There's been a bit of a trend of late of rock n'roll elder statesmen taking to the theatre to reflect on their lives.
In recent years, we have seen Bruce Springsteen on Broadway and Talking Heads frontman David Byrne following suit with his show 'American Utopia'.
Having recently published a memoir and an album of stripped back, re-recorded U2 tracks, it was inevitable that the band's frontman Bono has been drawn into performing a show about his life.
Never one to shy away from narrating his own life, 2023 saw the Dubliner taking to the stages of the Beacon Theater in New York, the London Palladium and The Olympia Theatre in his hometown to perform 'Stories of Surrender' while he promoted his autobiography of the same name.
Now two years later, Australian filmmaker Andrew Dominik brings the show to our screens in glorious black and white - courtesy of Apple TV+.
But is his collaboration with Bono worthy of the seven minute standing ovation it received at the recent Cannes Film Festival?
Shot by the Emmy nominated American cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt, 'Bono: Stories of Surrender' begins with the singer describing his brush with mortality.
The U2 frontman candidly talks about a health scare in New York when it was discovered he had a blister on his aorta which could have been fatal had it burst.
Recreating his surgery using a plain family table and chairs, his one man show races through a colourful life from losing at the age of 10 his mother Iris after she suffered a brain aneurysm at his grandfather's funeral to the founding of U2 in the inter-denominational Mount Sinai school to the band's gradual ascent to become the world's biggest group of the 1980s, 90s and Noughties.
Mostly, though, the story is about his efforts to establish a connection with a father Bob Hewson who grew more distant after Iris' death.
Bob was an opera buff with a decent tenor voice who appeared disdainful of the achievements of his rock superstar son.
It is an occasionally maudlin tale infused with mischief, as Bono courts his father's approval by accepting an invite to collaborate with the great Italian tenor Luciano Pavarotti which leads to him gently mocking his dad's meekness in the presence of British Royalty (Princess Diana).
Whether you're seduced by Bono's flamboyant tale very much depends on how much you can tolerate his persona as a garrulous rock n'roll bon vivant.
While Dominik's film is handsomely shot, the film falls more into the Springsteen school of one man show .
It's full of big, bold narrative but doesn't commit to the kind of visual panache that made David Byrne and Spike Lee's film of 'American Utopia' so memorable.
Sometimes Bono's story rambles. Sometimes it intrigues.
Sometimes it irritates. Sometimes it surprises.
Sometimes you just wish he wouldn't race past some of the juicy details. Sometimes you wish he would.
Recreating onstage scenes from his life with a Guinness glass, some furniture and a musical trio consisting of Irish musician and producer Jackknife Lee, harpist Gemma Doherty and cellist Kate Ellis, there are moments where the film approaches self-parody
To bastardise a U2 song title, sometimes you just want Bono to get out of his own way.
It's biggest plus is Bono's vocals when he's singing.
Never before has his voice sounded more mellow than in his reworked versions of classics like 'Vertigo,' 'City of Blinding Lights,' 'Pride (In The Name of Love)' and 'With or Without You'.
However after nine years of introspection with an autobiography, a theatrical show, three U2 albums 'Songs of Innocence,' 'Songs of Experience' and 'Songs of Surrender,' a Dave Letterman Disney+ special and this Apple TV+ film, it's time for him and the band to move on and look to the future.
U2 and Bono's biggest weakness has always been their tendency towarda overkill.
After flogging another idea till it struggles to breathe, a lot of the band's future success will hinge on whether they can radically reinvent themselves.
They did it before with 'Achtung Baby!'
We'll know pretty soon if the creative well is running dry.
('Bono: Stories of Surrender' premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on March 16, 2025 and was made available for streaming on Apple TV+ on May 30, 2025)
There's a type of Irish film that clearly draws inspiration from the Western.
Jim Sheridan's 'The Field' is a good example - pitting Richard Harris' proud Kerry farmer Bull McCabe against Tom Berenger's wealthy returning US emigrant Peter "the Yank".
