RED MERCURY

UK, 2005, 110 minutes, Colour.
San Shella, Alex Caan, Novin Chowdhury, Juliet Stevenson, Stockard Channing, Pete Postlethwaite, David Bradley, Ron Silver, Clive Wood.
Directed by Roy Battersby.

Red Mercury is a timely British thriller. However, its timing for widespread release was very bad. According to the director, the film was viewed by the police terrorist force in the UK on July 6, 2005. The bombings of the underground and the bus occurred the following day. While the film was pencilled in for release, as of the beginning of 2007 it had failed to get release.

This is a pity because the film is not only well made, it actually reflects many of the stories that were uncovered about the bombers of July 2005, those who succeeded and the group who failed two weeks later.

The central group are three young men who have converted to Islam. Their backgrounds are typical of many of those revealed to be terrorists. They include a young man who grew up in the working-class Birmingham council estate, a bit of a renegade until he was converted. Another has a double first in Natural Sciences from Cambridge. There is a third who worked at his father’s wine warehouse, an excellent wine-taster.

The film shows the three working together. However, when they are urged to leave their flat, they find their car clamped and in the pursuit, take refuge in a restaurant. They decide then to hold the customers as hostages.

The film shows the workings of the authorities, led by Juliette Stephenson and Pete Postlethwaite. The film also shows the reaction of the hostages – some in the restaurant in good faith like a novelist and his family, some in bad faith including a businessman having lunch with his mistress. The proprietor of the restaurant is played by Stockard Channing. Ron Silver portrays an American manager having a meal in the restaurant.

The interplay between the police presence and attempts to take the terrorists with the terrorists themselves and their interactions with the customers make for excellent drama.

There is an ironic ending about the red mercury which is capable of being introduced to make a dirty bomb and the manipulation of the terrorists.

Direction is by Roy Battersby whose career was very strong in television rather than for cinema. The screenplay was written by Farrukh Dhondy, the Bombay-born screenwriter whose screenplays include topics like terrorism in Pakistan, Karachi, the prisoners in Guantanamo and the screenplay for the big-budget Indian film on the mutiny: The Rising: Ballad of Mangal Pandey.

1. A topical film? Completed before the London bombings of July 2005? Seen and analysed in the aftermath of the real experience?

2. The background of the war on terrorism, the place of the United Kingdom, Britain and its Asian British subjects? Pakistani and Bangladeshi background? The Muslims? The role of the United States? The role of the police and action? MI5 and MI6?

3. The background of public opinion about terrorism, terrorists? Fear?

4. The role of the media, hounding people, the leaks, pontificating on issues? The jokes at the expense of the BBC?

5. A plausible scenario, the British Asians, the next generation and their strong experience of education and work? The role of ideologies? Loyalty to Islam? Extremism? Mushtaq and his statement that Britain had robbed him of his human dignity?

6. The questions directed towards the public, towards the parent generation of British Asians, to the younger generations? To Islam? To the police and authorities?

7. The authentic locations, the range of London locations? The river, St Paul’s, the central London restaurant, Hounslow? The musical score and its atmosphere?

8. The perspective of the screenplay, sympathies, understanding?

9. The basic situation, the group and their being recruited from different backgrounds? The different histories of the three men? The attraction towards extremism (and the group outside the school that Sofia visited)? Intelligent, wanting to make the bomb? The courier, his delivering the ingredients? The false notes for payment? The driver and his ringing the police for a tip-off? The red mercury, the risk for a dirty bomb? The Russian background and experimentation? The discovery, the warning to leave, their running from the building, the clamped car? The police pursuit?

10. The Ithaca restaurant, the Cyprus background, Greeks and their history? Midday, the customers and their meal, the range of the group? The American lawyer, the novelist and his family, the man and woman for a sexual rendezvous, the nurse? The staff? Penelope as the owner? Their experience, fear, humiliation, taking off their clothes (and the women being treated for modesty)? Having to stand, the need for water, sitting, their hunger, the duration of the siege? The meals?

11. The portrait of the three men? Shahid and his pleasant manner, the scientist and his intensity, the cold and ideological PhD? All being called Mo? Their not having a plan, their reaction to the situation, the discussion about martyrs, the Koran? The quotation of texts? The purity of Islam, anti-British way of life, anti-American? Anti-materialism? The reaction of the group, their different stances? Mushtaq and his leadership? The mix of the fanatic and the ordinary, the violence and the guns?

12. Their stories: Shahid, his being brought up in Birmingham, his white mother, his alcoholic father? Going to school, the report of the deputy head, the comments on him as slipping through the education system, yet his comment about reading the novel, writing stories? Assif, well-mannered, intelligent, his father and the wine business, his being a wine taster? His mother being dead? Mushtaq and his having no story except answering the twenty questions about his career?

13. Penelope, the Cypriot and Greek background, her funny lines, a mother, wanting her daughter safe? The discussions, the comments? The cooking with Assif and attacking him with the food? Sidney and his American background, law, wealthy, taxes, his being in London at the time of 11 September, 2001? Comments on strategies? His bad back, the nurse? The couple, their lies, the rendezvous? The novelist, his comments, his family? The nurse and her helping Sidney? Fate and chance gathering them together? The range of their reactions, phlegmatic British? The talk, the bonding, taunts and critique? The woman used for her mobile phone, her lies to her husband about being in Edinburgh, her being let out? The man and his wanting to find out what happened, his being shot in the leg?

14. The developments, the contact with the parents, identifying the terrorists, the smoke bomb thrown in and thrown out for fingerprints? Their using the television to talk to their parents but give a phone number to their colleague? The television and the possibility of taking out the bomb? Their contact and his phone call, its being monitored? His being caught? His phone call and pleading for them to give themselves up?

15. The media, observers? The minister, his wanting to call in the SAS, his arrival, the revelation of the truth about Britain having sold the red mercury, its being fake, trying to flush out the terrorists? The morality of this kind of collaboration with terrorists?

16. Sofia, her skill in her work, handling the situation, seeing it as a siege, realising it was more? Her establishing the rules, having a room at headquarters? Her visit to her daughter, her daughter’s problems, Neville, the collapse, suicidal, drugs, her discussion with her ex-husband, his taking her to hospital? The ex-husband about red mercury? Her skill as a detective, going to Shahid’s mother and getting information from her, going to the school? Assif’s father, going with her ex-husband, talking about the wine? Persuasive, talking to the terrorists on the phone?

17. Roy, his skill as a policeman, being in charge, relationship with Sofia, his staff, efficient? His confrontation of the minister?

18. The variety of police, the negotiator and his skills, phone calls, detection, identifying the suspects?

19. The ending, the SAS rushing in, violence, the possibilities of the death of innocent people?

20. The hostages and their release, their comments to the terrorists, the novelist, Penelope – and Assif saying, “See you in court”?

21. The value of this kind of film, for understanding people and issues, giving faces to headline stories?