'71 (2015)

I have watched quite a few movies about the struggles between the Irish and the British in Northern Ireland over the years, but this one is a very different way to tell the story.  Other movies, famous ones like 'Michael Collins' and 'Bloody Sunday', tell the story in sweeping strokes, whereas this movie is told in a very narrow way.  It is dark and gritty, and to my mind, a much better way of conveying all the complexities and divided alliances that were occurring in 1971 in Northern Ireland.

The story follows green British troops who are led by inexperienced leadership.  they are thrown into a powder keg of resistance and anger on the streets of Belfast and in the midst of the chaos, a soldier gets separated from his troops, and is left to fend for himself over night.  He doesn't know who to trust and who to fear, and the movie aptly shows the shifting alliances and rivalries between those who you would predict and those you wouldn't.  Gritty and difficult but very good.