Black ’47 **** (2018, Hugo Weaving, James Frecheville, Stephen Rea, Freddie Fox, Barry Keoghan, Jim Broadbent) – Movie Review

Director Lance Daly’s 2018 period action drama Black ’47 is a heart-pounding tale of brutal revenge set in Ireland amid the repression and starvation horrors of the great Irish famine of 1847. Sometimes, it is a horror movie. It is quite terrifying.

James Frecheville does a grand job of the dour hero, Feeney, an Irish Ranger who abandons his post fighting for the British Army abroad as a deserter to reunite with his family. What he finds is death and destruction, and, escaping his arrest by the British, he sets out to avenge himself on those responsible. Frecheville is convincing under difficult circumstances, and so is the movie. It is hard to conjure up extreme characters and situations like this, as well as catch the mood and period ideally, but Black ’47 does.

James Frecheville as Irish Ranger hero Feeney in Black ’47.

Hugo Weaving also stands out as the grim troubled Ranger Hannah, who is freed to track down Feeney, helping nasty British toff officer Pope (Freddie Fox) and his little band who include Hobson (Barry Keoghan) and Conneely (Stephen Rea). Feeney starts wasting what remains of the landscape, on his way to despatching Lord Kilmichael (Jim Broadbent), the evil presence at the top of the rancid heap.

Black ’47 is beautifully and stylishly filmed (cinematography by Declan Quinn), and tells a highly effective, engrossing tale, with ensemble acting of the highest level and a grand score by Brian Byrne.

The story is by P J Dillon and Pierce Ryan, who also worked on the screenplay with Lance Daly. Needless to say, it has a strong anti-British flavour, but it can be taken solely as a revenge thriller, and it is a very impressive one.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Movie Review

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