Monday, 4/28/97 Apolitically Attempting to capture American
audiences with an unbiased story on civil strife in the streets of
Belfast in the 1970s, Irish director Thaddeus O’Sullivan discusses
his nonpolitical film ‘Nothing Personal.’
By Emily Forster Daily Bruin Senior Staff reland is hardly the
film capitol of the world, but it has produced some of the most
powerful and popular people in the industry. With directors like
Neil Jordan and actors like Liam Neeson, Gabriel Byrne and Pierce
Brosnan, many would say that Irish sensibilities have made a small
yet undeniable impression on modern film culture. But Dublin-born
director Thaddeus O’Sullivan is hesitant to agree. He has tried to
make films that are not just for Irish moviegoers but for
international film audiences. As a result, O’Sullivan has watched
his turn-of-the-century Irish romance "December Bride" go virtually
unnoticed in America. With his upcoming "Nothing Personal," which
focuses on the strife of 1970s street life in Belfast, O’Sullivan
is hoping to captivate Americans with a universal story. In order
to ensure the film’s universality, he does not want to delve into
Ireland’s complicated politics or convoluted history. "I tried to
make the film so that you didn’t need to know about the politics
involved in Ireland," O’Sullivan explains. "I’m interested in the
war and Northern Ireland. It’s something I feel very strongly about
and I’ve lived close to it emotionally, but I wanted to talk about
the universal thing which was the effect of that kind of violence
on a community. I didn’t want to explain Irish history to people."
Of course O’Sullivan could not completely ignore the nuances of
Irish politics. He had to slip in enough historical information to
make the characters’ motivations logical to an international
audience. "Since I was making a film which had an Irish story in
the background, I had to address it at the beginning, so there’s
some blather about who’s a Loyalist and who’s a Catholic,"
O’Sullivan says. "And I thought the sooner I get that out of the
way, the better. I wanted the audience to relax – well, relax might
be the wrong word for a film like this. But you don’t need to know
about the politics. You’re not going to get a history lesson." Some
of the films that have attempted to convey Irish history and
espouse Irish politics, like "In the Name of the Father" and
"Michael Collins," have found international success. But O’Sullivan
explains that these political films can capture worldwide interest
because they are good stories, not cinematized Irish history
lectures. "You can’t go off into some explanation of, ‘Well in
1921, Ireland became divided, and blah, blah, blah,’" O’Sullivan
says. "It’s in one ear and out the other. Sure people watched
‘Michael Collins.’ They watched the character. They can’t remember
anything about what he stood for. "I think there are ways of making
a film exciting and historically relevant too. ‘Michael Collins’ is
an exciting film but it’s also a serious subject. It’s quite a
balancing act. I think you have to be quite a clever filmmaker to
achieve that balance. It’s the old story of commerce vs. art. It
has to sell. But everybody wants to make interesting, relevant
films. Even the studios, they want to make interesting films." And
audiences, like investors, want to watch films that are as
important as they are entertaining. They are not, however, eager to
see a film with no entertainment value and chock full of
international politics. "The audience will watch a film if it’s a
good movie," O’Sullivan says. "They’re not clamoring to see films
about Ireland. The movies are just interesting movies, and yes,
some Irish films have grabbed America’s attention. But I don’t
think the Americans are saying, ‘I wanna go see a film about
Northern Ireland.’" So America does not have the patience to piece
together Ireland’s fragmented history, but there are aspects of
Irish society that make for great movies. And America seems to eat
up the violence so prevalent in modern Irish films. "The violence
of Northern Ireland, the 25 years of it, has created a whole
culture of gangsterism," says O’Sullivan. "Availability of guns and
an attitude of violence, they’ve just permeated through the
culture, North and South. So it has kind of enabled a kind of
gangster culture to grow more quickly. And you see that in a lot of
the movies about Ireland." As much as the violence fascinates
Americans, it often makes them wonder why men and women would live
in constant danger of brutal civil skirmishes. When O’Sullivan is
asked why people in the cities he portrays put up with the
perpetual violence, he turns his focus to America’s own violent
culture. "It’s like you ask somebody in South Central, ‘Why do you
live here?’" O’Sullivan says. "And they say, ‘It’s my home.’ You
could say the same to people in Northern Ireland and they’d say
that this is their home and their roots go back for generations,
several hundreds of years. "Maybe that’s why Irish films work in
America – both cultures have their fair share of violence. At least
that’s why good Irish movies work at the box office. Americans are
sort of just looking at their own culture." James Frain plays Kenny
(l.) and Ian Hart plays Ginger in "Nothing Personal," directed by
Thaddeus O’Sullivan. Trimark Pictures Pictured with director of
"Nothing Personal," Thaddeus O’ Sullivan (front row), are stars
(Back row-left to right) James Frain, Ian Hart and Gary Lydon.
Trimark Pictures Tommy (Ruaidhri Conroy – left), a young recruit to
the Protestant Loyalist cause, watches his mentor Kenny (James
Frain – right) "Nothing Personal" Information