Neil040 Just watched tonight.. well I thought it was a good movieI understand some of the previous comments and its true I am sure that this is not totally accurate to the events.. but then again.. I have watched probably thousands of british films in my life and I would not say that they are all notable for their accuracy to historical facts!I think helen mirren is so superb as an actress.. any dispute?I think we have got to get past the past... not easy but some are trying to do this. I am british but feel no sense that the british role in ireland has been healthy overall... I now live in ireland and love the place.. I have also worked in the north and in all the years here have never once felt unwelcome for my accent.Its a sad terrible thing that happened over so many years.. anyone who believes there is any black and white right and wrong in this is mistaken in my opinion.. its way too complicated.. maybe there is hope ahead of us now..

Theo Robertson SOME MOTHER`S SON starts with some archive video of Magaret Thatcher making a speech after winning the 1979 British general election followed by a sequence of British government officials getting together with one of them saying " The rules < On Northern Ireland and terrorism have changed > have changed , the policy is now isolation , criminalization and demoralization " . This is a very strange thing to say about the situation in Northern Ireland in 1979 since despite the change in government there was no change in policy . The IRA were making a grand job isolating themselves from the mainstream nationalist community throughout the 1970s with incidents like " Bloody Friday " which were killing and maiming as many catholics as protestants . Criminalization ? Well the IRA have always been outlawed on both sides of the border since partition in 1922 , oh and convicted terrorists , loyalisist or republican , lost all political status in 1976 . Anyone found convicted of terrorist convictions after March 1976 was no longer eligible for political status within the Northern Ireland prison system . This was introduced by the Labour government`s Northern Ireland secetary Merlyn Rees not as insinuated here Thatcher`s Conservative government . As for demoralization the Provisional IRA were very much demoralized before Thatcher came into government . By 1975 they realised unification with the South wasn`t going to happen , had become embroiled in fueds with the Official IRA and loyalist terror groups while most of their members had been killed or imprisoned , not imprisoned in Long Kesh as in the early 1970s but in the new purpose built Maze with its strict regime ( Criminalization is a demoralizing thing ) while recruitment into the ranks was drying up ( If you go around blowing up innocent civilians you can expect this to happen ) , as I said Isolation , criminalization and demoralization weren`t the invention of ThatcherAnother serious factual error that leapt out at me was the court room scene. In a Northern Ireland " Diplock " court used to try people up for terrorist offences ( Remember both loyalist and republican defendants were tried this way )there`s three judges used but here we see only one who is a toffee nosed Englishman as are the defence barristers . In most cases Diplock judges were Irish , as are defence and prosecuting attorneys , but not only are most defence lawyers Irish they`re nearly all Irish catholics ! The most notorious loyalist murder gang " The Shankhill butchers " - whose idea of a good night out was to kidnap the nearest suspected catholic passerby and slowly skin him alive - where defended by a catholic lawyer , so how on earth a film that struts its credentials as being " Based on factual events " can get away with this misrepresentation of a Northern Ireland court is beyond me . There are also several iinaccurate details in geography and anachronisms like the Brits uniforms ( The polycarbide helmets they wear weren`t introduced untill 1986 ) which I couldn`t help but notice These above comments are facts which can`t be disputed . They can`t be disputed because they are facts , so I won`t put too much opinion on SOME MOTHER`S SON . It is very well acted and it was very good to see that for a brief moment Helen Mirren`s character Kathleen Quigley comes to the realisation that she`s being manipulated by the IRA / Sinn Fein but this is a brief moment in a film that`s preceeded by polemical opinion which screams " Britain is entirely responsible for the troubles " and finishes with a caption giving the names of the ten IRA/INLA hunger strikers . I guess it would have been too much to print the names of those murdered by these particular hunger strikers ?

irish44 The music from "Some Mother's Son", composed and conducted by Bill Whelan, is hauntingly beautiful. Eleanor McEvoy's vocal on "The Seabird" is outstanding.However, it is too bad the storyline in the movie doesn't match the quality of the music. Quite frankly, the movie was boring!Helen Mirren and Fionnula Flanagan give first rate performances as the mothers (Kathleen Quigley and Annie Higgins) of two IRA terrorists imprisoned following a rocket attack on British soldiers. David O'Hara (Frank Higgins) plays the hard core murderer who appears to enjoy killing the British. Aiden Gillen is Gerard Quigley, the unlikely terrorist, who aids his friend Higgins in the attack. O'Hara and Gillen are very believable in their roles. In fact all of the actors are good.The problem is with the storyline and lack of action after the initial rocket attack and subsequent capture of Higgins and Quigley. The scene involving the IRA's retaliation murder of the Maze prison guards happens far too quickly for the viewer to understand what is going on. And let's face, watching people starve to death is not very exciting.I still gave this movie 6 out of 10, because of the fine acting and music.Irish44

Sean Gallagher I must admit up front, being Irish-American and Catholic, I am biased towards these types of stories. That said, I would like to think I can dismiss message movies which are bad even if I agree with the message(for example, I am anti-nuclear, and I dislike the anti-nuclear movie FAT MAN AND LITTLE BOY). I remember the Bobby Sands hunger strike quite vividly, as I was 13 at the time, and taking an interest in the world around me. Of course, I was naive as well, thinking the IRA was wholly good here, not yet knowing there were many shades of grey here.Terry George co-wrote with Jim Sheridan both IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER and THE BOXER, both of which Sheridan also directed. Rather than doing a by the book approach, Sheridan used a poetic approach, which helped make the movies more provocative. George, on the other hand, is more blunt(to be fair, it's hard to make a poetic film about hunger strikes), which is limiting, but the power of the story does come through.What does lift this are the performances. Finnoula Flanagan I only knew from a guest spot on "Beauty and the Beast," but she's quite good here as the hardline mother. And she does bring some dimension to it; watch the dinner scene right before her son is captured, where she shows pride in her son without overdoing it, and her first scene with Mirren, where she states her case simply, without histrionics. The best performance, however, and the best reason to see this, is Mirren. She's more well-known for playing strong-willed characters("Prime Suspect," THE MADNESS OF KING GEORGE), so it's a bit of a shock to see her as a confused woman, but she shows us every step of the way her emotional journey without slipping into pathos.