December 3, 2009

Jim Sheridan & Bono

Taken from a longer post from the LA Times.  Click here to enjoy the full post on its original website.
Jim Sheridan's 'Brothers' looks deeply at family ties

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The Irish director's new film is about a war veteran, his wife and his ex-convict brother.

Jim Sheridan
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
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No one does a better impression of Irish filmmaker Jim Sheridan than his old friend Bono. On a recent crystal-blue afternoon in L.A., the rock star, who was in town for a concert at the Rose Bowl, lifted his shoulders, dropped his chin and scowled like Popeye. He slapped a palm to his forehead and began rubbing hard, like a man trying to sandpaper off an eyebrow. Then in a growled brogue, he muttered: "Do you want to have a look at the pitch-chur? It's a ting about brud-ders."

Yes, the new Sheridan picture is "Brothers," and it's a thing about family, the nature of duty, war, guilt and calamity of the human heart. Bono and his mates in U2 saw a rough cut of the film, which hits theaters Friday, and jumped at the chance to contribute original music to the project. They recognized many familiar themes from Sheridan's illustrious body of past work (which includes films such as "My Left Foot," "In the Name of the Father," "The Boxer") but saw something new too in this tale about the wounds suffered by not only those on the battlefield, but by the loved ones left at home as well.

"Jim's stories have a kind of simplicity, usually, at the plot level and the complexities are in the drawing of the relationships," Bono said. "This one though is actually quite a complex plot line. He really went for this one. There are very strong feelings in this. It's a powerful, powerful film."

Sheridan, who does indeed rub his face and hairline with alarming and frequent gusto, has the aura these days of a man who knows he has something special on his hands. During two interviews, one in New York and the other in Los Angeles, the 60-year-old filmmaker spoke of "Brothers" as a new direction of sorts, and he was clearly enthused about the performances of his three stars, Tobey Maguire, Jake Gyllenhaal and Natalie Portman.

"I think it's successful as a film, although it's not for me to judge," Sheridan said. "It's very accurate. It's elegant. It's a Cain and Abel story of sort. It's not a movie about the war in Afghanistan, it's a movie about a family that has a component in Afghanistan. It's not a liberal, antiwar film, either. It could be any war. As for it being antiwar, does anyone make pro-war movies?"

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2 comments:

  1. it's been a while since i've seen a decent movie at the theater, so 'Brothers' was a welcome surprise; that movie will get nominated for at least a few awards I'm sure

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  2. Thanks for the comment, and yeah I've heard good things about it. Interesting to hear a different version of "Winter" than the original B-side in Linear.

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