Hidden Agenda (1990 film)
Encyclopedia
Hidden Agenda directed by Ken Loach
, is a political thriller about British terrorism in Northern Ireland that includes the assassination of an American civil rights lawyer.
lawyer and political activist in Northern Ireland
, whilst he was accompanied by a Provisional Irish Republican Army
sympathiser. Investigator Peter Kerrigan' s (Brian Cox) interrogations, assisted by Ingrid Jessner (Frances McDormand), the dead man's girlfriend and colleague, reveal that the two men were shot without warning, and that there is a mysterious tape recording involved in the killings. The tape was made by Captain Harris (ex-army intelligence, hiding from the British), who recorded senior military leaders and Conservative party politicians discussing how they arranged the rise to power of Margaret Thatcher
. Eventually, Cpt. Harris gives a copy of the tape recording to Jessner, but British security forces kidnap and kill him, and blame his assassination upon the IRA; without Harris to authenticate it, the tape recording can be dismissed as a forgery. At story's end, Kerrigan is blackmailed into silence about the wider conspiracy; Jessner still has the tape recording, and, presumably, will reveal it, but shan't be believed.
The story makes references to the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet
in Chile, which imply that British rule of Northern Ireland was sustained with terrorism equivalent to the terrorism Gen. Pinochet inflicted upon his enemies; that the political ascent of Margaret Thatcher was like that of General Pinochet, by means of a U.S.-sponsored coup d’état, not an election; and that police and right-wing politicians, who denounced the IRA as terrorists, were, themselves, engaged in State-sponsored terrorism. The implication that British state authorities are terrorists is reinforced with a a scene (occurred in an Irish republican club) of a singer singing a Wolfe Tones
ballad honouring the H-Block hunger striker Joe McDonnell
, including the chorus:
The story of Hidden Agenda was inspired by the investigation into the Royal Ulster Constabulary
's Shoot-to-kill policy
. The Peter Kerrigan character represents John Stalker
, the leader of that investigation. Secret unit E4A
, of the Royal Ulster Constabulary, which was believed involved in the assassinations, is briefly mentioned. The Captain Harris character represents Colin Wallace
, who was a technical advisor to the film. The Chief Constable Brody character represents RUC Chief Constable Sir John Hermon, and the Tory
conspirator, Andrew Neame, claims that Airey Neave
was involved in similar intrigues during the 1970s. In conversation with Kerrigan, a conspirator justifies breaking the law to fight terrorism, by citing the use of force to extort confessions from the Birmingham Six
. At one point Teresa Doyle (Republican journalist Michelle Fairley
) shows Jessnser a photograph of a masked British soldier posed with an IRA cadaver, after a cross-border operation into the Irish Republic, representing the rumour that Captain Robert Nairac
had such a trophy photograph of the body of John Francis Green
.
Hidden Agenda was criticised for a simplistic view of the Northern Irish Troubles as an anti-colonial war; whereas the Unionist-Protestant community are seen as a quaint, by American activists who dismiss an Orange Order parade as tribal rites; despite Unionists representing the majority population of Northern Ireland. The story also was criticised for portraying the Troubles
as adjunct British politics, rather than as Irish politics.
agent, possessing an incriminating audiotape recording about the British government, is kidnapped by an SAS squad and put in a van on O'Connell Bridge
in Dublin, a busy river crossing in the city center, was filmed with a hidden camera; transiting passers-by did not know. Although Hidden Agenda occurs in 1982, a scene in the Divis Flats shows a mural supporting the Irish People's Liberation Organisation
, which was founded in 1986.
at the 1990 Cannes Film Festival
and was nominated for Best European Film at the Goya Awards
. At the Festival press conference, the critic Alexander Walker
publicly denounced the film as IRA propaganda. (Alexander Walker ICONS IN THE FIRE (London, 2004) pp131-132.
Ken Loach
Kenneth "Ken" Loach is a Palme D'Or winning English film and television director.He is known for his naturalistic, social realist directing style and for his socialist beliefs, which are evident in his film treatment of social issues such as homelessness , labour rights and child abuse at the...
, is a political thriller about British terrorism in Northern Ireland that includes the assassination of an American civil rights lawyer.
Plot and historical context
Hidden Agenda depicts the investigation of the British assassination of Paul Sullivan (Brad Dourif), an American civil rightsCivil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...
lawyer and political activist in Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
, whilst he was accompanied by a Provisional Irish Republican Army
Provisional Irish Republican Army
The Provisional Irish Republican Army is an Irish republican paramilitary organisation whose aim was to remove Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom and bring about a socialist republic within a united Ireland by force of arms and political persuasion...
sympathiser. Investigator Peter Kerrigan' s (Brian Cox) interrogations, assisted by Ingrid Jessner (Frances McDormand), the dead man's girlfriend and colleague, reveal that the two men were shot without warning, and that there is a mysterious tape recording involved in the killings. The tape was made by Captain Harris (ex-army intelligence, hiding from the British), who recorded senior military leaders and Conservative party politicians discussing how they arranged the rise to power of Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990...
