach film. Based on positive comments in here, I tracked down Loach's 1990 "Hidden Agenda" on the British army shoot-to-kill policy in Northern Ireland, which he won a jury prize for. "The Wind..." also has Liam Cunningham, who can be quite effective in the right role.

Thanks,

Barbara

[Harbottle]

Oh good....

[Steve Crook]

(Harbottle @ May 29 2006, 12:33 AM) Oh good....

Not a fan of Mr Loach?

Steve

[Hackett]

The Jury is still out for me on that one Steve. But then so are all the murdering IRA scum out now.

[JamesM]

And so are the murdering scum who were in Haditha, which this film is also about, metaphorically I believe.

[Marky B]

When are we going to get a film about the murders in Enniskillen,Warrington,Lord Mountbatten,Omagh,Airey Neave and all the other atrocities committed by the IRA. Or are these forbidden? The only films allowed are anti-British?
Mark

[Steve Crook]

(Marky B @ May 31 2006, 11:44 PM) When are we going to get a film about the murders in Enniskillen,Warrington,Lord Mountbatten,Omagh,Airey Neave and all the other atrocities committed by the IRA. Or are these forbidden? The only films allowed are anti-British? Mark

If Mel Gibson and similar people have any say in it, yes, the only films allowed are anti-British.
Does anyone know why he's so fervently anti-British? (Braveheart, The Patriot, Gallipoli etc.)

Steve

[Hackett]

(JamesM @ May 31 2006, 04:44 PM) And so are the murdering scum who were in Haditha, which this film is also about, metaphorically I believe.

The 24 deaths in Haditha only happend last November and old Ken would have been quick getting his film ready for Cannes in 7 months. Maybe your getting metaphorically mixed up with the murdering Iraqi scum who gassed 250000 Curds. I mean thats no reason to go to war is it?.

[penfold]

(Steve Crook @ Jun 1 2006, 12:58 AM) If Mel Gibson and similar people have any say in it, yes, the only films allowed are anti-British. Does anyone know why he's so fervently anti-British? (Braveheart, The Patriot, Gallipoli etc.) Steve

Without unfairly maligning whole nations, there are still large elements in the US and Australia who are Anti-British - or more precisely, anti-English to the point of fanaticism. Largely, but not entirely, from the communities with Irish and Scottish antecedents...eg the US support for the IRA, a combination of generations-old hatred and contemporary ignorance as to the then-current situation. A lot of money went to Noraid because Americans believed the Catholic Irish didn't have the vote. The English are still being blamed for the potato famine. It was a tragedy, mostly natural in origin but exacerbated by overpopulation, monocultural farming, and insensitive leadership... but many of the dreaded landlords were also Irish...and we can be pretty sure the English aristocracy would have behaved precisely the same way if it had been English peasantry suffering .
And Gibson's father has some seriously perverse views on world history...holocaust denial being among them. He's also an ultra-conservative Catholic - the Popes of the last fifty years have been too liberal by half apparently. And he's a poster boy for the US hard Right...of the anti-Federal New World Order Conspiracy theory bent. Mel is a devoted son by all accounts.

[Harbottle]

I think Loach is completely talentless and would be unheard of were it not for the fact he likes to be "controversial". The French and no doubt other countries love him as he is Anti-English, no doubt he will be teaming up with Gibson for a project sometime. I wonder if he could face families who have lost loved ones to the many cowardly atrocities perpetrated by the IRA and similar terrorist organisations?

[Steve Crook]

(Harbottle @ Jun 1 2006, 01:19 PM) I think Loach is completely talentless and would be unheard of were it not for the fact he likes to be "controversial". The French and no doubt other countries love him as he is Anti-English, no doubt he will be teaming up with Gibson for a project sometime. I wonder if he could face families who have lost loved ones to the many cowardly atrocities perpetrated by the IRA and similar terrorist organisations?

Have you never seen Kes, Poor Cow or many of his other brilliant works that made him famous?

Steve

[Steve Crook]

(penfold @ Jun 1 2006, 12:56 PM) ... The English are still being blamed for the potato famine. It was a tragedy, mostly natural in origin but exacerbated by overpopulation, monocultural farming, and insensitive leadership... but many of the dreaded landlords were also Irish...and we can be pretty sure the English aristocracy would have behaved precisely the same way if it had been English peasantry suffering .

And not many people know that there were at least two potato famines in Ireland as well as the similar famines in Scotland.
The Irish carried on with the monoculture even after the first one. In fact the people that survived the big famine carried on with it even after that and were hit yet again

Steve

[Harbottle]

(Steve Crook @ Jun 1 2006, 03:33 PM) Have you never seen Kes, Poor Cow or many of his other brilliant works that made him famous? Steve

Ugh yes dreadful depressing stuff, especially Kes.

[Steve Crook]

(Harbottle @ Jun 1 2006, 04:13 PM) Ugh yes dreadful depressing stuff, especially Kes.

Oh, sorry. I didn't realise that you were totally devoid of taste

Steve