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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Bloody Sunday
Paramount Classics


8.4

based on 31 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 20 votes
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FILM:

MPAA RATING: R for violence and language

Starring James Nesbitt, Tim Pigott-Smith, Nicholas Farrell, Gerard McSorley, Kathy Keira Clarke, Allan Gildea, Gerard Crossan, and Mary Moulds

This controversial and critically acclaimed film depicts the events of January 30, 1972, when 27 civilians were shot by the British army during a peaceful civil rights march. The event fueled a 25-year cycle of violence between Britain and elements of Ireland, North and South. (Paramount Classics)

GENRE(S):	Drama
WRITTEN BY:	Paul Greengrass Don Mullan (book)
DIRECTED BY:	Paul Greengrass
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: April 22, 2003 Video: April 22, 2003 Theatrical: October 4, 2002
RUNNING TIME:	107 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	UK / Ireland

Audience Award for World Cinema (tie), 2002 Sundance Film Festival; Golden Berlin Bear (tie), Prize of the Ecumenical Jury, 2002 Berlin International Film Festival

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

It's a mad cycle of arrogance and despair, and Bloody Sunday etches it onto your nervous system.

100

Newsweek David Ansen

Brings history to life with an uncanny sense of realism.

100

Chicago Tribune Mark Caro

By re-imagining a pivotal, terrible 24 hours, Greengrass has made a must-see film that is timely - and timeless.

100

The New Yorker David Denby

For the viewer, the miracle of Bloody Sunday is that firm moral judgment can exist side by side with a wild and bitter exhilaration in the sheer physicality of violence. [7 Oct 2002, p. 108]

100

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

A bracing, unblinking work that serves as a painful elegy and sobering cautionary tale.

100

San Francisco Chronicle Edward Guthmann

A great achievement: tense and passionate, a film that one feels not just emotionally but also physically.

100

Washington Post Desson Thomson

An extraordinary film ... that's impossible to dismiss or leave unmoved.

100

Variety Scott Foundas

A stunning work, revisiting controversial events with journalistic objectivity and a meticulous eye for detail.

100

New York Magazine Peter Rainer

The most visceral and cumulatively powerful account of civil war since Gillo Pontecorvo's "The Battle of Algiers."

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

It's raw, visceral stuff that precious few movies are capable of equaling.

Chicago Reader Patrick Z. McGavin

The movie's searing conclusion left me numb and overwhelmed.

Dallas Observer Gregory Weinkauf

Amazingly, almost every note of every performance in Bloody Sunday rings true.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

Once positions hardened, tragedy was all but inevitable, and Bloody Sunday" does the spirit of that awful day full and unforgettable justice.

Village Voice J. Hoberman

Bloody Sunday doesn't surrender its grip on the viewer even after the action shifts from the streets of Bogside to a local hospital where the weeping masses are still under the guns of the war-painted British soldiers.

The New York Times A.O. Scott

The level of accomplishment in the filmmaking is overwhelming.

LA Weekly John Patterson

A scrupulously even-handed account, free of ideological or tribal partisanship, based on eyewitness accounts by survivors and the anonymous "Paras" themselves.

Austin Chronicle Kimberley Jones

A triumph in anguish.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

One view of what happened that day, a very effective one. And as an act of filmmaking, it is superb: A sense of immediate and present reality permeates every scene.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

Surges forward with barely a respite. It's like watching a propane factory burn, waiting for the tanks inside to explode, and when they do, we're right in the middle of it.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

The film is conducted in a delirious cinema-verite style; most of what you see has a brutal, you-are-there immediacy. You're not merely watching history, you're engulfed by it.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

An astonishing re-creation of the Londonderry massacre of January 1972.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

Greengrass and his tremendously smart and emotionally agile lead actor, James Nesbitt, paint their portrait of a good politician without illusion or sentimentality.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

There's no denying the skill and flair with which director Paul Greengrass has restaged this unhappy event, creating an uncanny sense of immediacy and allowing us to be a fly on the wall at a seminal '70s tragedy.

Film Threat Tim Merrill

A gripping experience, and often downright sickening.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

As a terrifying example of what can happen when too many angry people are crowded into too small a space, it's a gripper.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

A harrowing lesson in unintended -- and intended -- consequences.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

At its best, Bloody Sunday produces the same chilling illusion of history writ large, clearly detailing the strategies of both sides, then blankly observing the conflict through unadorned, newsreel camera stock and the precise orchestration of large-scale chaos.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

The result is a grim, startling motion picture.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

An impressive film accomplishment, a combination of technique and extremely specific detail that reminds viewers how potent a rhetorical force the medium can be.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

What Bloody Sunday lacks in clarity, it makes up for with a great, fiery passion.

TV Guide Ken Fox

The accents are thick and the soundtrack noisy, but even as the screen explodes in chaos, Greenglass maintains a solid grip on the story.

The average user rating for this movie is 8.4 (out of 10) based on 20 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

[Anonymous] gave it a5:
Very blah unless perhaps you're an IRA member. Hard to understand the thick accents, as well as slow progress. Tries to give depth to characters but fails. Anti-climactic in every sense. This was a waste of my time. I only watched it as earlier in the day I saw it rated high on MetaCritic and stumbled across it on TV later that night.

Akhil K gave it a10:
Its disturbing and shaky camera style is appropriate for its content. Yet its the emotional moments mostly during the third act that epitemizes the enitre film and is cause to the tears falling down your face. The fact that the British government got away with their wrought massacre is as sad as it is true.

Elliott gave it a 10:
So intense and realistic, it's like actually being there: Bloody Sunday showcases the greatest use of digital video EVER.

Fernando G. gave it a 10:
Wow...

Greg S. gave it a 10:
The documentary style will be unsettling for some, but this movie is devoid of any sentimentality for its characters. Rather, it tells the story quite simply and eloquently, all the more powerfully by showing the British side and their decisions and movements as well. The parts of it that were filled with intense action I would compare favorably to Black Hawk Down. This movie moved me tremendously. It's spare, realistic, and very powerful.

Brianna C. gave it a 10:
This movie was far better than I thought it would be. It made me feel as if I were actually following the victims around with a camera that day. This is a great movie and it really gets to the point. I don't think it got as much publicity as it should have gotten.

Paul N. gave it a 10:
An intense truth telling experience for all to witness.

Bloody Sunday Paramount Classics

Bloody Sunday
Paramount Classics