Jim Sheridan’s Academy Award-nominated film “The Boxer” depicts the degradation and disunity of Northern Ireland’s Catholic and Protestant communities through the hands of the terrorist organisation, the Irish Republican Army. The film, set in the early 1990s, follows the intensification of terrorism as a political instrument through the abuse of power within the Irish Republican Army organisation, resulting in the formation of radical extremist groups. Further complicating the political and social circumstances is the permanent presence of occupational British ‘peacekeeping’ forces, which Sheridan constructs as a catalyst for further violence within the Irish community. The violence and terror culminate in the signing of a ceasefire by the Irish Republican Army, causing an outcry from the provisional militant groups and resulting in widespread bombings and further bloodshed. Through his construction of the discourses of a divided Ireland, terrorism and forbidden love, director Jim Sheridan has positioned the viewer to perceive violence and terrorism as social negatives, with the end result being that the viewer ultimately acknowledges the significant human cost of terrorism.
The basis for Sheridan’s construction of terrorism as a social negative stems from his interpretation of 20th century Ireland as a divided nation. This disunity takes many different forms, from the most obvious division between Irish Catholics and Irish Protestants to more obscure, but no less relevant partitions between the Irish and the British, and perhaps most importantly, the division within families caused as a result of terrorist acts. In his depiction of British-controlled Ireland, Sheridan foregrounds the impact that this division has on the people of Northern Ireland, through the sympathetic preferred reading of the two main Characters, Danny Flynn and Maggie. Danny, an up-and-coming boxing champion, was subject to fourteen years imprisonment for a crime committed by the IRA which he himself had little to do with. Danny’s relationship with Maggie, daughter of an IRA director and now the wife of Danny’s best friend, was destroyed as a direct result of the divided nature of the country. This concept of division is privileged by the spotlighting of the British forces as a symbol of absolute power within the Irish community. Sheridan’s expert use of the wide-angle shot looking down upon Belfast from the British helicopters also allows the viewer to identify with the divided nature of Ireland’s religions, by foregrounding the religious barriers which exist in the city districts. The almost-constant sound of the British helicopters serves to create an intertextual relationship with other films and productions, where the sound is often associated with power and war, leading the viewer to believe that the information being presented is the truth. In constructing the discourse of a divided Ireland, Sheridan reinforces the dominant position that terrorism is a social negative.
