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Route Irish [DVD]

Stephen Lord (Actor), Ken Loach (Director) | Rated: To Be Announced | Format: DVD
3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Actors: Stephen Lord
  • Directors: Ken Loach
  • Format: PAL
  • Region: Region 2 (This DVD may not be viewable outside Europe. Read more about DVD formats.)
  • Number of discs: 1
  • Classification: To be announced
  • Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
  • ASIN: B003LPUXA8

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars Post Traumatic Stress Disorder 9 Sep 2011
By Charles Vasey TOP 500 REVIEWER VINE™ VOICE
Format:DVD
This is a film about personal loss and the effect of combat, but unfortunately this tends to slip behind the outlines of a Death Wish revenge story. From the very beginning of the film the hero acts like he has escaped from a Harry Enfield "Barry, Gary and Terry" sketch, he cooks off at the drop of a hat. His responses are highly neurotic and very aggressive ultimately going as far as car-bombing and torture. This gives the film a febrile quality; Fergus appears to be solving the mystery of his chum's death, but do not be fooled, this is not a rational detective story but a descent into sadness and madness. I think the audience needs to be alerted to this a lot earlier in the piece; this is not The Shooter, it's a film about personal tragedy. The effect is that I thought more about its message after watching it than I did during viewing: in some ways its variable mixture of logic and emotion matching that of the hero.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars "The Most Dangerous Road in the World" 24 Jun 2011
By Tommy D TOP 100 REVIEWER
Format:DVD
Yes 'Route Irish' is the name of the road to Bagdad International Airport, and is seen as the most dangerous road etc. However, we see very little of that and as others have commented, there is very little action indeed, in this film.

Ken Loach is an excellent director and I am a loyal fan, this film though does not really deliver what it promises to do, I may have been generous in a four star rating. So what is wrong?

Well it is about the death of a private security guard in Iraq (played by `comedian' John Bishop), and his best mate, who does not believe the official version. He sets out to find out who really killed his friend. He has been in a fight and whilst awaiting trial has his passport confiscated, therefore the entire story is based in Liverpool. He uses the internet and meetings with his former bosses to uncover more and more. The previous events are told in periodic flash backs, and are short but important.

This is a story about lies, deception, trust and profit. The private guards are referred to as `soldiers for peace' at one point, and not as soldiers for profit as is more accurate (they are on £10,000 per month). There are references to torture tactics and actual footage of fighting and victims from Iraq, but it does take its time getting there. The acting is all wsell above average and the whole thing is belivable but just a little unfulfilling.

I would like to pour praise on this, but I liked it more for being a Loach film, than being a film in itself. If you are a fan you may find merit here, if you are new to him, then you would be probably best advised to give this one a miss.
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars An honourable but flawed exploration of the illegal invasion of Iraq 7 April 2012
By Aidan J. McQuade
Format:DVD
There is an element of the Reed's Third Man about this movie in its dealings with the aftermath of war and a conspiracy. It also begins with a funeral when Fergus (Mark Womack) an ex soldier and mercenary shows up to the funeral of his best friend and fellow mercenary Frankie (John Bishop). Finding the accounts of Frankie's death in Iraq unsatisfying, Fergus starts his own investigation.

The purpose of this movie is considerably more political than Carol Reed's earlier masterpiece, exploring the devastation brought on Iraq by the 2003 invasion and particularly by the invading forces profligate use of mercenaries. The hypocrisy of the west is also touched upon: as an Iraqi character Harim (Talib Rasool) indicates - thousands of Iraqis were murdered as a consequence of the invasion, what makes the killings at the core of this movie interesting to Fergus, and by extension the audience, is that one of the casualties was British.

Mark Womack delivers a frentic performance in this movie as a man driven to murderous rage by guilt. Andrea Lowe is a more nuanced presence delivering a beautifully subtle performance as Frankie's widow, Rachel. Fergus's fury echoes that of the movie itself, rendering both, at moments, less articulate and coherent that one would hope. Still the movie is an honourable exploration of the consequences of the illegal invasion of Iraq by a director, Ken Loach, whose work has consistently embodied what is best about British society.
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