Blind Flight
Encyclopedia
Blind Flight is a 2004 British
film, directed by John Furse
, starring Ian Hart
and Linus Roache
. It is based on the true-life story of the kidnapping and imprisonment of the Irish
academic Brian Keenan and the English
journalist
John McCarthy
, two of the hostages in the Lebanon hostage crisis
. The film is based on Keenan's memoir, An Evil Cradling and Some Other Rainbow by John McCarthy who was a screenplay consultant. The film received widespread critical acclaim, being nominated for six awards, and winning a BAFTA.
Keenan refuses to be shaved or wear clean clothes offered until he gets answers from his captors. He protests about having his beard shaved off. A grumpy idealist, Keenan sees his treatment by his Muslim jailers as equaling the British historic treatment of Ireland. McCarthy is neutral and pragmatic. The two men are periodically moved around to new hiding places. The pair slowly begins to bond as they make a temporary life together, playing chess, catching mosquitoes, trapping a mouse, telling stories and imaging they are someplace else. They become very close friends and when one man is in trouble or close to the breaking point, the other invariably helps him.
Their guards treat them with a mixture of detachment kindness and cruelty. After another move, to a small, white-tiled cell, McCarthy is traumatized after being shown a video of his mother pleading for his return. He finds strength in Keenan's own brand of self-control.
The two men are smuggled to a house in the countryside. Keenan attacks a young guard who is trying to humiliate him by making him open and close a window repeatedly. He is beaten. McCarthy intercedes with the leader of the captors saying this should not have been allowed to happen. He too is beaten. Eventually in 1991 after more than four years of imprisonment, Keenan is released. He is reluctant to accept his freedom if it means leaving McCarthy behind. Back in Ireland a year later, Keenan receives a call in a pub: McCarthy is to be released. He is waiting at the airport for McCarthy to arrive home.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
film, directed by John Furse
John Furse
John Furse may refer to:*John Furse , , film director*John H. Furse, , officer in the US Navy...
, starring Ian Hart
Ian Hart
Ian Hart is an English stage, television and film actor.-Early life:Hart, the grandson of Irish immigrants, was born in Liverpool, Merseyside, England. He is one of three siblings and was brought up in a Roman Catholic family...
and Linus Roache
Linus Roache
Linus William Roache is an English actor.-Early life:Roache was born in Manchester, the son of Coronation Street actor William Roache and actress Anna Cropper. Roache was educated at Bishop Luffa Church of England School in Chichester, West Sussex and at the independent Rydal School in Colwyn Bay,...
. It is based on the true-life story of the kidnapping and imprisonment of the Irish
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
academic Brian Keenan and the English
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
John McCarthy
John McCarthy (journalist)
John Patrick McCarthy CBE is a British journalist, writer and broadcaster, and one of the hostages in the Lebanon hostage crisis...
, two of the hostages in the Lebanon hostage crisis
Lebanon hostage crisis
The Lebanon hostage crisis refers to the systematic kidnapping in Lebanon of 96 foreign hostages of 21 national origins – mostly American and western European – between 1982 and 1992...
. The film is based on Keenan's memoir, An Evil Cradling and Some Other Rainbow by John McCarthy who was a screenplay consultant. The film received widespread critical acclaim, being nominated for six awards, and winning a BAFTA.
Plot
Brian Keenan, a humorless bearded Irish academic, has moved to Beirut in the mid 1980s and works as an English teacher. As he left for work one day, four armed men in a car kidnapped him and he is incarcerated. Keenan wakes up, almost naked, alone in an iron-clad room. Initially he refuses to eat until he is told why he is being held prisoner. He is kept is on his own but eventually he is moved into a cell in a deserted house, where he is joined by another hostage, the English journalist John Mc Carthy, who had been actually reporting on Keenan’s kidnapping not long before he himself was abducted. The grumpy Brit-hating Irishman and the more pliable British journalist are forced to share their small prison cell.Keenan refuses to be shaved or wear clean clothes offered until he gets answers from his captors. He protests about having his beard shaved off. A grumpy idealist, Keenan sees his treatment by his Muslim jailers as equaling the British historic treatment of Ireland. McCarthy is neutral and pragmatic. The two men are periodically moved around to new hiding places. The pair slowly begins to bond as they make a temporary life together, playing chess, catching mosquitoes, trapping a mouse, telling stories and imaging they are someplace else. They become very close friends and when one man is in trouble or close to the breaking point, the other invariably helps him.
Their guards treat them with a mixture of detachment kindness and cruelty. After another move, to a small, white-tiled cell, McCarthy is traumatized after being shown a video of his mother pleading for his return. He finds strength in Keenan's own brand of self-control.
The two men are smuggled to a house in the countryside. Keenan attacks a young guard who is trying to humiliate him by making him open and close a window repeatedly. He is beaten. McCarthy intercedes with the leader of the captors saying this should not have been allowed to happen. He too is beaten. Eventually in 1991 after more than four years of imprisonment, Keenan is released. He is reluctant to accept his freedom if it means leaving McCarthy behind. Back in Ireland a year later, Keenan receives a call in a pub: McCarthy is to be released. He is waiting at the airport for McCarthy to arrive home.
Cast
- Ian HartIan HartIan Hart is an English stage, television and film actor.-Early life:Hart, the grandson of Irish immigrants, was born in Liverpool, Merseyside, England. He is one of three siblings and was brought up in a Roman Catholic family...
as Brian Keenan - Linus RoacheLinus RoacheLinus William Roache is an English actor.-Early life:Roache was born in Manchester, the son of Coronation Street actor William Roache and actress Anna Cropper. Roache was educated at Bishop Luffa Church of England School in Chichester, West Sussex and at the independent Rydal School in Colwyn Bay,...
as John McCarthy - Mohamad ChamasMohamad ChamasMohamad Chamas is a Lebanese actor. In 1998 he was living in an orphanage, and had no acting experience, when director Ziad Doueiri cast him in a leading role in the critically acclaimed film West Beyrouth. He has been described as having "the explosiveness of James Cagney".-Filmography:Mohamad...
as Abed - Nayef RashedNayef RashedNayef Rashed is a Middle-Eastern actor living in the United Kingdom. After training at London's Drama Centre, he has appeared in such television favourites as Only Fools and Horses, The Bill, and feature films such as Navy Seals...
as Militia leader - Lynn FarleighLynn Farleigh-Television and film:Lynn Farleigh is perhaps best known for playing: Helen Wycliffe in Wycliffe; Krupskaya opposite Patrick Stewart's Lenin in the historical BBC drama Fall of Eagles; and the glamorous Vivien Ashton in the second series of the LWT secret agent series Wish Me Luck broadcast in...
as John's Mother - Aine Ni Mhuiri as Brian's Mother
- Paddy Rocks as Brian's father
- Stephen Don as RUC Officer
- Ziad Lahoud as Said