Imdb Ranking 6.0
For many hundreds of years a tribe rulled Irelan on behalf of the English. They were known as the Anglo_Irish.
After the uprising of 1916 they were caught in the bloody conflict between the Irish Republicans and the British Army.
This is the story of the end of a world.
The movie opens in County Cork in 1920. The Anglo-Irish were Englishman who came to Ireland to live. Some have been there so long they consider themselves Irish, but some of the Irish don't see it that way.
Sir Richard and Lady Myra Naylor (Michael Gambon and Maggie Smith) are an Anglo-Irish couple who have Richard's niece Lois Farquar staying with them. Lois' mother is dead and her father likes to travel. Also staying with them this summer is Francie and Hugo Montmorency and Marda Norton. Marda and Hugo were lovers, but then Hugo married Francie.
Lady Myra tells how the guests at a dinner how the locals are so happy to have the English around. They says that "Tis the way o' the young to be a bit wild". Hugo thinks that they should send the blighters on a prison ship to the tropics.
Captain Gerald Colthurst of the English army (David Tennant) is courting Lois, but she is also going with Peter Connolly who is a member of the local rebel group.
Events are heating up all around them, but Sir Richard and Lady Myra just can't see it. Lady May is concerned that Captain Colthurst's people might be in trade.
When a local soldier gives an Irishman (Peter's father?) a hard time, Peter Connolly and his men beat him and then shoot him in the head. Lois brings some food out to Peter in the woods and they soon become lovers. Captain Colthurst discovers the two of them, but Connolly escapes and Colthurst thinks Connolly has forced himself on Lois.
Lady Myra tells Captain Colthurst that he isn't really the kind of person that would be good for Lois, after all he has no money. When Colthurst talks to Lois he realizes that it is Connolly that Lois is in love with. We are both lost he tells her.
When Lois goes to meet Connolly again, Captain Colthurst follows, and Connolly shoots and kills him. His death sort of awakens Sir Richard and Mayra to what is really going on, out there, in the real world.
Some of the guests at the house see the end of an era. Where are they to go now? Maybe to Canada?
A movie that does a really good job of presenting a time period before the English landowners knew they were the enemy. The acting, particularly by Maggie Smith and Michael Gambon, is also really good.
