Beloved by so many people.
While there’s no magic formula to predict success in Hollywood, recent box-office figures have shown that there is a massive audience for those films that cater to people that may feel disenfranchised or underrepresented.
Films like Black Panther, Wonder Woman, Crazy Rich Asians, Captain Marvel, and Call Me By Your Name are proof of this and you could argue that Black ’47 has filled a similar void with the Irish cinema-going public.
Simply put, the demand for Lance Daly’s visceral drama that’s set during the Great Famine was incredible.
In case you haven’t seen the film yet, the story is set in 1847 with Ireland in the grips of the Great Famine that has ravaged the country.
Feeney (James Frecheville) a hardened Irish Ranger who has been fighting for the British Army abroad, abandons his post to return home and reunite with his family.
Feeney has seen more than his share of horrors, but nothing prepares him for the famine’s hopeless destruction of his homeland. The Irish people have been brutalised and there’s no chance of law and order prevailing. Upon returning home, Feeney discovers his mother has been starved to death and his brother hanged by the brutal hand of the English.
With little else to live for, he sets a destructive path to avenge his family.
In terms of its cast, Lance Daly’s film is superb with Hugo Weaving (Hacksaw Ridge, The Lord of the Rings, The Matrix) and Jim Broadbent (Iris, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince) starring.
There’s also some incredible Irish talent with the likes of Stephen Rea (The Crying Game, Michael Collins), Barry Keoghan (Dunkirk, The Killing of a Sacred Deer), Moe Dunford (Michael Inside, Patrick’s Day) and Sarah Greene (Rosie, Noble) also featuring.
Since being released, Black ’47 has really registered with the public as seen by the fact that it crossed the €1 million mark at the Irish box-office. In doing so, it became the highest grossing Irish film for 2018.
It’s also the first Irish film to gross over €1 million at the domestic Irish box-office since 2016’s comedy The Young Offenders.
Having crossed the €1 million threshold, Black ’47 has now joined the ranks of other beloved Irish films like The Wind that Shakes the Barley, The Guard, and Michael Collins.
Aside from this, Lance Daly’s film also enjoyed the highest grossing opening weekend for an Irish film since 2015’s Brooklyn.
In terms of the critical reviews, the film currently has a 78% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and it has impressed plenty of critics – both Irish and abroad.
The Los Angeles Times hailed it as “a visually arresting, Anglo-Irish western-style revenge tale that maintains a firm directorial grip on the foreboding landscape” while The Guardian said it’s “a viscerally tough and uncompromisingly violent picture, something like an exploitation shocker at times, though with real insight”.
Take a look at what’s in store.
Black ’47 is available to watch on Netflix from 31 March.
Clip via WildCard Distribution
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