Docudramas don't come much more pared down than John Furse's Blind Flight, which has two men sitting in their underwear, talking about the Northern Ireland issue, and seeing who can catch the most flies. Based on the harrowing real-life experiences of Brian Keenan and John McCarthy - who were held captive in Beirut by Islamic Jihad in the mid-80s - this sparse hostage movie puts minimalism to good use with a timely tale of two Brits caught in the crosshairs of fundamentalist terrorism.
Beginning with Irish schoolteacher Brian Keenan (Ian Hart) being bundled into a car on the streets of Beirut by a gang of hooded men, Blind Flight spends the next 90 minutes inside a dusty six-by-six cell. Angry, rebellious and insistent that he's an Irishman, not a Brit, Keenan faces a torturous captivity alone with his young Muslim guards. Eventually, he's blindfolded and taken to another cell, where he meets English hostage John McCarthy (Linus Roach). Despite their alien backgrounds and differing responses to the situation, the two gradually become friends. After all, what choice do they have?
"STARTLINGLY EMOTIONAL"
Despite being lumbered with as much cinematic flair as a TV movie reconstruction, this simple drama charts the emotional depths of McCarthy and Keenan's relationship with keen sensitivity. A platonic love story of two men thrown together by circumstance who must learn to rely on each other, it's a startlingly emotional drama.
What's lacking, though, is any sense of political context. Why are they being held? Who are the various factions responsible for their captivity? All we see of Beirut is a few burnt out cars and rubble-strewn streets, and the occasional snatch of automatic gunfire somewhere in the distance. It means we're left to make our own connections between the political reality of 80s Beirut and the present 'War on Terror'.
Blind Flight (2004)
