IRA's military funeral is the most amazing scene.the second one is bomb blasting of mac's car and the third is colette's interrogation with the guy's spreading plastic cover on the ground.
I still need to clarify one point.collette's mother works for mi5 too,and mac's phone is to ask her to sacrifice herself for her daughter,shadow dancer is collette's mother.is this what it's right?
Collette's mother is shadow dancer. She does not exactly work for MI5, but is a tout or informant as Collette is, though she has been passing information for years. Mac phones Collette's house to warn her but her mother answers the phone instead and realises that she must reveal herself in order to throw the scent off her daughter. Mac doesn't ask her to sacrifice herself.
shareIf collette's mother has been working for years why does MI5 want to recruit someone in the same house? another questions why does MI5 hide this secret informant from other agents?
Mac gets the identity of shadow dancer then calls her mother knowingly,intentionally to warn her about her daughter.It is not a coincidence.please rewatch :)
I am still wondering why shadow dancer is hidden from everyone.movie does not tell this part.
Collette's mother has been working for MI5 for years and is one of their top informants. To prevent her discovery Mac is asked to use Collette ( at this point he doesn't know about the mother) and who arouses suspicion quite soon after her arrival back home. Mac is not told about the mother because if he knew he would quite rightly question the decision as he would realise that Collette was considered expendable. Mac knew something wasn't right when Kate Fletcher refused to answer his questions which prompted him to search the files to find out for himself and where he found out about Shadow Dancer. Because he found out about the mother and realised that Collette was in danger he phoned to warn Her ( he didn't know the mother) but the mother answered instead, who decided to protect her daughter by giving herself up.
Shadow Dancer is a valuable asset to MI5 and so only certain people knew about her. This is not unusual for an organisation like MI5. A similar state of affairs exist in the CIA where important sources are on a need to know basis. The fewer people who know the better to prevent leaking of information.
I must admit I cheated slightly because I read the book before seeing the film.
cheater! :P
shareI know, I'm deeply ashamed!
Reverting back to this thread's initial subject, yes, I agree that this scene is very well done.
Btw, after they done the gunshot salute thing -- which I presume was to give Brendan a " P.I.R.A. Soldier's" burial -- why did they run towards those police officers/RUC guys? Was it to deliberately start a riot? Can anyone shed some light on this scene a little more? Cheers.
It was a soldier's burial as the Provisional's consider themselves to be an army.They ran towards the RUC to start a riot as they objected to their presence at the funeral plus of course the RUC are their enemy.
I assumed they ran towards the RUC to allow the balaclava'd shooters to disappear without being arrested. The mourners wanted to give Brendan a "soldier's burial". There was no desire to riot, simply facilitate the shooter's escape.
shareThat was my reading of it as well, to allow the people in Balaclavas to escape.
Its that man again!!
Because he found out about the mother and realised that Collette was in danger he phoned to warn Her ( he didn't know the mother) but the mother answered instead, who decided to protect her daughter by giving herself up.
right, but he still left it to mom to decide who dies.
shareSo? The daughter still blames him for it.
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So? The daughter still blames him for it.
I'm still not clear on why they felt the need to "protect" Shadow Dancer. She'd been a useful and loyal tout for 20 years. Bringing such an obvious conflicted person as Colette into the picture just puts an unwanted spotlight on Shadow Dancer's home doesn't it? So it's unclear how any of this protects Shadow Dancer at all.
I'm still not clear on why they felt the need to "protect" Shadow Dancer. She'd been a useful and loyal tout for 20 years. Bringing such an obvious conflicted person as Colette into the picture just puts an unwanted spotlight on Shadow Dancer's home doesn't it? So it's unclear how any of this protects Shadow Dancer at all
he didn't need to, he knew precisely what would happen. i'm thinking he knew she would answer the phone as well.
Mac phones Collette's house to warn her but her mother answers the phone instead and realises that she must reveal herself in order to throw the scent off her daughter. Mac doesn't ask her to sacrifice herself......
Because he found out about the mother and realised that Collette was in danger he phoned to warn Her ( he didn't know the mother) but the mother answered instead, who decided to protect her daughter by giving herself up.
I cheated a bit because I was going from what happened in the book. In the book Mac didn't know about the mother.
The mother couldn't have threatened MI5, she didn't have any leverage against them. Her only options were to confess to IRA or let them kill her daughter. And Mac certainly knew this. He just chose the daughter's live over her mother's, and against his superior's, who planned to sacrifice the daughter to keep using the mother.
shareThe mother couldn't have threatened MI5, she didn't have any leverage against them.
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