John Ford's romcom 'The Quiet Man' feeds off a similar dynamic, with John Wayne's boxer returning to the auld sod and finding himself squaring off against his boorish brother in law, played by Victor McLaglen.
However Lance Daly's Famine tale 'Black 47' takes a different tack, infusing its tale of James Frecheville's army deserter Feeney with a Spaghetti Western sensibility as he avenges family deaths and is hunted down by the British authorities.
The influence of the Western is also evident in John Michael McDonagh's black comedy 'The Guard' and his much darker tale 'Calvary' as well as his brother Martin's acclaimed tale of broken friendship 'The Banshees of Inisherin'.
Now you can add Christopher Andrews' 'Bring Them Down' to the list - a brooding tale of sheep rustling gone wrong, with Christopher Abbott's farmer Michael caught in a tit for tat battle with his neighbours.
The film begins in flashback, with a fatal car crash caused by Youssef Quinn's younger version of Michael who is behind the steering wheel.
Losing control of the vehicle, the crash kills his mother, Susan Lynch's Peggy O'Shea and destroys a promising relationship with Grace Daly's Caroline who is a rear seat passenger.
It also comes just minutes after Peggy informs him of her plans to leave his father, Colm Meaney's Ray.
Years later, Abbott's older version of Michael lives a miserable existence on the family farm with Ray who is confined to a wheelchair.
Nora Jane Noone's Caroline is married to Paul Ready's gruff Northern Irish farmer Gary who is struggling financially after a storm destroys a bridge between their home and the local road.
The couple's son, Barry Keoghan's Jack steals two of Michael's rams which he and Gary attempt to pass off as their own at a local livestock mart.
Michael, however, works out what they are doing and confronts the duo but they stonewall him, denying his accusations.
The feud escalates when Jack and Gary chase Michael on the drive back home.
However they wind up having an accident, only to be rescued by their neighbour.
Refusing to acknowledge his good deed, Gary stull holds on to the stolen sheep.
When some of Michael's sheep are subsequently mutilated after he brings them down from the hills, the incident sparks a feud and sets in train a tragic series of events.
Written and directed by Andrews, 'Bring Them Down' is an allegorical tale of male grievance over possession and territory.
It's broodingly shot by Nick Cooke who makes good use of the damp Irish forests and rain sodden farmland.
But it is efficiently told and impressively acted too, with the American actor Christopher Abbot doing a convincing job as a troubled Irish farmer pitted against his neighbours.
Keoghan and Meaney are as strong as you'd expect - the former bringing his trademark twitchy, ne'er-do-well energy to the role of Jack.
'The Banshees of Inisherin' star also gels very effectively with Aaron Heffernan who plays his drug taking cousin Lee.
Meaney is at his gruff best, while Nora Jane Noone impresses as the older Caroline who clearly still harbours feelings for Michael and is appalled by the brainless bravura of the men around her.
The big surprise is Ready whose loathsome Gary is a world away from his most famous role as the soft centred, far from macho father Kevin in the BBC school gate sitcom 'Motherland'.
Here he's aggressive, sly and deceitful and while his Northern Irish accent ever so slightly wobbles, you overlook it because of the strength of his performance.
Andrews takes an 'Amores Perros' approach to his narrative, revisiting events and shifting perspectives to reveal more details.
You can't help but feel the universality of his story which could just easily have taken place in the hills of Sicily or the plains of Wyoming or under African skies.
The film also serves as a warning about how wounded male pride can easily mutate into open warfare
Andrews' film also shares a similar theme to 'Bono: Stories of Surrender'.
It's about Irish sons desperately trying to impress their fathers and getting little affection in return.
'Bring Them Down' is, though, unquestionably a Celtic Western - a revenge tale like Clint Eastwood's 'Unforgiven' where nobody wins and everyone ends up getting dragged into the mud.
It's a fabulous debut feature from Andrews.
His is a directorial talent that hopefully the movie industry will nurture and allow to fully blossom.
('Bring Them Down' was released in UK and Irish cinemas on February 7, 2025 and was made available for streaming via MUBI on March 28, 2025)
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