Some films are irresistible to audiences because of their subject matter.
Movies like Oliver Stone's 'JFK,' Stephen Frears' 'The Queen' or Paul Greengrass' 'United 93' fall into that category, drawing cinemagoers because of their depiction of events that occurred in their lifetime.
Lisa Barros D'Sa and Glenn Leyburn's movie 'Saipan' falls into that category too because it depicts a story from 2002 that transcended sport and became a major news event not just in Ireland but around the world.
In 2002, the Republic of Ireland's star footballer Roy Keane did the unthinkable.
On the Pacific island of Saipan, he turned his back on another chance to represent his country and play on soccer's greatest stage, the World Cup.
The Corkman left the squad after a blistering row with his manager over the Football Association of Ireland's poor preparations for the tournament.
Many people in the sport and Ireland believed he was right.
Shortly after their arrival in Saipan, the team was informed the pitch they were due to train on was unsuitable and hazardous.
The team initially had no footballs to practice with.
There were no energy drinks and the food was below standard.
As a professional player used to the best of facilities at Manchester United, Keane was appalled that the FAI had failed to properly prepare.
Never one to mince his words, he told journalists the association had badly let down its players, undermining their chances to make waves at the tournament.
His temper finally erupted, though, when the team's manager Mick McCarthy criticised him in front of the squad for going to the press to air his frustrations.
Affronted that he was being portrayed as a prima donna, Keane vented his frustration and anger towards McCarthy.
So withering was his tirade that the manager believed he went beyond the pale.
In a shocking press conference afterwards, McCarthy told journalists his captain had been ordered to leave.
Keane had a different narrative, though, claiming he had had enough of the team's farcical preparations and had left of his own accord.
His departure from the World Cup was hugely controversial, attracting wall to wall news coverage in Ireland, Britain and elsewhere.
Some people back home firmly believed Keane had been maltreated and that he was right to protest.
Others felt he had let his teammates down and his country, allowing his ego to get the better of him.
They argued Keane should have bitten his lip for the greater good, venting his grievances after the tournament was over.
As the player returned to his home in Cheshire, the airwaves in Ireland, Britain and around the world were full of football analysts and members of the public wanting to give their penny's worth.
Ireland's Prime Minister Bertie Ahern was even engaged to try and broker a way back for the star but Keane refused.
Over the years, the Saipan controversy has been extensively covered in books and documentaries, blogs and newspaper columns.
So it's fair to say a large proportion of the audience who will go to D'Sa and Leyburn's new film will probably have made up their minds about whether Keane or McCarthy was right.
But they might also be surprised and find their perception of events changes ever so slightly.
Admirers of Leyburn and D'Sa's work will know that 'Good Vibrations,' their 2012 biopic of Belfast's godfather of punk Terri Hooley, is a masterpiece
'Saipan' touches that film's levels of greatness and is another hugely impressive work.
Like 'Good Vibrations,' it dives into archive television and radio material and brilliantly weaves it into a compelling tale from screenwriter Paul Fraser about competing visions of football and of Irishness.
Eanna Hardwicke is in blistering form as Keane - a walking, talking volcano of a man whose high professional standards, dedication to his sport and ferocious desire to win is unmatched in the Ireland camp.
His performance goes beyond mere impersonation and while every cadence in Hardwicke's voice is spot on, its the physicality and intensity of it that is most striking.
Treating the opportunity to play his fellow Corkman as the role of a lifetime, Hardwicke delivers one of the best screen performances of 2025.
Hardwicke's intensity is beautifully counterbalanced by Steve Coogan as the older, more laid back McCarthy who finds himself reluctantly drawn into a conflict with his star player as a result of the incompetence of those around him.
No slouch himself when it comes to nailing the voices and mannerisms of real life figures, Coogan captures the Barnsley born Irish football legend's genial demeanour, his fierce pride in his Irishness and his despair at not being able to control his most valuable asset.
At a preview screening at the Queen's Film Theatre this week in Belfast, the film's directors cited Francis Coppola's 'Apocalypse Now' and Martin Scorsese's 'Raging Bull' as an influence on the look and tone of the film.
The connection to Scorsese's boxing movie is particularly striking as McCarthy and Keane are inevitably pulled into a confrontation and it is reinforced by subtle chimes that ring throughout the movie as the duo start to verbally spar - from the sound of an airplane intercom to the pinging of a hotel lift.
There's another film, though, that 'Saipan' resembles and that is James Foley's movie of David Mamet's 'Glengarry, Glen Ross'.
In that film Al Pacino, like Hardwicke, unleashes a torrent of abuse at a manager he has little respect for at a critical moment in the film.
The savagery of Keane's comments towards McCarthy in 'Saipan' prove just as salty and hair raising as Ricky Roma's tirade against Kevin Spacey's office manager Williamson in Foley's 1992 film.
Hardwicke's delivery is every bit as brutal as Pacino's and just as jaw dropping.
Like Foley's film, 'Saipan' is fascinated by the destructiveness of male ego.
Barros D'Sa and Leyburn have also cited George Roy Hill's 1977 ice hockey comedy 'Slap Shot' with Paul Newman as another influence and there's no doubt the ramshackle preparations of the FAI recall that film.
As for the supporting cast, Peter McDonald impresses as McCarthy's loyal lieutenant Mick Byrne.
Jamie Beamish is perfect as the feckless football administrator, Dickie Moloney who rides on the coattails of his players.
Alice Lowe and Harriet Cains shine as Mick McCarthy and Roy Keane's wives, Fiona and Theresa.
Alex Murphy of 'The Young Offenders' provides laughs as an incompetent FAI official and Aoife Hinds catches the eye as a reporter who senses trouble in the Irish camp.
The impressionist Jon Culshaw also surfaces, providing the voice of Sir Alex Ferguson.
With much of the film shot in and around Belfast, cinematographer Piers McGrail is wonderfully resourceful.
Kudos should go too to the film's editors Gavin Buckley and John Murphy and the sound designer Tim Harrison for their superb visual and sonic work.
Once again, David Holmes comes up trumps with an astute soundtrack that includes needle drops from Oasis, The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl, Bob Dylan, The Stone Roses and Fontaines DC.
Six years on from 'Ordinary Love,' 'Saipan' confirms Barros D'Sa and Leyburn not just as the finest directors to come out of Northern Ireland but among the very best operating in these islands.
A film that could easily have descended into a flatly directed talkfest is elevated by vibrant visuals, imaginative editing and a duo who knows how to get the best out of their cast.
'Saipan' marks a moment when the age of innocence for Irish soccer came to a juddering halt.
The row between Keane and McCarthy was a time when the sheer glee of the Jack Charlton Italia 90 era ended and a section of Irish fans started to believe their national squad needed to do more at international tournaments than simply qualify.
If there's any justice, 'Saipan' will do well at the box office and we won't have to wait another six years for another Barros D'Sa and Leyburn movie.
'Saipan' serves as a stirring reminder that theirs is a talent worth supporting.
('Saipan' will be released in Irish cinemas on December 26, 2025 and UK cinemas on January 23, 2026)
Comments
Post a Comment