Rating: 
Summary: Interesting British Drama
Review: "Sunday, Bloody Sunday" was one of the most acclaimed adult dramas of the early 70s, and one of the first major films to address gay relationships. Murray Head stars as a young hippie in simultaneous relationships with physician Peter Finch and businesswoman Glenda Jackson. Finch and Jackson know about each other, and they even share some mutual acquaintances. Needless to say, even though Finch and Jackson are completely enamored of the young man, they're also both frustrated with his inability to give more or commit himself. The film explores these relationships over a tumultuous week.
The film was directed by John Schlesinger as his follow-up to the Oscar-winning "Midnight Cowboy." It's a solid drama of obvious interest for its early, relatively non-judgmental depiction of a gay relationship. Of note, the relationships are handled with sensitivity but are also interesting and complex. The Penelope Gilliatt-penned script (her only film) is top-notch and received numerous awards (National Society of Film Critics, Writers Guild of America) as well as an Oscar nomination.
Finch and Jackson turn in very good performances, which were rewarded with Oscar nominations. Although Murray Head's performance is often criticized for being bland, I think that his cipher-like qualities works well here; you're not supposed to fully understand exactly what Jackson or Finch see in him. Although it's reflective of its era, the film holds up fairly well. Overall, "Sunday, Bloody Sunday" is an interesting exploration of adult relationships - straight or gay.
Rating: 
Summary: "BUY - BI - 'BYE LOVE"
Review: AH YES! All of the above is in this one - and what a cast!PETER FINCH [possibly at his greatest - pre-'Network'] and GLENDA JACKSON. It's all very elegant, and quite upper-class. The story? Written by PENELOPE GILLIATT [The New Yorker film critic] , it's about Alex [Jackson] as the vibrant divorcee, Daniel [Finch] the handsome, middle-aged professional bachelor with one common iterest - 'Bob' the young man who moves into their respective lives, all connected by a somewhat erratic telephone service. As the tag line states: "It's about three decenet people - they will break your heart". The dialogue is witty and wry - look for the party sequence with Peter Finch and a somewhat tipsy friend's wife - HIS comment as 'wife' disrobes ....... priceless. FINCH is very moving in the closing monologue - as he concludes towards the end "we were something" all of this augmented with music by Mozart. Alonely life ...... It's actually post 'swinging London' but still quite contemporary - even in today's climate. Companions? "Jules & Jim" and "Small Circle of Friends". [Trivia? Danie Day-Lewis makes his debut in this film as one of the children. Finch and Jackson were previously teamed in the period "BEQUEST TO A NATION" with Margaret Leighton - another rare menage!]
Rating:
Summary: Another hallmark film of the 70s all but forgotten
Review: Despite John Schlesinger's often ham-fisted and glitzy direction, Sunday Bloody Sunday remains a humane and triumphant celebration. The late film critic Penelope Gilliatt penned the screenplay about a straight/gay love triangle spanning three different generations in the twilight of "swinging" London. Glenda Jackson and Peter Finch are both magnificent and invest the edgy, hyperliterate dialogue with well-seasoned vitality; every minor character fits the milieu and the conception like a shadow fits a corner. This is a haunting, resonant movie, a hallmark 1971 film that was one of the first to treat "other"ways of loving -- or coping -- with respect, insight and a thoroughly adult point of view.
Rating:
Summary: One of Schlesinger's Greatest Works!
Review: For over thirty years SUNDAY BLOODY SUNDAY has remained one of my favorite movies. John Schlesinger may be my favorite director. I believe I own all his movies save one. So I probably cannot be objective about either this movie or Mr. Schlesinger's greatness. I understood how my black students felt when they saw SOUNDER for the first time when I saw this movie on its release in 197l. "At last here is a decent movie about us." Not only was the movie about bisexual and gay relationships, but the characters were richly and complexly developed. In a word, believable. The plot is rather straight-forward-- the screen play is by Penelope Gilliatt--Alex played by Glenda Jackson is having an affair with Bob who is played by Murray Head who is having an affair also with Dr. Daniel Hirsch played by Peter Finch. Rod Steiger may have preempted Peter Finch and Murray Head with a kiss on the lips between males in THE SERGEANT, but the kiss between Finch and Head here was certainly well ahead of its time. The movie is visually very beautiful and well put together. The film opens with a closeup of the hands of Dr. Finch who is examining an older male patient. We see similar scenes throughout the movie of closeups of both Jackson's hands as she makes love to Head and Finch's hands as well. Much is made of answering services and phone messages since Alex and Dr. Hirsch have to share Bob and often have to be satisfied with phone messages rather than him in the flesh. (We can all be thankful this movie was made years before the advent of mobile phones.) I had never heard before the otherwordly trio from Mozart's COSI FAN TUTTE, this beautiful aria that soars throughout the movie in the way much of Mozart does: just below the surface of joy there is the pain of human suffering, so appropriate for these two individuals who have to share someone they love with someone else. In 197l Schlesinger was so brave to make this movie, which holds up well after 30 years. His honesty and courage to speak the truth have meant so much to so many. At the end of SUNDAY BLOODY SUNDAY as Peter Finch muses over his less than satisfactory relationship with his friend and discusses whether half a loaf is better than nothing, he says something to the effect that "I miss him." Those of us who loved Schlesinger who just died on this day can say in all sincerity, we will miss this great artist.
