{"id":6601,"date":"2009-09-21T01:31:16","date_gmt":"2009-09-21T00:31:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/?p=6601"},"modified":"2009-09-21T19:44:36","modified_gmt":"2009-09-21T18:44:36","slug":"uk-dvd-blu-ray-releases-monday-21st-september-2009","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/2009\/09\/21\/uk-dvd-blu-ray-releases-monday-21st-september-2009\/","title":{"rendered":"UK DVD & Blu-ray Releases: Monday 21st September 2009"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"UK<\/a><\/p>\n

DVD & BLU-RAY PICKS<\/strong><\/p>\n

Five Minutes of Heaven<\/a><\/strong> (Element Pictures):\u00a0Although UK audiences may have already seen it earlier this year on BBC2<\/a>, this powerful drama about a perpetrator and victim of violence during the Troubles<\/a> meeting decades later is worth catching on DVD, especially as it didn’t have the publicity push here that a theatrical release provides (although IFC did\u00a0distribute\u00a0it in the US).<\/p>\n

Inspired by true events, it begins with the murder of teenager in October 1975, witnessed by the victim’s younger brother, and it sees the killer go to jail for 10 years.<\/p>\n

Flashing forward to the future it then explores the imagined encounter between the killer (Liam Neeson<\/a>) and the victim’s brother (James Nesbitt<\/a>), when they eventually meet for a television documentary 33 years after the murder.<\/p>\n

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Directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel<\/a>, it features two excellent performances from Neeson and Nesbit and a script by Guy Hibbert<\/a> that skilfully avoids many of the pitfalls involved in bringing episodes of The Troubles to the screen.<\/p>\n

The title comes from Hibbert’s research, which involved three years of interviews with the actual Alistair Little and Joe Griffin<\/a>, which resulted in details of what might happen if they ever met in real life (which is unlikely). Griffin has said he’d probably kill Little, something he feels would provide “five minutes of heaven.”<\/p>\n

Although the subject matter is going to be a turn off to some viewers wanting an easy night in, the film represents another intelligent exploration of the dark and tortuous history of The Troubles, following such films as Hunger<\/a>, Omagh<\/a> and Bloody Sunday<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It is available on DVD and the features include:<\/p>\n