Majorthebys Charming and brutal

Solidrariol Am I Missing Something?

Abegail Noëlle While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

Staci Frederick Blistering performances.

donwc1996 I am a big fan of John Schlesinger because he dares to go places no one has gone before, but, alas, it is quite obvious that he was a pervert at heart because his most memorable films have been studies in modern perversion. Midnight Cowboy, Darling and now Sunday, Bloody, Sunday - all with perverted story lines that would make poor Walt Disney turn in his grave. In the biography about Schlesinger, we are told that the director and the writer, Penelope Gilliatt, despised one another and in fact Schlesinger ended up calling the writer "a c---!" Heavens to Betsy! Surely Schlesinger knew what he was getting into when he was dealing with a movie critic who happened to write a script he wanted to make into a film. She despised the changes he made, could not abide by the fact additional writers were brought in - poor thing - you would think after all those movie reviews she wrote she would know what happens to a script in movie-land. Sorry to say, apparently she did not. Of course no one seemed concerned with the very obvious conflict of interest involved with an individual who just happened to be a major movie critic and now was the author of a movie script. It's almost axiomatic that the fur would fly on this one and apparently it did. It really does not show in the film which is from a script point of view well paced and well written, but the storyline is so depraved that slowly it dawns on the viewer just what he had been taken down the road for and eventually the viewer sits there thinking, "My God! What have I done?" But then that's Hollywood because the very nature of a script is to manipulate the viewer into a point of view he has never had before. And this is the magic of the movies.

filmalamosa This is a quality movie. Peter Finch a 50s Jewish doctor and Glenda Jackson a rich 30s something divorced drifting woman are in love with Murray Head a 20s androgynous looking shallow free spirit (this was right after the 60s).Yes, I saw it in 1971 the initial kiss stunned the audience--now it would not except maybe in some bible belt venue. What I really like about the movie is it shows a positive gay man (Finch)---not the typical gay character with clichéd baggage like a smothering mother etc... Also Gay characters traditionally are messed up and commit suicide or some other unpleasant denouement they are almost never stable admired members of traditional society.This movie is great it shows the nightmare of the new way of raising children--a cacophony of permissiveness--as a great contrast between the sanity of the love triangle.Murray Head is androgynous looking and it is a little hard imagine him as a romantic magnet but possible. He is sort of a an unsympathetic unemotional and shallow character perfect as a bisexual semi user. So they had that spot on.The 60s free spirit completely honest non jealous free love looking for the meaning of life type characters have fortunately disappeared from the roster of movies.RECOMMEND HIGHLY

robertconnor As the 1960s become the 1970s in London, England, a successful male doctor and divorced, female recruitment consultant both try to maintain a relationship with a self-centred younger man.Fascinating period piece, exploring the reality of the late sixties 'free love' ideal - she loves Bob, he love Bob, Bob loves... well, nothing substantial, as it turns out. Mixing in ghastly 'of their time' friends (ex-hippie-types Alva and Bill and their dreadful kids), Sunday, Bloody Sunday is at once both dated and contemporary - set in a time of economic chaos and dealing with a taboo which, in 2009, still seems at least unsettling. Jackson and Finch are brilliant, apologetically yet furiously settling for all the crumbs they can get from their cool younger lover, although under Schlesinger's direction, Head is much less successful - whilst he captures Bob's egotistical nature, there's no counter-balance of charm, leaving the viewer wondering exactly what is either Alex or Daniel really see in him.Ground-breaking story-telling then, and all kudos to Gilliatt, Sherwin, Janni, Schlesinger and Peter Finch for bringing this grown-up picture of early 70s contemporary life to the screen.

bkoganbing Even with The Code now a thing of the past it took the United Kingdom and a respected director from there to craft a film showing two men in a passionate kiss. When Peter Finch and Murray Head kissed like they meant it, it was untold generations of gay men felt like society was finally recognizing them. That Sunday Bloody Sunday came out two years after the Stonewall Riots was no accident. Probably before Stonewall, John Schlesinger might have had problems getting his film released on this side of the pond. And that's even after Midnight Cowboy.Murray Head plays a shallow bisexual young artist who has a simultaneous relationship going with both Peter Finch and Glenda Jackson. Jackson is a thirty something career woman who can't find any great satisfaction in relationships beyond sex. That Murray Head supplies well and in abundance apparently, so much so that he can also service Peter Finch as well.Jackson should have listened to mom's advice. Peggy Ashcroft who plays Jackson's mother says quite right that you never get 100%, so you get the best you can and make it work. Apparently this is something that Glenda can't or won't grasp.For Peter Finch as the very closeted gay male the pressures are far worse. He's Jewish and he's a doctor and apparently it's true in both British and American Jewish scenes that if you're a doctor you'll have Jewish women throwing themselves at you and Jewish mothers ready to sacrifice all for a doctor as a son-in-law. And the idea of a forty something unmarried doctor who might be gay is just beyond all realm of possibility. Such a thing would be a SHANDA.Peter Finch strikes a universal note in all gay males in any culture. Before the closet doors were open, Dr. Daniel Hirsch's story was played out a gazillion times all over the world. Thank the Deity we have reached a point where Daniel Hirsch's life path is not the only one open to us.Sunday Bloody Sunday has no real plot, it's a character study of two people and their intertwining relationships because of a third party. There's no real plot here, but the characterizations are as deep as they can get. Sunday Bloody Sunday earned Oscar nominations for Peter Finch and Glenda Jackson as Best Actor and Actress, John Schlesinger for Best Director and Penelope Gilliatt as well for Best Original Screenplay. All that and no nomination for Best Picture?I do kind of wonder where Murray Head's character is right now. Since this came out in 1971 Head was playing someone 25 which was his age at the time. He partied through the seventies, did he settle down with someone of either gender, did indiscriminate sex bring him in contact with AIDS in the eighties and nineties? Is he looking now for some young Murray Heads in his sixties? Was he really transgender and if so has he had the reassignment surgery or not? You can read all of that into his portrayal of a vacuous party boy. In a way Sunday Bloody Sunday is about the tragedy of bisexuals in this society. They can't settle down to a monogamous relationship because they have sexual needs on both sides of the fence. Maybe that will change one day too.Sunday Bloody Sunday is a landmark classic, especially recommended for a young gay audience who wants to see what life in the uptight days of the universal closet was like.