The Siege of Jadotville (film)

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This article is about the 2016 movie. For the event on which the movie is based, see Siege of Jadotville.
The Siege of Jadotville
Directed by Richie Smyth
Produced by
Written by
Starring
Music by Joseph Trapanese
Cinematography Nikolaus Summerer
Edited by Alex Mackie
Distributed by Netflix
Release date
  • July 10, 2016 (2016-07-10) (Galway Film Festival)
  • September 19, 2016 (2016-09-19) (Ireland)
  • October 7, 2016 (2016-10-07) (Worldwide)
Running time
 108 minutes
Country Ireland
South Africa
Language English
Irish
French

The Siege of Jadotville is a 2016 historical drama war film directed by Richie Smyth[1] and written by Kevin Brodbin.[2] It was first screened at the 2016 Galway Film Festival.[3] The film received a limited cinema distribution in Ireland in September 2016,[4] and planned for simultaneous worldwide distribution on Netflix and a number of US iPic Theaters during October 2016.[5][6] The film is based on Declan Power's book, The Siege at Jadotville: The Irish Army's Forgotten Battle (2005).[7]

Plot[edit]

See also: Siege of Jadotville

Following the assassination of Prime Minister Lumumba, UN Irish troops are sent to the Congo on a peacekeeping mandate from the United Nations, overseen by Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold and Conor Cruise O'Brien. Commandant Pat Quinlan is in charge of a battalion of peacekeepers stationed near Jadotville in Katanga. While in Jadotville, Quinlan meets French mercenary Rene Paulques who is defending mining interests. He also talks to a Belgian colonist, Madam LaFongagne, who tells him that the mining companies are unhappy with Lumumba and are determined to defend their interests. Elsewhere, UN forces launch an attack against the Kataganese. Kataganese forces, in conjunction with mercenaries under Paulques, attack the Irish at Jadotville.

Selected cast[edit]

Production[edit]

The film is based on Declan Power's non-fiction book, The Siege at Jadotville: The Irish Army's Forgotten Battle (2005),[8][9] and covers the story of the Siege of Jadotville, a conflict involving Irish Army UN Peacekeepers and Katangese forces during the Congo Crisis in September 1961.[4][7]

Jamie Dornan said the real veterans "didn’t get the recognition they deserved. In fact the opposite. They got that term Jadotville Jacks. They have had to live with that and they appreciate any light that can be shone on their heroics."[10]

The actors were put through a training camp in South Africa before filming. "There’s nothing worse than watching actors acting like they're in an action movie, pretending to run upstairs with guns and look serious," said director Ritchie Smythe. "The best way to get them to do that realistically is just to train them to be soldiers, so I did."[11]

Reception[edit]

At the review aggregator site Metacritic, as of October 9 2016, the film did not have a Metascore or User Score, with just two critics' reviews.[12] One reviewer's critique at the site—Robert Yaniz, Jr. of We Got This Covered—rated the film 70%, observing: "Though it doesn't break any new ground, The Siege of Jadotville is a well-crafted piece of filmmaking that investigates the often-contentious relationship between politics and war."[13] The other reviewer whose critique was posted at the site—Robert Abele of the Los Angeles Times—rated the film 50%, describing it as: "A scrappy war flick with a fair amount of combat suspense but a whole lot of clichéd dialogue."[14]

The New York Times called it "a gripping drama",[15] and a Hollywood Reporter review described the battlefield scenes as an "impressive spectacle", but that the non-battle scenes were less so, and the conclusions "too rushed".[16]

At the review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes, the film does not yet have a Critics' Consensus but, as of October 9 2016, held a 67% TomatoMeter score, based on 9 critics' reviews, and an Audience Score of 76% Liked It.[17]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "The Siege of Jadotville (2016)". IMDb. Retrieved 11 September 2016. 
  2. ^ The Siege of Jadotville. Rotten Tomatoes. 2016. Retrieved October 9, 2016. 
  3. ^ "Jamie Dornan's latest film wins standing ovation at Galway Film Fleadh". Irish Independent. 11 July 2016. 
  4. ^ a b "'The Siege of Jadotville' to receive limited cinema release". Irish Times. 12 September 2016. Retrieved 15 September 2016. 
  5. ^ "First trailer of Siege of Jadotville is nail-biting". RTÉ. 10 September 2016. Retrieved 11 September 2016. 
  6. ^ "National Association of Theatre Owners Chief Sounds Alarm Over Netflix Deal With iPic". Variety. 5 October 2016. Retrieved 6 October 2016. [..] iPic [..has..] a theatrical foothold on 15 U.S. locations. That will be particularly important for Netflix films that need some kind of theatrical run to qualify for awards. IPic will release the war thriller “The Siege of Jadotville,” starring Jamie Dornan (“Fifty Shades of Grey”), on Oct. 7 
  7. ^ a b "28th Galway Film Fleadh - July 2016 - The Siege of Jadotville". Galwayfilmfleadh.com. Retrieved 11 September 2016. 
  8. ^ "The True Story of the Heroic Battle That Inspired the New Netflix Film The Siege of Jadotville". Time Magazine. 27 July 2016. [...] author and military expert Declan Power, on whose book, Siege at Jadotville, the new movie is based. 
  9. ^ "Film 'Siege of Jadotville' to reveal heroism of Irish troops". Irish Times. 9 August 2014. [...] military writer Declan Power – on whose book, The Siege of Jadotville, the film will be based 
  10. ^ Clarke, Donald (19 September 2016). "The Siege of Jadotville: How Ireland almost had its own Alamo". Irish Times. 
  11. ^ Saunders, Tristram Fane (7 October 2016). "'I really didn't want to see Jamie Dornan naked': The Siege of Jadotville's director on filming Ireland's secret war". The Telegraph. 
  12. ^ The Siege of Jadotville. Metacritic. 2016. Retrieved October 9, 2016. 
  13. ^ Yaniz, Robert Jr. (October 9, 2016). "The Siege Of Jadotville Review". We Got This Covered. 
  14. ^ Abele, Robert (October 6, 2016). "Review: Forgotten battle told in 'The Siege of Jadotville'". Los Angeles Times. 
  15. ^ Genzlingersept, Neil (28 September 2016). "'The Siege of Jadotville' on Netflix Rediscovers a Faded Footnote". New York Times. 
  16. ^ "'The Siege of Jadotville': TV Review". Hollywood Reporter. 6 October 2016. 
  17. ^ The Siege of Jadotville. Rotten Tomatoes. 2016. Retrieved October 9, 2016. 

External links[edit]

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