Film review: 71 (4 out of 5)

I am of an age where I remember watching on TV news armed British troops walking through Northern Irish towns - eyes alert and weapons at the ready.

These were tense times with the soldiers considered by many locals as the symbol of hated British rule.

Places such as Belfast were fiercely split between Catholics and Protestants, with riots and tensions galore on the streets.

71 takes us back to, as you might imagine, 1971.

A British regiment is sent over to Belfast to help the local police keep order and root out any undesirables.

We concentrate on one particular private, Gary Hook (played by Jack O’Connell) for whom this is a first assignment.

But as soon as they go out to the Falls Road area all hell breaks loose as a riot breaks out and Hook is left abandoned.

At this stage in Irish history the Catholic section was seeing factions within its own ranks with younger more extreme elements emerging.