Feeney is starving for revenge in Black ’47
Director: Lance Daly
Writters: by P.J. Dillon, Pierce Ryan, Lance Daly, and Eugene O’Brien
Starring:
Hugo Weaving as Hannah
James Frecheville as Feeney
Stephen Rea as Conneely
Freddie Fox as Pope
Jim Broadbent as Lord Kilmichael
Released: September 28, 2018
Runtime: 1h 40min
Revenge films are one of my favorite subgenres of action movies. I gravitate towards them like a fat cat to food. There is just something so satisfying about the bad guys getting their just deserts at the end. Usually, the revenge films I choose to rent are outrageous or stylized movies like Death Wish 3 or the Crow. Every once in a while I like to mix my revenge stories with period pieces like with Gladiator or Braveheart. This was one of those nights with Black ’47.
Back of the Box Summary
Feeney is an Irish Ranger fighting with the British Army abroad, but abandons his post to return to Ireland to see his family. Ireland was suffering through the worst year of the Great Famine in 1847. When Feeney returns home, he finds his mother has starved to death, and his brother has been hanged for stabbing a bailiff during his families eviction.
Feeney stays with his brother’s widow, Ellie, and her three children in one of the few homes with a roof. They all plan to emigrate to America but before they can agents of the local landlord kick them out for squatting. His nephew is killed, and Feeney is arrested for interfering.
While being processed for his arrest, Feeny kills several soldiers and destroys the barracks. When he returns to the house, he finds Ellie and her two remaining children have frozen to death under a thin blanket. This starts a savage drive to get revenge on everyone who has wronged his family from the local landlord that evicted his family to the Judge that sentenced his brother to death.
Hannah, a drunken veteran of the British Army that served with Feeney in Afghanistan, is the only man that can catch Feeney. Hannah happens to be facing a death sentence for strangling a prisoner he was questioning. Along with Pope, an arrogant British soldier, and Hobson, an idealistic young English private, they must find Feeney before he kills everyone up the corrupt ladder.
Pros:
– The Western feel of the film provides an engaging pace that takes its time but never drags.
– Stephen Rea plays Conneely, the guide of Hannah and the crew chasing Feeney. His presence feels like a representative of us, the audience. Always around and watching everything around him. Connely has a drink with Lord Kilmichael in an Irish pub that sticks with me. They talk about the beauty of Ireland and the difference between British and Irish women.
– Speaking of Lord Kilmichael, played perfectly by Jim Broadbent, this character is so dismissive of the horrors around him, and Broadbent makes you disdain him with his performance. His line about Indians on the shore of Manhattan hit hard with me. Stabbed this American right in the heart with the truth of his story.
– James Frecheville has great intensity while playing Feeney.
– Hugo Weaving is always fantastic and is no different in Black ’47.
Cons:
– Nothing jumps out, but this movie could have used more of it’s time to show more of the mass starvation at this time in Ireland. Sometimes I would find myself forgetting this was about the Great Famine in 1847.
Final Grade: B+