I’m finally getting around to watching some of the stuff I recorded over Christmas, and in yesterday’s case it wasn’t the one just gone. I finally watched “That They Might Face The Rising Sun” (in case you hadn’t guessed). I’m slightly undecided about it but I think I shall come down on the favourable side. It’s not your typical film and if you’re hoping for defined plot and movement carrying the story along, then this is not for you. On the other hand if you’re a fan of silence, slow pace and spartan conversation then this is absolutely for you. On the other hand if it’s not, I’d still say give it a shot – you don’t have to watch it a second time. Although you will probably spend all of it asking yourself when will this start to get going – the answer is – it won’t. It’s a bit like life, it trundles on making its own way forward. I just hope that the characters had more conversation off screen ‘cause if they didn’t then they must live monastically silent lives.
As with any story set in Ireland, where would you be without a wedding and a funeral. Watching the wedding scenes, you’d almost want to get up and dance with them – although they are more the weddings pre-my youth – it’s still somewhat familiar to me. Along with the funeral, that ritual has hardly changed – although the undertaker takes on the laying out these day – I was almost saying the rosary with them – belief aside, it’s ritual and rote.
I have a feeling that the film is set somewhere in the 70s – I don’t think it is beyond 1980 (of course I am probably wrong) and in which case it’s showing an Ireland I was born into. It’s definitely not the same country now and that isn’t a bad thing – but it was nice to see what it was up there on the telly. As it’s a slow quiet film that’s the lives it shows.
So despite wondering when the story was going to start, I’ve taken to the film. Will I watch it again – possibly not intentionally – but if it’s on I won’t be in a hurry to change channels.
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