Birmingham must feel left out. Liverpool is the setting of the latest movie from Ken Loach, Route Irish, which arrives in cinemas this weekend.
Loach favours big British industrial cities for his films, with Looking for Eric and Raining Stones based around Manchester, My Name is Joe, Ae Fond Kiss… and Carla’s Song in Glasgow, The Navigators in Sheffield, Riff-Raff and his 1966 breakthrough TV play Cathy Come Home based in London.
The setting for Route Irish is Liverpool, but its heart is in Iraq. Geographically, it’s about what one character calls “the most dangerous road in the world”, the road from Baghdad’s Green Zone – recently featured by Matt Damon and Paul Greengrass – to the airport. In terms of character, it’s about the independent contractors employed in the rebuilding – subject matter covered by Peter Bowker’s BBC drama Occupation.
Route Irish is a revenge thriller from the pen of Glaswegian lawyer and screenwriter Paul Laverty, and is not up there with the best of Loach’s work. It aims at its targets in a way that doesn’t allow for enough grey areas, the central relationship is unresolved and it is slightly stingey on jokes.
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This is surprising after Loach movies such as Riff-Raff and Raining Stones, and because it features a small role from uber-Scouse comic John Bishop filmed before he broke big. It remains remarkable for three reasons. The central performance from Mark Womack stays with you long after the closing credits. Route Irish also sees Loach reunited with Kes cinematographer, the venerable Chris Menges, whose work with Stephen Daldry (The Reader), Roland Joffé (The Mission, The Killing Fields) and Bill Forsyth (Local Hero) distinguished him as one of the finest directors of photography Britain has ever produced. The other point to note is this: Loach is 75 in June. Alfred Hitchcock may have said that he saw movie-making as “not a slice of life, but a piece of cake” – but, like Bill Shankly’s oft-quoted life/death comment on football, he may not have been entirely sincere. According to pretty much every film director ever (apart from Hitch, perhaps), the energy involved in making a film is colossal. Sisyphus never had to deal with test screenings, funding shortfalls and interfering producers. In the same weekend as Route Irish hits big screens (multiplexes are not required here), the latest Woody Allen film You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger is released after middling notices. While this has been greeted with a host of wistful reminiscences from the 70s and 80s (era, not age-group), and misty-eyed references to Woody’s wonderful New York flicks, Loach is very much regarded in the present tense. While You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger has seen cast interviews talk of Allen’s lack of communication, Route Irish has seen Womack and others gush about the warmth of their director’s relationship with actors. And for all that we revere Woody Allen, 75, as one of cinema’s natural treasures, he hasn’t produced anything great since 1995’s Mighty Aphrodite. The fire in Loach’s belly continues to burn brightly. You Will Meet… features Australia’s Naomi Watts, America’s Josh Brolin, Wales’ Anthony Hopkins, India’s Freida Pinto and Spain’s Antonio Banderas. Route Irish follows Loach’s normal path of largely British unknowns and does not suffer for that. It might be time to make as much of a noise about Ken Loach as he does about the political classes which upset him so much. You don’t envisage him being happy with it, but if Ridley Scott can be knighted, Sir Ken Loach would be an interesting concept.Donate to us: support independent, intelligent, in-depth Scottish journalism from just 3p a day
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