A Love Divided
Picture: C
Sound: B- Extras: C Film: B-
We have seen many stories where a parent has taken their
child(ren) away from a bad situation for a better life, but Sydney Macartney’s A
Love Divided (1999) tells us the story of a Protestant mother (Orla Brady)
and Catholic father (Liam Cunningham) who live in the fragile world of 1950s
Ireland, where the religious prejudices are being patched up. Not enough, however, as the mom Sheila has a
fight with the extremist local priest about where her daughter should go to
school. After a fight with her husband,
she feels betrayed and takes the kids to Scotland.
After he discovers them gone, the town goes into shock,
but then the Catholics (thanks to the priest), think it is some Protestant conspiracy
and start targeting everyone of that religion until they tell them where the
kids are. Of course, nobody knows as
Sheila acted alone, so the Catholics start throwing Protestants out of jobs,
beating them up, tearing down their business, breaking and desecrating windows,
boycotting businesses, terrorizing them…
It is just like the SS against the Jews, but this is Catholic
Church-approved. They supported Hitler
too, so this was not the first time for this kind of behavior.
The film makes certain it rightly blames the church and
the ignorant people who thought this behavior was appropriate. No wonder the IRA became as powerful an
organization as they had, with such injustice running rampant. This is well written by Stuart Hepburn, has
a good cast, but seems to be holding back in the realism department as if it
were made for European TV. However,
there are other things that make this worth watching, besides getting its
factual history across.
The letterboxed 1.66 X 1 image is average, looking second
generation in the video black department.
Cedric Culliton’s cinematography undeniably makes Ireland a character in
the story, also looking so great. The
Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo is from an analog Dolby surround source (SR or A), but
is not particularly strong. It sounds
like it was stronger in the theater.
Extras include extensive text on the film, some stills of the original
Cloney family, several trailers for New Yorker DVDs including this one, and a
brief interview clip with Brady.
In this time of Political Correctness and Religious
intolerance, stories like this automatically gets branded “religious bashing”
broadly, like any criticism of Conservative institutions these days. Talk about holier than thou! Even after the church only apologized
recently, it is far too late. As
newswatchers known, the Catholic Church has been in the headlines for covering
up pedophilia among their priests, which they still cannot seem to resolve. But in these cases (inclusive of the
anti-Jew/Pro-Nazi debacle), the church is quickly as charged, always will be,
and has done damage that cannot be undone.
That gives A Love Divided an edge, no matter what its flaws.
- Nicholas Sheffo