. Eventually, Cpt. Harris gives a copy of the tape recording to Jessner, but British security forces kidnap and kill him, and blame his assassination upon the IRA; without Harris to authenticate it, the tape recording can be dismissed as a forgery. At story's end, Kerrigan is blackmailed into silence about the wider conspiracy; Jessner still has the tape recording, and, presumably, will reveal it, but shan't be believed.
The story makes references to the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet
Augusto Pinochet
Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte, more commonly known as Augusto Pinochet , was a Chilean army general and dictator who assumed power in a coup d'état on 11 September 1973...
in Chile, which imply that British rule of Northern Ireland was sustained with terrorism equivalent to the terrorism Gen. Pinochet inflicted upon his enemies; that the political ascent of Margaret Thatcher was like that of General Pinochet, by means of a U.S.-sponsored coup d’état, not an election; and that police and right-wing politicians, who denounced the IRA as terrorists, were, themselves, engaged in State-sponsored terrorism. The implication that British state authorities are terrorists is reinforced with a a scene (occurred in an Irish republican club) of a singer singing a Wolfe Tones
Wolfe Tones
The Wolfe Tones are an Irish rebel music band who incorporate elements of Irish traditional music in their songs. They are named after the Irish rebel and patriot Theobald Wolfe Tone, one of the leaders of the Irish Rebellion of 1798, with the double entendre that a wolf tone is a spurious sound...
ballad honouring the H-Block hunger striker Joe McDonnell
Joe McDonnell
Joseph McDonnell was a volunteer in the Provisional Irish Republican Army , who died in the 1981 Irish hunger strike.-Early life:...
, including the chorus:
And you dare to call me a terrorist while you look down your gun / When I think of all the deeds that you have done / You have plundered many nations, divided many lands / You have terrorised their peoples, you ruled with an iron hand / And you brought this reign of terror to my land.
The story of Hidden Agenda was inspired by the investigation into the Royal Ulster Constabulary
Royal Ulster Constabulary
The Royal Ulster Constabulary was the name of the police force in Northern Ireland from 1922 to 2000. Following the awarding of the George Cross in 2000, it was subsequently known as the Royal Ulster Constabulary GC. It was founded on 1 June 1922 out of the Royal Irish Constabulary...
's Shoot-to-kill policy
Shoot-to-kill policy in Northern Ireland
During the period known as "the Troubles" in Northern Ireland, the British Army and Royal Ulster Constabulary were accused of operating a shoot-to-kill policy, under which suspects were alleged to have been deliberately killed without any attempt to arrest them...
. The Peter Kerrigan character represents John Stalker
John Stalker
John Stalker is a former Deputy Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police, now residing in Lymm. He headed the Stalker Inquiry that investigated the shooting of suspected members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army in 1982. He has also had a television and literary career.-Career:Stalker...
, the leader of that investigation. Secret unit E4A
E4A
The E4A was an anti-terrorist unit within 'E' Department of the Royal Ulster Constabulary, probably established in 1978 . It was primarily made up of police officers who conducted surveillance to be acted on by RUC Special Branch...
, of the Royal Ulster Constabulary, which was believed involved in the assassinations, is briefly mentioned. The Captain Harris character represents Colin Wallace
Colin Wallace
John Colin Wallace is a former British soldier and psychological warfare operative who was one of the members of the 'Clockwork Orange' project, which is alleged to have been an attempt to smear a number of British politicians in the early 1970s.-Early life:...
, who was a technical advisor to the film. The Chief Constable Brody character represents RUC Chief Constable Sir John Hermon, and the Tory
Tory
Toryism is a traditionalist and conservative political philosophy which grew out of the Cavalier faction in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. It is a prominent ideology in the politics of the United Kingdom, but also features in parts of The Commonwealth, particularly in Canada...
conspirator, Andrew Neame, claims that Airey Neave
Airey Neave
Airey Middleton Sheffield Neave DSO, OBE, MC was a British soldier, barrister and politician.During World War II, Neave was one of the few servicemen to escape from the German prisoner-of-war camp Oflag IV-C at Colditz Castle...
was involved in similar intrigues during the 1970s. In conversation with Kerrigan, a conspirator justifies breaking the law to fight terrorism, by citing the use of force to extort confessions from the Birmingham Six
Birmingham Six
The Birmingham Six were six men—Hugh Callaghan, Patrick Joseph Hill, Gerard Hunter, Richard McIlkenny, William Power and John Walker—sentenced to life imprisonment in 1975 in the United Kingdom for the Birmingham pub bombings. Their convictions were declared unsafe and quashed by the Court of...
. At one point Teresa Doyle (Republican journalist Michelle Fairley
Michelle Fairley
Michelle Fairley is an Northern Irish actress of film, stage and television.-Life and career:Born in Coleraine, Northern Ireland to well known publicans Teresa and Brian Fairley, she grew up in Ballycastle, Northern Ireland she appeared in a range of British television shows including The Bill,...
