Blind Fight

  Plot Summary

The film is based on the real experiences of Brian Keenan and John McCarthy who were kidnapped and held hostage for over four years.  The film starts with Brian Keenan (Ian Hart), a Belfast man, who went to Beirut to teach English.  On his way to work one morning, in 1985, Brian was kidnapped at gunpoint by a gang of Arab fundamentalists and bundled into the back of a car.  Although he tells his abductors that he is Irish they believe him to be British and keep him hostage.  After sometime, Brian is joined by John McCarthy, a British journalist who was working in Beirut.  They shared a cell for much of the time spent in captivity...

Review

The film focuses completely on the experiences of  two hostages; their living conditions, the hardship, their friendship, the beatings, their humour and spirit.  It examines how the pair were effected and how they coped mentally and physically with their ordeal.  When they first meet, Brian and John, appear to be unlikely friends, they are very different people coming from different backgrounds but as their captivity goes on they depended on each other to keep strong.  Each take turn in helping the other but it is Brian who is portrayed as the stronger and most defiant.  Almost all of the film is shot in the small rooms and cells that kept them captive.  This makes the film tense and perhaps a little uneventful but it also gives the audience some feeling of confinement and understanding for what the pair endured.

The performances from Ian Hart and Linus Roache are excellent.  They portray Brian and John as real, ordinary, people struggling with the situation that they find themselves in and it is easy to empathise with them.

There is no real information given on the political situation at the time and very little mention of the families' campaign for their freedom, or indeed any government efforts to have them released.  Because of this there are a lot of questions unanswered.  Explanations of the political context would have been interesting if they had been included.

The Bottom Line:  A moving drama that would have benefited by exploring the political situation at the time.

Lasting Thought:  The resilience of the human spirit is remarkable.

Reviewed by Niall Quinn, Premier Movie Reviews 2004

Genre: True Drama

Certificate: 15's

Director: John Furse

~ Main Cast ~

Ian Hart

Linus Roache

RATING

WORTH A WATCH