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Credit the astonishing actor James Nesbitt with giving the film much of its potency. Over the course of Bloody Sunday's 110 minutes, Nesbitt, as civil rights leader Ivan Cooper, transforms himself from an idealistic, stoic humanist to a devastated, demolished man. He is shockingly effective. I found myself raising my eyebrows skyward during some of Nesbitt's earlier scenes - probably the toughest part about "political film dialogue" is providing all the historical catch-up to the audience without seeming like you are blandly reciting exposition - but Nesbitt changes his tone appropriately. His speech goes from broad, political diatribe to guttural and desperate, serving the material perfectly.

And the film itself is marvelous. Oftentimes, filmmakers get too caught up in the zigzag, handheld- camera overkill of "documentary realism." They become its slave in order to maintain a sense of immediacy, but here Greengrass' pacing and the strength of his simple yet eloquent screenplay allow for the shaky camera and jump-cuts to serve the events with power and verisimilitude. He's even able to pull off the "seen it a hundred times" news conference scenes that bookend the film with goose- pimply success. The film's opening sets up a sense of overpowering doom that instantly permeates the very fabric of the narrative, and the film's coda is a cacophonous blizzard of emotional outbursts and stark inner realizations.

In addition to leaping such artistic hurdles in a single bound, the film also works on a number of other sociological and extra-diegetic levels. The book the film was based upon, "Eyewitness Bloody Sunday" was written by an Irishman, Don Mullan, but the film's producer, Mark Redhead, and writer and director Greengrass are both Brits. While I'm a firm believer that a film should speak for itself and that the makeup of a film's cast and crew shouldn't make a difference to the its overall impact, this British/Irish collaboration can't help but be some kind of symbol of hope and solidarity. How remarkable.

Bloody Sunday is a violent, scathingly nihilistic movie, which some may take issue with. But just as Spielberg attempted with Schindler's List, the filmmakers are smart enoug to realize that you have to depict this kind of aggression in order to create a definitive portrait of a most infamous day. And even as the film ends with the U2 classic "Sunday Bloody Sunday" - on a note of defeat, not triumph - the fact that a film like this can even get made is in itself a sign of progress. The political film as such just doesn't exist in today's Hollywood gumball-universe. Time may not heal all wounds, but there are steps that can be taken to build bridges between nations despite past atrocities. Even by the movies.

Video: How Does The Disc Look?

Presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen, Bloody Sunday looks great. Despite the film's pseudo-documentary style, the print is in great shape with strong blacks and taut contrast. The film has an effectively gritty, bleached-out color scheme that comes across wonderfully here. You won't find too many truly saturated colors, but as soon as that all-too-familiar blood red shows up during the film's massacre scenes, a wonderful, awful effect is achieved. There are no signs of compression artifacting to speak of, and edge enhancement is minimal. All in all, a grade-A transfer.

Audio: How Does The Disc Sound?

Bloody Sunday features two fully-discrete 5.1 Dolby Digital mixes - one in its original U.K. dialect, and the other a more Yankee-friendly mix. If you can understand the language, the U.K. version is the solid choice; the overdubbing on the U.S. mix is a bit much at times and too obvious. Otherwise, both tracks are very similar. Channel separation is generally terrific, especially during the film's last half-hour, and dynamic range between the high-frequency atmospherics and low- rumble effects makes for a wonderful sonic juxtaposition. And the utilization of the surround channels is astonishing once the film hits the streets - it's enveloping to a wondrous extent. Excellent.

Also included are English subtitles and Closed Captions.

Supplements: What Goodies Are There?

First up are two screen-specific audio commentaries - one from star James Nesbitt and director Paul Greengrass, and the other from the author of "Eyewitness Bloody Sunday," Don Mullan. While it's nice to get background on the film's inception and the filmmaker's intentions in turning such an incendiary event into a movie, Greengrass and Nesbitt talk very little about the actual film, instead focusing on the historical and cultural ramifications of its historical impact. While that's nice, having expert Don Mullan on another track ends up making both a bit redundant. There's fascinating information here, to be sure, but it might have been more interesting to throw all three of these guys together into one room rather than split 'em up.

Next we have two short featurettes (14 minutes and 6 minutes, respectively), "Bloody Sunday: History Retold" and "'Bloody Sunday - Ivan Cooper Remembers," both presented in full screen. " The first delivers what the commentaries don't - a peek into the production of the film and how Greengrass and his collaborators were able to surmount so many hurdles to get it made. While too short at less than 15 minutes, it is fascinating nonetheless. "Ivan Cooper Remembers" is more melancholy. Here, Greengrass and Nesbitt walk around Derry, identifying the fateful markers of January 30, 1972. Devastating, but more novelty than historical watershed.

Surprisingly, the film's original theatrical trailer is not included.

DVD-ROM Exclusives: What do you get when you pop the disc in your PC?

No ROM extras have been included.

Parting Thoughts