Film Review: Route Irish
Article published: Wednesday, April 6th 2011
The latest film in Ken Loach’s fifty-year career, Route Irish is as committed to issues of social justice as his previous works such as Bread and Roses, Land and Freedom and Riff-Raff.
The film follows Fergus, an ex-soldier and ex-private contractor, as he investigates the suspicious death of his best friend and fellow contractor Frankie on Route Irish, the most dangerous motorway in Iraq. A dark commentary is offered both on the role of private contractors in modern combat zones and the impact that this has on the men that work for them. Loach gives a bleak vision of those broken by struggling in a complex, contradictory and morally ambiguous world which, at its conclusion, offers no clear pathway to redemption for any of the characters. At times the film makes for bleak and painful viewing.
Despite the subject matter, most of Route Irish was shot in Liverpool. The film veers between the unglamorous spaces of ordinary Liverpudlians’ lives and the sleek, clinical ‘nowhere’ of corporate offices, bars and airports. It shares a familiar aesthetic with many of Loach’s other films and relies on naturalistic shots and sparse use of music. The shattering of the film’s muted terseness by loud noises and scenes of violence amplifies its shocking nature. Indeed, Loach’s condemnation of private security forces and their impact on both their own personnel and Iraqi citizens is made apparent when we encounter the corporate employees who benefit from the chaos, safe in Britain.
Those expecting a clear moral standpoint, however, will be disappointed. The film plunges the audience deep into a morally ambiguous world and provides no clear perspective in its conclusion. The film’s characters are broken by the end. Indeed, the justice which many of the characters, and presumably most viewers, crave appears impossible to obtain within the film’s narrative worldview.
The strength of the script, excellent performances by all of the cast (including ex-soldier Lance Corporal Craig Lundberg who was blinded in Basra in 2007) and the cinematography of long-time Loach collaborator Chris Menges create a truly excellent, if harrowing, piece of socially engaged art. Route Irish is brave enough to ask challenging questions that force society to reflect upon itself whilst being mature enough to know that it must leave the very questions it raises unanswered.
Ben Lear
Route Irish was showing at Cornerhouse in March.
More: Culture, Manchester, Screen
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