Belfast (2021), I am sure, is one of those movies that came out at the same time as something else.  Annoyingly, Hollywood too often inserts a release of a lesser-known title on the same weekend as a blockbuster.  Because I tend to go for the ones that seem to be garnering the most attention, some movies do not immediately get covered.  For me, this happens most often with horror flicks, though Cameron does pick up some of the slack with them.  Otherwise, I will circle back to features like Belfast when the time and inclination come.  Well, that day has arrived and I am glad that it did.

Unsurprisingly, Belfast is set in the capital of the province of the United Kingdom known as Northern Ireland.  Please know that I am going to do my best to circumvent any political conversation, as the first shots of the film would tell you that it did so as well.  The modern city looks peaceful as we are given a God’s eye view of it.  However, this seeming tranquility was not always the case.  We are then taken to a working-class neighborhood in 1969 where on one block lives a population of mainly Catholics, though some protestants are mixed in with them.  Of the latter Christian persuasion is Buddy (Jude Hill), a nine-year-old boy who lives in one of the row houses along with his Ma (Caitríona Balfe), Pa (Jamie Dornan), and older brother Will (Lewis Askie).  Pa works overseas in England, which means he is not home this day when a riot breaks out in their street.  Buddy is out playing when a group of thugs enter their neighborhood, breaking the windows of Catholic homes, and burning a car in the middle of their street.  Ma is able to bring her children inside before this last bit of hooliganism happens, but is nonetheless shaken.  So, too, are their neighbors, who erect a makeshift wall at the end of their block, which is guarded by British troops.  The unrest brings Pa home early, and those who organized the violence, like Billy Clanton (Colin Morgan), want Buddy’s father there in order to enforce their will on the Catholic population.  All this is somewhat above Buddy, who goes about his days going to school and pining after the smartest girl in his class, Catherine (Olive Tennant).  There are also his grandparents, Granny (Judi Dench) and Pop (Ciarán Hinds), who play a pivotal role in his life, visiting them often after he gets out of class.  Still, because he cares about his family, he can tell that, aside from the unrest, things are not completely easy at home.  Pa’s work ensures that they are barely able to get by, and they owe a lot of money in unpaid taxes.  His solution is to relocate the family to another country, some place where there are no religious factions fighting each other and he can make a higher wage.  Given how tight are their finances at the moment, Ma believes that this is an unfeasible situation.  Further, living there is the only life she has ever known.  Yet, he feels that the situation in the title city is too desperate for them to continue there, economically and socially.  The prospect of leaving becomes too great to ignore when the company he works for in England offers him a raise and free housing.  When the notion of moving to another country is brought up with Buddy and Will, neither of them are excited about the idea.  Buddy cites his growing affections for Catherine, not to mention the fact that Granny and Pop would not be coming with them.  Uneasily, Ma and Pa agree to drop the matter until Easter.  In the meantime, while Buddy continues to do well in school and impress Catherine, events in the streets are not getting easier.  One source of trouble is his cousin Moira (Lara McDonnell).  She proclaims that she is part of a gang one day as she walks with Buddy to school.  He is intrigued, but she does not offer many other details, claiming the need for secrecy.  Yet, Buddy remains interested and is given the opportunity to prove himself by helping his older relative steal chocolate from a nearby shop. Their accomplice is caught, and she informs the authorities that Buddy is with them, prompting a visit from the local constabulary to Ma.  She is furious with her younger son, and he tries to put the matter behind him until Moira once more grabs Buddy and forces him to join in with another round of rioting led by Billy.  This time they break into the supermarket.  While Buddy wants no part of the matter out of shear panic, Moira forces him to take something.  He ends up grabbing a box of laundry detergent before running home.  Once more, Ma reacts harshly, taking Buddy and Moira to the store to put back the pilfered item.  Unfortunately, they get caught between home and Billy, who essentially holds them hostage to force Pa to join them.  Luckily, Pa is able to overpower Billy, and the police take care of the rest.  However, this is what convinces Ma that they need to depart for England.  The final blow comes when Pop passes away.  Thus, with Granny’s blessing, the final scene sees them getting on the bus, but not before Buddy says goodbye to Catherine.

One thing that is revealed about Catherine at the end of Belfast is that she and her family are Catholic.  Pa points out to his son before they board the bus that another person’s religion should not matter as long as they are kind.  Unfortunately, this was a time and place where these affiliations mattered a great deal, which is why Buddy’s family moves to England at the end.  What is interesting is that their family are made to be protestant.  The Irish Republican Army (IRA), the terrorist organization also operating in Northern Ireland at this time, would be the group one would expect to see in such a movie causing trouble.  Yes, they were Catholic, and their aim was to return Northern Ireland to their Republic of Ireland cousins to the South.  What you do not hear a lot about is that protestants had their own sets of armed men that sought to impose fear on the Catholics in town in order to remain a part of the United Kingdom.  There is a particular scene that I had to watch twice in order to understand it where you have a protestant minister giving a fire and brimstone sermon about how they will all go to hell if they do not choose the right path.  I was initially confused because I thought he was a priest, but that is not the case if you know what to look for in his clothing.  The context helps, too.  What is more teachable, though, are the misconceptions that Buddy has about Catholicism.  At one point he says that Catholics never have to go to church, and that they can do whatever they want, simply needing to occasionally confess their sins.  All this is, of course, untrue, but it speaks to why there were such divisions, at least in a religious sense.  Again, the politics are a little more complicated, but, like many broad disagreements, they are based on a misunderstanding that can be corrected.

As I said in the introduction, I was happy I finally got around to watching Belfast.  It deals with some serious issues, but doing so through the eyes of a precocious child.  As it says in the Bible, we are all children before God.  If we handled our affairs more like they did, the world would probably be a better place.  Finally, if you are a fan of Van Morrison, this is the movie for you.  This is a full recommendation.