) shows Jessnser a photograph of a masked British soldier posed with an IRA cadaver, after a cross-border operation into the Irish Republic, representing the rumour that Captain Robert Nairac
Robert Nairac
Captain Robert Laurence Nairac GC was a British Army officer who was abducted from a pub in south County Armagh during an undercover operation and killed by the Provisional Irish Republican Army on his fourth tour of duty in Northern Ireland as a Military Intelligence Liaison Officer...
had such a trophy photograph of the body of John Francis Green
John Francis Green
John Francis Green , was a leading member of the North Armagh Brigade of the Provisional IRA, holding the rank of Staff Captain and Intelligence Officer. He was killed in a farmhouse outside Castleblayney, County Monaghan, by members of the Mid-Ulster Brigade of the Ulster Volunteer Force...
.
Hidden Agenda was criticised for a simplistic view of the Northern Irish Troubles as an anti-colonial war; whereas the Unionist-Protestant community are seen as a quaint, by American activists who dismiss an Orange Order parade as tribal rites; despite Unionists representing the majority population of Northern Ireland. The story also was criticised for portraying the Troubles
The Troubles
The Troubles was a period of ethno-political conflict in Northern Ireland which spilled over at various times into England, the Republic of Ireland, and mainland Europe. The duration of the Troubles is conventionally dated from the late 1960s and considered by many to have ended with the Belfast...
as adjunct British politics, rather than as Irish politics.
Cast
- Frances McDormandFrances McDormandFrances Louise McDormand is an American film and stage actress. She has starred in a number of films, including her Academy Award-winning performance as Marge Gunderson in Fargo, in 1996...
- Ingrid Jessner - Brian Cox - Peter Kerrigan
- Brad DourifBrad DourifBradford Claude "Brad" Dourif is an American film and television actor who gained early fame for his portrayal of Billy Bibbit in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and has since appeared in a number of memorable roles, including the voice of Chucky in the Child's Play franchise, Younger Brother in...
- Paul Sullivan - Maurice RoëvesMaurice RoëvesMaurice Roëves is a British actor, born in Sunderland, County Durham on 19 March 1937.His television roles include Danger UXB , The Nightmare Man , the 1984 Doctor Who serial The Caves of Androzani, Days of our Lives , Tutti Frutti , Rab C...
- Captain Harris - Ian McElhinneyIan McElhinneyIan McElhinney is an actor and director.-Personal life:He is married to playwright/actress Marie Jones. Together they started their own company, Rathmore Productions Ltd.-Filmography:-External links:...
- Jack Cunningham
Production
A scene featuring a renegade SASSpecial Air Service
Special Air Service or SAS is a corps of the British Army constituted on 31 May 1950. They are part of the United Kingdom Special Forces and have served as a model for the special forces of many other countries all over the world...
agent, possessing an incriminating audiotape recording about the British government, is kidnapped by an SAS squad and put in a van on O'Connell Bridge
O'Connell Bridge
O'Connell Bridge is a road bridge spanning the River Liffey in Dublin, and joining O'Connell Street to D'Olier Street, Westmoreland Street and the south quays.-History:...
in Dublin, a busy river crossing in the city center, was filmed with a hidden camera; transiting passers-by did not know. Although Hidden Agenda occurs in 1982, a scene in the Divis Flats shows a mural supporting the Irish People's Liberation Organisation
Irish People's Liberation Organisation
The Irish People's Liberation Organisation was a small Irish republican paramilitary organization which was formed in 1986 by disaffected and expelled members of the Irish National Liberation Army whose factions coalesced in the aftermath of the supergrass trials...
, which was founded in 1986.
Awards
Hidden Agenda won the Jury PrizeJury Prize (Cannes Film Festival)
The Jury Prize is an award presented at the Cannes Film Festival. It is chosen by the jury from the 'official section' of movies at the festival. It is considered the third most prestigious prize at the film festival, after the Palme d'Or and the Grand Prix....
at the 1990 Cannes Film Festival
1990 Cannes Film Festival
- Jury :*Bernardo Bertolucci *Alexei Guerman *Anjelica Huston *Bertrand Blier *Christopher Hampton*Fanny Ardant *Françoise Giroud *Hayao Shibata *Mira Nair *Sven Nykvist...
and was nominated for Best European Film at the Goya Awards
Goya Awards
The Goya Awards, known in Spanish as los Premios Goya, are Spain's main national film awards, considered by many in Spain, and internationally, to be the Spanish equivalent of the American Academy Awards....
. At the Festival press conference, the critic Alexander Walker
Alexander Walker
Alexander Walker was the son of John ‘Johnnie’ Walker of the whiskey brand. He inherited the company in 1857 and expanded its business, exporting whisky throughout the British Empire....
publicly denounced the film as IRA propaganda. (Alexander Walker ICONS IN THE FIRE (London, 2004) pp131-132.