Search - Who Bombed Birmingham? on DVD

A Compelling Story about a Miscarriage of Justice, but Inept

maskirovka | Alexandria, Virginia | 08/29/2009

(2 out of 5 stars)

"I've been a long time student of the Troubles, and I'm well acquainted with the case of the Birmingham Six, and I think they and the British people owe Chris Mullin a great deal for exposing the wrongful conviction of the Six for the worst case of mass murder on British soil before Lockerbie (which amounts to a huge miscarriage of justice itself given the Scottish Government's indefensible release of one of the bombers after serving just eight years of a supposed minimum of 27 on "compassionate" grounds).



Unfortunately, I can't recommend "Who Bombed Birmingham?" The problem with it is that the story jumps around so much and so quickly (from 1974 to 1985 and back again), the dual narratives (the arrest, torture, and conviction of the Six in 1974 and the journalists uncovering it all in 1985) are never given any time to build momentum or make us care about either the wrongfully convicted men or the campaigning journalists.



So the movie was disappointment for me, but I can definitely recommend another movie about a similar miscarriage of justice "In the Name of the Father." It deals with another infamous set of IRA pub bombings and accompanying miscarriages of justice (the Guildford Four and Maguire Seven), has a much higher powered cast, better script, and production values. I actually saw it in Belfast and I remember one native of Northern Ireland (aka "the North of Ireland") commenting that the riot scene in the movie was so realistic, he thought he was going to get hit by a brick flying out of the screen.



In the Name of the Father



So I'd recommend that movie and not this one."

A thought provoking look at senseless tragedy and a miscarri

Kyle Tolle | Phoenix, Arizona USA | 11/14/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Who Bombed Birmingham focuses on the true events that involved the 1974 IRA bombing of two different Pubs in Birmingham, England that killed 21 and injured 162 others. Following the outcome of the bombings, six Irish men were wrongly convicted of the crimes.



The story presented here is a meticulous re-creation, examination, and investigation of the different elements of the crime by three journalists from a current affairs television program attempting to set the record straight about what the facts really were and who the real suspects might have been.



Discovery of forced confessions through police brutality and other questionable techniques along with the fact that Britain's judicial system failed to acknowledge the illegality of these incidents went a long way in revealing many doubts about the official version of how the suspects were convicted.



The culmination of the investigation with all the new facts at hand along with an appeal to the courts by the wrongly convicted six men, unfortunately, did not sway the British judicial system and they all remain in prison to this day. Subsequent investigations by the journalists eventually revealed the identities of five actual IRA suspects that carried out the bombings.



Although the pace of this film moved slower than I expected it to, it was worth the wait because I found the story to be quite interesting and intriguing. My chief complaint with the movie was the fact that the audio itself was substandard overall. Changes in volume at different times coupled with the British accents throughout the entire dialogue sometimes made it difficult to hear and understand everything being said. This did not totally detract from the viewing experience but it did lessen the appeal a little bit. Unfortunately, there was no option on the disc for subtitles. Apart from that, I was pleased nonetheless and I would recommend this film to anyone who likes stories based on true crime events of any kind.

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