DIRECTED BY: John Roberts
STARRING: Gregg Fitzgerald, Gerard Kearney, Darragh Naughton, Brendan McNamara, Kevin O’Malley, John Cleere, Anthony Cunningham, Thomas Kavanagh, Eveanna Ryan, John Crowley, Stuart Dannell-Foran, John Coffey, Paul Batt, Karl Byrne, Niall Collins, Derek O’Leary, Rory White, Johnny Murphy, Colm Meaney and Liam Cunningham
BUDGET: N/A
EARNED (Worldwide): N/A
AWARDS: None
SYNOPSIS
Rival gangs of young Irish kids enjoin in constantly escalating battles that ultimately entails the removal of the buttons from the clothes of captured losers.
Based on the 1912 french novel ‘La Guerre des Buttons’ written by Louis Pergaud, War of the Buttons tells the story of two rival gangs of young Irish kids from different villages, Carrickdowse and Ballydowse, with the Bally’s lead by Fergus and the Carrick’s led by Geronimo, engaged in constantly escalating battles that ultimately leads to the next step in the feud, the removal of the buttons from the clothes of those captured (trophies of war), so that it lands them into trouble with their parents.
I’ll be honest, this is a childhood vote right here and having watched it recently, I couldn’t help but put it on the list. The film deals with class differences not only in appearance (Carrick’s in official school uniforms, Bally’s in casual clothes) but amongst the Bally’s themselves on those who can afford to pay for new buttons and those that can’t. The film has a certain amount of natural charm to it, which comes off well with the fact that the young cast acting in their first film. There is quite a few memorable moments on the light side (Raining Buttons and Truce to deal with an injured rabbit) as well as a few dark ones (the Fox scene), but the film is shot well, with a tight script that feels as genuine as the performances. Also it’s nice to see veteran actors Colm Meaney and Liam Cunningham in the film, especially with seeing the latter with a nice lock of hair.
FAVOURITE SCENE: The battle at the castle.
FAVOURITE QUOTE:
‘Little Con: Please sir, how many swear words do you know?
School master: What makes you think I know any?
Little Con: You’re grown up, me daddy knows hundreds.’
DID YOU KNOW?: The parents of one of the boys in this film took a court action to prevent this film being released. The grounds for their action were that their son’s naked buttocks could be seen in the film. the action was dismissed on the grounds that they (the buttocks) didn’t appear on screen long enough to allow identification and also that the parents should have raised their objection before the scene was filmed.
Irish Cinephile 