Rating:
Summary: A masterpiece written by Penelope Gilliatt
Review: John Schlesinger's film, from an original screenplay by Penelope Gilliatt (the brilliiant film critic for the New Yorker, novelist, short story writer, playwright, opera librettist, and profilist), is the director's finest work. (FYI: there is no comma in the title "Sunday Bloody Sunday.") Schlesinger asked Gilliatt to write the script because he thought she was the "right" writer; also, the screeenplay is also largely inspired by Gilliatt's novel "A State of Change." The 1971 film remains today the finest work ever to deal with gay or bisexual characters. The milieu is educated and upper-crust London and Londoners, in the period after the sixties. The landmark quality of the film is that it assumes viewers are intelligent as the characters on display. There's no big deal at all made of the characters' sexual orientations -- they simply are. Gilliatt wanted to write a film about the "possibility" of people who love each other finding the courage to move on in their lives once a relationship has ended -- for whatever reason -- with compassion and charity toward each other. The film is about different kinds of breakdown in communication, about surviving on less and less, about clinging to the possibility of hope in extremity. The film ends on a positive note -- it sees courage in the everday, in moving ahead with one's life. The credit must go to Gilliatt. Schlesinger directed, but the soul of the film is Gilliatt's much-honored screenplay.
Rating:
Summary: Location location location
Review: The film is quite dreary - a man trying to decide if wants to poke or be poked. But the location shots are suberb. Part of it is filmed in Pembroke Square, London W8, a gorgeous and very bohemian part of London. Definitely the place to be, live or be seen, or at the very least - have seen.
Watch the film for the background footage alone - and don't pay too much attention to the ins and outs of the story - if you see what I mean.
Rating:
Summary: Lovely Bloody Lovely
Review: This civilized movie, of autumnal sadness, is such an actors' film.
Especially when those actors are Peter Finch and Glenda Jackson.
It is a pleasure to watch them at their craft. John Schlesinger has
directed Penelope Gilliatt's script with an eye for rich detail, and
such seemingly minimal emotions of the leads that comes through
the performances so perfectly, as delicately formed and precise as
snowflakes. They feel deeply, do Daniel (Finch) and Alex
(Jackson). Though they must not let on. It would be bad form to. That they both love Bob (Murray Head) seems a conundrum. But
Daniel and Alex are of an age when there might be no one else,
save Bob, who is one of those curious, mercurial people who can
go from person to person, without caring one bit, beginning,
during, after. He literally feels nothing, save the rudimentary ( the
word is full of them) but he is perhaps seen by Daniel and Alex as
what they want him to be. Such is love. They recreate him from his vagueness. And of course they must not be jealous of Bob's other
lovers. Such as Bob always require that, and consider otherwise to
be so bloody selfish. He doesn't intentionally hurt anyone. He uses people as things, so,
to him, they are replaceable. When he is the replaceable one, if only
they could see it. He is not worth their integrity, and intelligence
and complexity of heart. Yet, when one loves, one cannot think of
him or her without making them, perhaps, mythic. To someone else, they would be just another person, for others see them as
ordinary. This, the film explores with such finesse and grace. Daniel has a monologue, told to us personally, the words of which
are beautiful and touching, that just about rips your heart out. Finch
adds to the words, so seemingly somewhat matter of factly saying
them, ( a person has to comport themselves properly after all)
though from deep inside, with such thought and honesty, and
searching still in these later years, and with no apology. You see the
worth and goodness of the man most especially then. You want to
put your arms around Daniel and Alex and hug them, for their love
is doomed, as they know too well. They are having to deal with the
loss, the void, to reconcile themselves to it, even during Bob, and
learning how to get through the day, routinely, like everyone else
pretends to. "Sunday Bloody Sunday" is a film that one feels honored to see. Its
ad line-- "This is a story about three decent people. They will break
your heart." Indeed.
Rating:
Summary: A masterpiece written by Penelope Gilliatt
Review: This film follows the fascinating relationship between three Londoners--a 50 plus homosexual man, a 40ish straight woman, and the 20 something young man they are both in love with. The idea is a fascinating one, and the screenplay examines and analyses the nature and limitations of this kind of love.
It all sounds great, but there are definate problems in the execution. Firstly, the film is long and somewhat slow-moving, which is a fairly minor complaint. More importantly, the character with whom we are supposed to identify the most, and certainly the one with the most screen time, is Glenda Jackson's Alex, and she proves to be the most frustrating of the three. Her possessive need to have Bob to herself is understandable as a concept, but Jackson fails to make it seem reasonable, and the character comes accross as selfish, especially as Peter Finch's Daniel seems to pose very little threat, and to be able to subsist on only occasional visits from the beloved Bob. It's easy to see why Bob loves the older doctor, it is less apparant what he sees in Alex, who never seems to be much fun. She should be a little more likable if we are to be caught up in the film.
Rating: 
Summary: Fascinating Premise
Review: This film follows the fascinating relationship between three Londoners--a 50 plus homosexual man, a 40ish straight woman, and the 20 something young man they are both in love with. The idea is a fascinating one, and the screenplay examines and analyses the nature and limitations of this kind of love.
It all sounds great, but there are definate problems in the execution. Firstly, the film is long and somewhat slow-moving, which is a fairly minor complaint. More importantly, the character with whom we are supposed to identify the most, and certainly the one with the most screen time, is Glenda Jackson's Alex, and she proves to be the most frustrating of the three. Her possessive need to have Bob to herself is understandable as a concept, but Jackson fails to make it seem reasonable, and the character comes accross as selfish, especially as Peter Finch's Daniel seems to pose very little threat, and to be able to subsist on only occasional visits from the beloved Bob. It's easy to see why Bob loves the older doctor, it is less apparant what he sees in Alex, who never seems to be much fun. She should be a little more likable if we are to be caught up in the film.
Rating:
Summary: An unique and touching "documentary" about love
Review: This movie depicts one week out of the lives of three lovers trapped in an unique triangle. It provides an honest look into the unfair and often dissapointing trials that occur in relationships. A work that leaves you analyzing up until the very last line.
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