paulvancraeynest I saw this movie several times. I am even looking for it on vain now, on DVD or download. What I liked most is that it gives an insight in the world of the Ulster loyalists. In most movies, the NI troubles are depicted as a struggle of the noble IRA fighters against the evil British opressors. (In the name of the father, Bloody sunday, Some mother's son, Hunger,...) In a few other movies, the IRA members are depicted as ruthless terrorists (The devil's own, Patriot games). What all these movies have in common is that the loyalists are not even mentioned. Nothing Personal shows the true nature of the conflict, as a bloody and cruel gang war between the two parties, and on top of that, bloody internal conflicts in the two camps as well.

Theo Robertson Belfast 1975 and the Republican and Loyalist terrorists call a ceasefire . UVF leader Leonard Wilson realises one of the men under his command is a liability to the ceasefire and orders him " to be taken care off " . Meanwhile catholic single father Liam finds himself lost in a Loyalist enclave A couple of days ago I saw CAL after a gap of many years which instantly struck me as being the best film about The Troubles . I had very vague memories of NOTHING PERSONAL seeing it round about 1998 when it was broadcast on channel 4 late one night and not remembering much about it all . Within a short space of time the film totally gripped me due to its intelligence and had me thinking I was going to have to reevaluate my opinion of CAL which was in serious danger of being relegated to being the second best film featuring The Troubles but this didn't happen Why not I hear you ask ? One very easy reply and that is the last ten minutes of NOTHING PERSONAL stops becoming intelligent drama and becomes teeth gnashing melodrama which relies on people doing unlikely things in order have an emotional impact on the audience as to the tragedy of life in Belfast circa 1975 . This is totally unnecessary because this audience member at least was totally caught up in the story without the need for some over the top histrionics being brought in to play in the final scenes Unlike RESURRECTION MAN or THE GRASSCUTTER the screenplay here resists the temptation to paint loyalist terrorists are out and out villains . Of course there's no defence of the indiscriminate violence loyalist terrorists wreaked upon the catholic community and their own during the Troubles but the opening sequence features a bomb attack on a protestant bar which mirrors real life events of the time and gives an excuse for young men to flock to Loyalist terror gangs . It also makes the scathing point that despite Loyalist and Republican terrorists bombing and shooting innocent civilians the terrorist leaders all know their opposite numbers but never think of striking against their opponentsThe cast are without exception excellent and the bulk of the film is carried by Ian Harte and James Frain who are English and to my untrained Scottish ears never once failed to convince me they were Belfast boys . Frain especially gives an understated performance but manages to portray an inner conflict that he may have to execute Ginger he's been ordered to . It's actually that is very good at portraying a sense of time and place which RESURRECTION MAN failed to do . Like I said this is a very good film that felt the need to over do the dramatics in the last ten minutes which while not totally ruining the film stops it from being a classic one

vlad1917 being a NI supporter, it's hard to objectively review a movie glorifying ulster nationalists. characters who are hard to root for, typical heavy-handed anti-violence messages, and a predictable 'poetic justice' ending makes this an awkward watch...

Andy-140 I disliked this film intensely and left during the scene where the loyalist gang are shot up by the British. The film effectively blames the people of NI as being the cause of their own troubles. It suggests that the 25 year war was a question of intransigence and nothing to do with Britain's partition of Ireland and domination of its history i.e. NI was created by Britain in 1921 irrespective of the wishes of the rest of Ireland.The characters are portrayed as hapless fools, even though I despise loyalist paramilitaries they were fighting for a cause - maintaining their artificial privileges over the Catholic community. It is a known fact that British Intelligence collaborated with loyalists during the war, no doubt to keep the Catholics at bay and demoralise republicanism.Nineties' values about 'machismo', masculinity etc are transposed on to 1970s Belfast and are portrayed as part of the supposedly unique Irish 'psyche' which leads to violence. The stupid song from the woman in the club - old Ireland of green fields ..blah..blah.. - is given a symbolic stature, i.e. poor young fools fighting for an impossible cause. Tedious, ahistorical, cheap and nasty trash. O'Sullivan has made a personal statement on a conflict which requires serious political analysis.