More a genre flick than a political or socio-economic treatise, this is still an impressive piece of work

I'm not going to lie – I fully expected to hate Black '47. The trailer was awful, making it look like a generic action flick; several colleagues saw the screening at ADIFF earlier in the year and were decidedly unimpressed; I thought most of the film was in English, which rubbed me up the wrong way altogether. Mainly though, I was just fulfilling my God-given right as an Irish person – being cankerous for no earthly reason whatsoever. However, because I was expecting to hate it, when I discovered, much to my chagrin, that it's actually quite good, it led to me thoroughly enjoying it. Colour me humbled. Easily the most hyped and anticipated Irish film of the last decade or so, Black '47 is proudly advertised as the "first film about the Great Famine". And were this true, it would undoubtedly occupy a canonical place in Irish artistic output in general, and Irish cinema in specific. However, there is one vital factor that everyone really needs to know before seeing it – it isn't the first film about the Famine. It's the first film set during the Famine, but it isn't about the Famine. This is a genre film, a pseudo-western revenge thriller set against the backdrop of the Famine. The Famine is not the film's central theme, nor does it attempt to engage with it on a national scale. If you accept that, and don't go in expecting to see Cecil Woodham-Smith's The Great Hunger (1991) transposed to the screen, there's actually quite a lot here to admire.

For my complete review, please visit: https://boxd.it/wpIQt