As the title says, it's 1971 and in Northern Ireland the Troubles are quickly escalating. New British Army recruit Gary Hook (Jack O'Connell) is sent to Belfast to serve in the inexperienced Second Lieutenant Armitage's (Sam Reid) platoon stationed in a very precarious area. Once the fighting gets underway, Hook is soon separated from the rest of his platoon and left to fend for himself in an urban warzone.
That's basically all the narrative to be found in this effort from feature debuntante director Yann Demange and writer Gregory Burke. I know for most people the appeal of war films lays in the violence and there's tons of that here, but I find action far more compelling when it's woven into a suspenseful or involving plot and this one's plot ticks neither of those boxes. There's very little spread-out or unique about Gary's adventure, which disengaged me and that in turn meant it had no emotional impact for me either. The photography and editing, respectively by Tat Radcliffe and Chris Wyatt, also take the respective Saving Private Ryan styles and run with them, and David Holmes' score is increasingly excessive.
O'Connell tries his best, and Demange and Burke undoubtedly mean well, but even as somebody with Irish ancestry this film about the Troubles focuses too much (and too unimaginatively) on action at the expense of a fresh and thought-provoking war storyline. '71 gets a 6/10 from me.
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