Why We Need to Put the Easter Rising on Film.
A video essay by Stephen Murphy , who writes:
In terms of filming our own history, we’re playing catch-up with most other nations. People may be unimpressed with much of what’s been produced so far for the centenary, but at least it’s getting the conversation going….
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I enjoyed this but I’m not sure what his point is. Michael Collins and The Wind that shakes the barley are two excellent movies about the rising and it’s aftermath, although I have not watched rebellion yet.
I would agree we need a good documentary on the rising similar to what Colin Farrell did with Google but with more of an artistic focus.
Neither of those films are about the rising.
Michael Collins and The Wind… both dealt with the War of Independence and Civil War, not the Rising itself.
Which is why I specifically said we need a better document OF THE RISING. My point is we have made movies that deal with war, contrary to the video’s point.
Michael Collins and The Wind that shakes the barley are two excellent movies about the rising and it’s aftermath
But he USED CAPS to refute the issue. So, let that be the end of it.
TG4’s Seachtar na gCásca and Seachtar Dearmhada are awesome documentary series telling the story of the Rising through the lives of its executed leaders.
Thank you for that. I do like documentaries about Irish history. I’ll be watching that.
Wouldn’t a film of the Rising purely on it’s own, without the election after that retrospectively legitimised it, and the War of Independence that vindicated it, look a bit like a celebration of a bunch of nationalist terrorists storming Dublin? Dublin Is Falling?
Out of context of what came after it, I mean.
No
The Rising doesn’t need to be contextualised to make a decent film about it; it was an event in itself, regardless of what it preceded. Take films about Pearl Harbour as an example: They focus on the day itself and it is presumed that the historical context is somewhat familiar to the audience.
Eh, hello?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkajKDx4RB4
Why is this not on the Leaving Cert‽
Infinitely greater emotional resonance than Rebellion, and all for just a high multiple of the budget!
Ha! A whole suite of historical treatments.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_The_Young_Indiana_Jones_Chronicles_episodes
I’m up to here with Niall Ferguson, might give them a spin.
Michael Bay would do a great job of the Rising…. instead of tug boats with guns on the Liffey we could have hovercraft with particle cannons and drones, it’d be deadly, a few solar flares on the camera lens at dusk and dawn over the city, lots of ridin’ down on Moore St and plenty of Jackeen cyborgs, just to top it off.
Of course, some licence with the story and some time travelling thrown in would be required. But it’s the same thing, no one will notice.
And there would be a colour theme of teal and orange (a set of colours he is rather fond of using in his movies).
2116 – a few hundred brave citizens of Airstrip Two rise up against the forces of Imperial Europe ;o)
The Lebanon war, depending on who you ask, was a 3 year conflict involving multiple nations and cultures. The Rising was a rough week in town. There’s just not as much source material.
There’ll be a fight around the back of the bike shed later over the head of that, I know it.
Mise Éire
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1281853/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmL5WD6JT9A
All the examples used are of conflicts that happened abroad but are then reflected back to the host nation of the film to speak indirectly; Israel in the Lebanon, Americans in Europe, etc. The bogeyman is always external to the home.
So for eg. we have less films dealing with the US treatment of native Americans (off the top of my head anyway..I’m sure someone will prove me wrong) and we still have trouble/discussion around slavery in film. They are still live issues, and many would be forced to realise they or those around them are the bogeymen.
The rising happened at home, the participants and their families are still well known, and the peace process in the North is a constant live reminder of it’s ramifications. It’s too messy and we as a society are too close yet, so we have to find other ways of talking about it. I would argue as a result we have many oblique references through emigre films (Brooklyn), films about land ownership (the field), or idealism (Into the west). It takes either more time or a pretty unique approach to deal with something like this directly.
An interesting video essay though, and just my two cents on it.