â22 Julyâ is shocking, stirring, itâs heart wrenching, unsettling and hard to wrap your mind around. Greengrass is best known for making several of the ‘Bourne’ films and âUnited 93â which was a real-time account of United Flight 93, the plane that was hijacked on 9/11, but crashed due to passengers willing to take drastic measures to stop the terrorists in their tracks. â22 Julyâ is, again, the story of a terroristâs actions as he carries out brutal killings only this time itâs a right-wing extremist named Anders Behring Breivik, played very coolly by Anders Danielsen Lie, in 2011 near Oslo Norway, who feels that he, as a white man, is being discriminated against.
He attacks what he refers to as a political summer camp which is located on an isolated island. He sees this camp as a place where the âMarxist, Liberals and members of the eliteâ send their children to learn to accept minorities.
Dressed as a police officer, he packs guns, plenty of ammo and explosives and leaves the house. He drives a van near the Prime Ministerâs office and parks. He gets out, lights a fuse, and slyly walks down the street where he easily slips into another vehicle and drives away, headed for the teenagers who await their fate like sitting ducks. He gets onto the island where the children are and starts, one by one, picking them off. They run but he knows there is absolutely nowhere for them to go. Heâll get them all eventually.
The explosion is well done, along with the confusion in its aftermath, but watching the children run screaming is brutal. Anders goes into a building where people are hiding and tells them, âYou will die today!â Itâs hard not to put yourself in that scenario once you start thinking of how often murder in the name of someoneâs beliefs goes on in this world.
One child, Viljar, gets a call off to his mother to tell her what has happened. Sheâs involved in politics and was near the explosion so sheâs able to alert the police about what her son informed her of and they head to the island immediately. An intense scene shows us that, sadly, Anders is still shooting and gravely injures Viljar. When heâs found by his parents, heâs only clinging to life. Greengrass does a beautiful job of making all the events seem as realistic as possible. What follows is how these people restore their lives in the wake of such a tragedy but on top of that, being very much alive, the gunman has ways to still twist the knife. He doesnât care about his victims, he tells his lawyer, Geir Lippestad, he would do it all again for the cause. He also tells Geir his demands or a third attack will be coming. He wants the liquidation of the political camp and a ban on immigration. This is where my interest was piqued even more. I knew of this story but it so parallels whatâs happening in my own country today which makes it more relevant than I thought it would be.
Itâs frightening to take a good hard look at certain activities in our world, but I rather like that films are bringing these subjects to light. Itâs important not to hide racism and pretend itâs not going on.
The rest of the film is court filings, Viljarâs struggle to come back from what happened to him and the Prime Minister realizing where he went wrong. All of this is notably well done. Itâs an explosive, captivating story of good versus evil with meaningful dialogue and pacing that doesn’t bore. Donât think for one minute you have to see it on the big screen to appreciate it. Netflix is doing more and more and with this proves theyâll continue to get better and better. But if you’re lucky enough to be in a city where it’s coming out… it would be good to experience it that way.
In case you were curious, the only reason â22 Julyâ didnât get a higher score is for the few times it felt as if it went a little long and one other mistake that writer/director Paul Greengrass made, which was crucial, and thatâs where we first find ourselves in the story. Coming in at two hours and twenty-three minutes, he captured us by getting straight to the meat of the matter. That said, to the viewers, it felt as if he had nowhere to go but down. Turns out that itâs quite enough to be considered a must-see, but had he stretched out the action a bit⌠had the action happened a little later in the film, instead initially introduced to us some of the characters, it wouldnât have become the long-lasting drama it felt it became. Then again, maybe this was done on purpose because what these Norwegians endured didnât end with Anders Behring Breivikâs massacre of seventy-seven people, not to mention the hundreds of others he injured. The slaughter was only the beginning.
*22 JULY will debut Wednesday, October 10th globally in select theaters and on Netflix.
