Loach bravely tackles the subject of the political games taking place behind the scenes in Northern Ireland.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9254 in DVD
• Released on: 2003-04-28
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.77:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: PAL, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: Danish, French, Italian, Spanish, Swedish, Norwegian, Polish, Finnish, Hungarian, Greek
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 104 minutes

Special Features
English
Region 2

Synopsis
An implicit condemnation of the repressive tactics of the British government in Northern Ireland, HIDDEN AGENDA stars Brian Cox (THE BOXER), Brad Dourif (MISSISSIPPI BURNING), and Frances McDormand (FARGO). When an American attorney working for a humanitarian group who is investigating the torture of IRA prisoners is killed in Belfast, Inspector Kerrigan (Cox) is sent to investigate the crime. He's joined by Sullivan's fiancee, Ingrid Jessner (McDormand), a lawyer working for the International League of Civil Liberties. They learn that he had been given a tape by a former British army officer named Harris (Maurice Roeves) that contained highly incriminating material concerning the activities of the British government. With some difficulty they track down the elusive officer, leading them to the IRA. This well-made, low-key political thriller was highly controversial upon its release because it cited real names and events in presenting its case for the existence of a conspiracy at the highest levels of the British government.

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Customer Reviews

A lesson for today from recent history
A very good film. i recommend that you watch it to understand the politics of northwern ireland intertwined with the mainland during the troubles. It shows the danger of unchecked and unaccountable security services operating in an enviornment where they can get away with murder and become a law unto themselves, and where civil liberties are trampled upon in the name of a so-called war on terror. A warning for today. You cant help see similarities with todays situation whereby we have repressive legislation and the assasination of Jean Charles Demenezes. I am reminded of a quote from Wilhelm Reich that goes 'who guards the guards, who polices the police'.

As Wet as Northern Ireland Itself
Frankly, this film is a disappointment. The initial shots show a press conference: an American is approached by a Republican operative or sympathiser. He goes to meet the IRA (a chance for some mild pro-Republican comments from the driver en route) and is shot dead with the man driving, after an ambush by British (?) SAS or (?) "int. operatives".

After the opening, the film is low key but never builds to even a suspicion of a climax. A policeman arrives from the British mainland to investigate, soon finds himself up against two smug Tory-type politicos in a country house, who more or less tell him to keep to his job of suppressing the underclass and keep out of political matters (good idea that, wonder why the British police of today are not told that regularly?!) and then more or less dismissed from their company. Things happen of an unsettling nature and the policeman eventually gives up the struggle for "truth and justice" and flies home.

Applying the fine dictum of Lord Reith ("inform, educate and entertain"), this film (like the BBC and other media of today) falls flat: no information, no education and little entertainment. However, it deserves a few points simply for being dull and low-key, like the "Troubles" Northern Ireland has brought upon itself from, at least, 1969.

there are not democracy without some agenda
When the cinema, literature or any form of art contains a strong ideological or political component as it’s the case with this movie, it’s difficult to distinguish if the work is truly good, bad, or simply it’s that we sympathize with it or not. The own “Battleship Potemkim” I think doesn’t escape to these prejudices. Leni Riefenstahl is just dead with his films of Nazi apology. “Hidden agenda” is a paradigmatic case: is this an extraordinary movie? I believe yes owing the topic it treats, but not so much as for the form, that shows the good and sober performances usual in British actors. This said, well, the director exhibits a few unjust facts and irregular behaviour by the part of the British government, but he does not show so clearly the other side of the agenda corresponding to the terrorists. A problem that has affected many democratic countries of Europe, since when there is no democracy, the terrorism is much more difficult or impossible, although perhaps yes an open war: this problem couldn’t happen neither in the USRR, nor in Hitler's Germany nor in firsts years of Franco's Spain nor Mussolini's Italy, but yes in all these countries at present included France, which was at the edge of the civil war at the beginning of the 1960’s, facts that are reflected in "Day of the Jackal", though in a very different way. Spanish cinema had many years ago also some poor movies intended for domestic consumers showing the fight of the Guardia Civil against the “Maquis” or Republicans hardened in the fight of Civil war and anti Nazi resistance after WW II. These films in black & white were truly coarse propaganda. Today we are more sophisticated, but the fight against ETA Basque terrorism has shown some real crude episodes.