'71
Roadside Attractions | Release Date: February 27, 2015 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
83
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 34 Critic Reviews
Positive:
32
Mixed:
2
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsMar 12, 2015
Swift and exciting, with no taste for the usual war movie heroics, first-time feature film director Yann Demange's film belongs on a short list of immersive, rattling, authentic fictions right next door to the fact of survival inside a war zone. Read full review
91
Portland OregonianJeff BakerJul 14, 2015
What matters in '71 is the action, and the look on O'Connell's face when he emerges from a shed into the Belfast night. Read full review
91
The PlaylistJessica KiangFeb 25, 2015
‘71 is more than just a performance showcase, delivering a gripping, at times almost unbearably tense, incredibly involving anti-war statement, made the stronger for being set against the less cinematically familiar backdrop of Belfast in the year 1971. Read full review
91
IndieWireEric KohnFeb 12, 2014
'71 constantly thrills without sensationalizing its surprises. The war-is-hell ethos drives it forward, so that the movie retains its suspense in conjunction with its dour outlook. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranFeb 26, 2015
Nothing is extraneous, no moment that doesn't enhance the tension of this nightmare scenario is allowed to survive, until the proceedings become, in the best possible sense, almost unbearable to watch. Read full review
90
The New York TimesManohla DargisFeb 26, 2015
Mr. Demange makes his feature directing debut with ’71, but he already knows how to move bodies through space and the complex choreography that he’s worked out in this movie is a thing of joy. Read full review
90
Village VoiceAmy NicholsonFeb 26, 2015
[An] excellent, tensely controlled thriller. Read full review
90
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternFeb 26, 2015
Yann Demange’s ’71, with an astonishing performance by Jack O’Connell, is big-screen storytelling stripped to its dramatic and visual essentials, and the result is nothing less than shattering. Read full review
90
The Hollywood ReporterLeslie FelperinFeb 12, 2014
This outstanding, muscular feature debut for French-born, British-based director Yann Demange almost never puts a foot wrong, from the softly underplayed performances to the splendidly speckled cinematography and fine-grained period detailing. Read full review
90
VarietyGuy LodgeFeb 12, 2014
A vivid, shivery survival thriller that turns the red-brick residential streets of Belfast into a war zone of unconscionable peril. Read full review
89
Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovMar 11, 2015
Take the politics out and you’d still have a powerhouse action film. But please, don’t take the politics out. Read full review
88
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Brad WheelerMar 12, 2015
Republicans or loyalists, Catholics or Protestants – this film is not about political or religious trenches. People died, but it’s more than the bombs, bullets and bodies. The more fascinating damage was done to psyches and souls, and Demange, with ’71, comes for yours. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperMar 12, 2015
Frame by frame, ’71 is one of those intense war thrillers where you know it’s fiction, you know it’s not a documentary, and yet every performance and every conflict feels true to the history and the events of the time. Read full review
88
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaMar 6, 2015
1971 is a testament to a generation's idealism, heroism, foolhardiness, fearlessness. Read full review
88
New York PostKyle SmithFeb 25, 2015
It’s a rare film that locates viciousness and kindness on both sides of Northern Ireland’s Troubles. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyJoe McGovernMar 6, 2015
It’s only March, but this could be 2015’s most invigorating directorial debut. Read full review
83
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerFeb 27, 2015
Within its limited compass, ’71 packs a punch, and the lack of political bias does give it a more encompassing feel. Read full review
83
The A.V. ClubMike D'AngeloFeb 25, 2015
The setting may be Belfast ’71, but Demange’s sensibility — first-rate suspense coupled with black-and-white politics — is much more James Cameron ’86. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzMar 12, 2015
Demange's busy camera is effective in conveying the chaos swirling around Hook. If we can't always tell exactly what's going on, neither can Hook. It ratchets up the tension considerably. Read full review
80
The New YorkerAnthony LaneMar 2, 2015
As the camera darts down alleyways, or prowls the housing projects where soldiers fear to tread, what really concerns Demange — and what lends such a kick to O’Connell’s performance, on the heels of “Starred Up” and “Unbroken” — is the bewilderment and the panic that await us, whoever we may be, in limbo. Read full review
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriFeb 27, 2015
Whenever the film focuses on Gary, it’s O’Connell’s show. And the actor’s ability to quietly express a whole range of emotions with his body language and his eyes, is staggering — especially since, for much of the film, he’s limping and covered in blood. Read full review
80
SalonAndrew O'HehirFeb 26, 2015
It’s a riveting, man-on-the-run genre movie, almost a combination of “Black Hawk Down” and “After Hours,” rather than an allegory or a historical treatise. Read full review
80
The DissolveMatthew DessemFeb 26, 2015
A master class in structure, a meticulously constructed period piece, a powerful anti-war film, and rarest of all, a thriller whose tension and suspense feel genuinely earned. Read full review
80
Total FilmMatt GlasbyDec 8, 2014
A brutal army thriller that feels like the truth, thanks to take-no-prisoners storytelling and a tell-no-lies performance from Jack O’Connell. Read full review
80
The TelegraphTim RobeyDec 8, 2014
The film’s stark realism and bruising impact are enough in themselves, but the risk, and the real artistic payoff, is its bold sensory plunge into this Hadean inferno. Read full review
80
EmpireNev PierceOct 6, 2014
The villainy is, perhaps unavoidably, somewhat signposted, but this is a tense, gripping thriller that combines real-world relevance with high-concept entertainment. In a superb ensemble, O’Connell is outstanding. Read full review
80
The GuardianAndrew PulverFeb 12, 2014
It's a film that holds you in a vice-like grip throughout; only wavering towards the end with a faintly preposterous climactic shootout. Read full review
75
Boston GlobePeter KeoughMar 12, 2015
Churns out dread, suspense, and hellish splendor with its derelict cityscapes and breakneck action. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comOdie HendersonFeb 27, 2015
Last seen in “Starred Up” and Angelina Jolie’s “Unbroken,” O’Connell continues to bring equal measures of toughness and vulnerability to his characters. Despite his good looks, there’s an everyman’s quality to him, which he uses to full effect in ’71. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter TraversFeb 26, 2015
Demange's film, spiked by an outstanding, all-stops-out O'Connell, makes politics unnervingly personal. Too much? What else do you expect of a cinematic knockout punch that sends you reeling? Read full review
75
Movie NationRoger MooreFeb 24, 2015
It’s an intricate, intimate thriller about a single soldier’s nightmare day and night on the front lines. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineKenji FujishimaSep 19, 2014
It distinguishes itself from Pual Greengrass's films by virtue of its close attention to political and moral ambiguities. Read full review
60
CineVueBen NicholsonDec 8, 2014
'71 is a pulse-raising actioner that stumbles a little in navigating the typically hazardous political terrain. Read full review
60
Time Out LondonDave CalhounOct 7, 2014
Demange is a strong storyteller and masks the script’s tendency to nod to every opinion and social division by offering a masterclass in tension as soon as his dramatic bomb starts ticking. Read full review
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