A Film Analysis of Some Mother’s Son

Some Mother's Son is another film about Irish men and women sticking to their guns in the face of grave consequences. The film is striking and entertaining throughout. The exposure of the levels of injustice that Northern Irish freedom fighters faced during the Troubles is vast. Roadblocks imposed on entire towns, bridges were destroyed, warrantless arrests and searches were widespread, and British judges carried out trials with no jury of peers. In spite of all of these actions, and legislation passed allowing British authorities more powers than they would have in normal circumstances, England said they were not at war. Herein lies the main injustice that movie is centered around; that the British were taking liberties with the people's rights as if it were wartime, but not respecting the captured combatants as prisoners of war.

At the time in Northern Ireland, people were upset at having their rights infringed upon and they knew from centuries of painful experience that they would not be left alone easily. The English gave the people no choice but to fight, and the attempts to suppress the IRA and Sinn Fein only fueled the fire. The reason that the hunger strikers were such a problem for the British was that there was no way for the British to win. How could they? They already had the men in prison, and the prisoners were willing to go naked, spread feces on the walls of their cells, and eventually starve to death for their rights. These men were not even fighting for their cause anymore; they only wanted not to be regarded as common criminals.

This was the strength and weakness of their struggle. The Prisoners of War could appeal on a human level, that they only wanted to be treated as good as a captured enemy. They ceased fighting for the cause of the IRA while inside, and only protested for their rights. What took credibility away from the hunger strikers was the ways that the IRA and Sinn Fein used them as part of the Republican agenda, drawing their image back to the violence. The film promoted the idea that Bobby Sands was elected as a result of sympathy for the hunger strikers and campaigning by the prisoners' families. In reality Bobby Sands' election probably had more to do with the politics of independence and republicanism than is depicted in the film. It is unclear what the man's own feelings were as he was not allowed to speak to the press after his election and before his death, and equally unclear is Bobby Sands' own level of willingness to be used as used as a tool in the propaganda war of Northern Ireland.

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