Your favourite Irish film revealed

Published Thursday, 27 September 2012

Over 1,200 of you cast your votes in our online poll to find the best Irish film of the past half century - and now the winner can be revealed.

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It was a close call but The Guard finally topped the shortlist, with 34.6% of you choosing John Michael McDonagh's 2011 comedy.

December Bride, directed in 1990 by Thaddeus O'Sullivan, placed second on 33.8%.

The winning movie will now be screened at the Queen's Film Theatre in Belfast on Friday 26 October, as part of the 50th Belfast Festival.

UTV's resident movie critic Brian Henry Martin, who selected the five films to go forward to the public vote at www.u.tv/bestirishfilm, described The Guard as "the funniest Irish film ever".

He said: "The Guard is certainly the most successful Irish comedy ever, after taking the box office by storm in 2011. This is a no nonsense, all guns blazing comic blast from first-time Writer / Director John Michael McDonagh.

Not for the faint hearted, the writing is razor sharp, the jokes cut to the bone and the central performance from Brendan Gleeson as the unorthodox Sergeant Gerry Boyle is joyous."
Brian Henry Martin

The final results for the five films were: Once (2006), directed by John Carney gained 6.5% of the vote, My Left Foot (1989) directed by Jim Sheridan had 12.3%, Angel (1982) directed by Neil Jordan received 12.8%, December Bride (1990) directed by Thaddeus O'Sullivan secured second place with 33.8% whilst The Guard (2011) directed by John Michael McDonagh celebrated first place with 34.6%.

Brian continued: "Five films from four different decades that were innovative and captured our hearts and imaginations. There was great debate online and in the end it was very close indeed but we have a worthy winner."

Commenting on the winning film Susan Picken, Head of QFT stated: "We had a great response to this initiative with over 1,200 people voting online.

"It was a tough choice between five fantastic films all representing something a little different in terms of Irish film-making. Our winning film, The Guard, deserves its success - it's a brilliant example of great Irish talent, wit and storytelling.

"A hugely entertaining film that is a joy to watch."

Comments

4 Comments

brian henry martin in belfast wrote (264 days ago):

Thanks to everyone who voted! As you know, our poll was to celebrate 50 years of the Belfast Festival at Queens and the significant role that QFT has played in promoting Irish films. From Friday 19th October, there is a brilliant week of Irish films, old films, short films and great new films like Grabbers, Jump and The Good Man. Check out the full programme of events. http://www.queensfilmtheatre.com/films/greenscreenbest-irish-film/

brain kelly in belfast wrote (264 days ago):

Five movies selected by one person hardly seems enough to judge a best movie by. 1200 votes doesn't seem too many people to judge the five movies. Can we have another vote and include a few more movies so we can get a true picture (no pun) of Irish comedy movies. I remember David Kelly in a very funny movie about a lottery ticket-why was that not included to name but one? I agree with the first comment by the person from Stockholm I think he has very good points. Hope his cheek doesn't tickle!

Terry McGregor in Stockholm wrote (264 days ago):

I have been watching movies all my life and particularly love Irish cinema and the Western Genre. It comes as no surprise that "The Guard" has been voted as "OUR" favourite film of the last 50 years. Quite an accolade. Shamefully I haven't seen it yet so couldn't vote for it. In fact I couldn't vote for any of my favourite films of the past 50 years because they weren't on Brian's short-list of five movies. So I opted for my favourite of Brian's very limited choices - "Angel". These five movies chosen by Brian may well have encompassed different genres and covered four different decades (we are, after all, into the 2nd year of this fourth decade) but whether they are really our five favourite films to begin with is highly debateable! 50 years, for me, means five decades and since Brian's earliest choice dates back to "Angel" in 1982, his choices (from which we had to make our choice) covered 30 years, not 50! Anyway, I cannot Brian's criteria for excluding non-Irish directors! It certainly got rid of a lot of wonderful, perhaps too controversial movies. If Brian were an American critic and adopted the same criteria, there would have been an uproar! I feel certain that many Americans would vote "Casablanca" as their favourite film of all time, never mind 50 years, but it would have to be excluded because the director was Hungarian. "North By Northwest", "Psycho", "Rear Window", "Vertigo", etc, would all have to be excluded because the director, a certain Alfred Hitchcock, was English. Many classics of American Cinema would have to be discounted because the directors weren't American themselves! And "Citizen Kane" would hardly win because, well, it's a bore, isin't it? Not many laughs there. So in Brian's list of "our" favourite films of the past 50 years, "The Guard" wins, primarily it seems because it is probably the funniest Irish film of all time - and directed by an Irishman to boot! So no McQueen, Parker, Loach, etc, etc, etc. "The Troubles" and all those terribly beautiful films made about them never really happened! Brilliant! And cetainly the cinema of Lean, Ford, Dearden, Flaherty and Co. can be ignored too, since they were made outside the 50 year watermark! - even if Brian's list only covers a convenient period of 30 years. Anyway, these latterly-named directors weren't Irish, an added bonus. I am really looking forward to seeing "our" favourite film of the past 50 years - I am sure I will laugh myself silly until my ribs hurt. I have no doubt that "The Guard" will remain "our" favourite Irish film of the past half-century until Brian comes up with a new list of contenders next year, or the year after. When a new Irish film directed by an Iriahman comes along, "The Guard" may well be toppled as our Number 1 favourite. It will need to be hilariously funny though. "The Guard II", perhaps?

Andrew in Belfast wrote (264 days ago):

The Guard is one of my favourite films ever, how could it not get it. I really hope there is The Guard 2 as the cliffhanger it is left on is brilliant!