Well acted to be sure and it does have that constant feeling of being totally honest. If anything keeps it from being great, its the almost repressive feeling of self importance in several scenes.

Glenda Jackson, and Peter Finch love the artist who is moving to New York. This threesome would not happen in 2023 when getting half of someone is not acceptable. That Jackson and Finch are willing to share Murray Head is because 1971 people didn't know how to get the full ball of wax. This is 50 years later when relationships are more demanding and very well defined. If a man wants both a woman and a man, It is very dangerous to both partners who may get diseases from one or the other. It just is not safe to have more than one partner.

Alex (Glenda Jackson) is a recently divorced woman coming to terms with job dissatisfaction and a traumatic childhood. Daniel (Peter Finch) is a Jewish doctor trying to hide his homosexuality from his community. In an effort to sooth their troubled lives, both manage to find solace in the arms of Bob (Murray Head), a free-spirited artist and a product of the ‘60s. John Schlesinger's Sunday Bloody Sunday is an interesting study of characters in crisis, buoyed by powerhouse performances from both Jackson and Finch. Admittedly, there isn't much in the way of a storyline and some of Schlesinger's directorial choices are odd (there are too many close-ups of irrelevant things – a key being inserted into a lock, for example), but it remains an intriguing period piece dealing with controversial relationships that were pretty much verboten at the time.

Well acted to be sure and it does have that constant feeling of being totally honest. If anything keeps it from being great, its the almost repressive feeling of self importance in several scenes.

Really great use of editing techniques and camera work. I love the attention to detail and cinematography. There's definitely a political and socio-economic awareness going on in this movie. Kids are smoking pot and it's ok because their parent are progressive? Uhh wtf? Lol. Beautifully chaotic and comfortable with how dirty things can be. It's got that gritty 70's feel to it that I like. Holy shit that beautifully pleasant scene at the park takes a terrible turn when the little blonde girl decides to run across the street all of a sudden, unfortunately killing the dog. That was so unexpected and pretty shocking. Hypnotic and psychedelic at times. It ended up being a pretty damn good decent movie. I was much more taken by it than the previous movie I watch today - ‘Throw Down'. The movie has an incredible real take and awareness on the things happening during that time. Everything seems very relevant and modern. I love the way they showcase everyday living for it's characters and the way their lives intertwine with one another. Polyamorous relationships are not for the faint of heart and I love the way they tackled this subject matter with such sensitivity. The movie went by fairly quick without even noticing and I found it thoroughly entertaining. I was pleasantly surprised at how interesting all the characters and their story lines were. John Schlesinger has a keen and creative eye when it comes to cinematography and shots. He has this almost childlike wonder and curiosity when filming things. I'd actually watch this movie again.

i watched this entire 2 hour film, man i was confused. what is this???

This movie is a great story about a bisexual artist and his two lovers. It's a story about him and his lack of full commitment to either of his lovers. It's a story of each of his lovers, often cautious not to lose him, and for whom his presence was not quite enough but still more than nothing. It's a subtle narrative, where every character is subtle and discrete for the most part. Watching their lives is a sort of sightseeing, during which little happens. Yet, the movie is not boring or stale. With very few climatic or near climatic moments, the narrative proceeds at its own place and we get to know (not fully) the main characters,

An interesting film during a more conservative period in England about a heterosexual and homosexual love triangle. This film may have been more shocking at the time it came out in contrast to the 2020's. However, the relationship between an old doctor and a young man and a divorced middle-aged woman and the same young man is still quite interesting. Peter Finch gives a good performance as a homosexual Jewish doctor trying to find happiness in a society that would not accept his romantic lifestyle. Glenda Jackson also does a fine job as a divorced woman looking to find love. I found the homosexual relationship more interesting than the heterosexual one due to the perception of the former at the time and how Finch's character tries to hide his lifestyle while out in public, for example at a Bar mitzvah ceremony. I did not find the heterosexual relationship interesting. Their time in the friend's house looking after the kids was not as absorbing. The scenes where the kids comment on her relationship was uninteresting and I also felt the scene where the kid smoked pot was just inserted to shock the audience at that time and nothing more. I felt these scenes with the children added nothing to the story. I also didn't feel like I got to know much about the young man in the middle of both relationships. He was there just to find out more about the other character's views and interests. Firth and Jackson were nominated for Best Actor and Actress respectively for their roles. I thought Firth was not as good as the other Best Actor nominees that I have seen (Hackman, Topol & Scott) and I thought Jackson was the weakest in her category (from the films I have seen) when compared to Fonda and Redgrave. I don't think Schlesinger's direction in Sunday Bloody Sunday is as good as Marathon Man or especially Midnight Cowboy but it is not as bad as his work in Darling. He was nominated for an Oscar for Best Director in this film but his work does not come close to Friedkin, Jewison and Bogdonavich's work in their respective films. Overall, a slightly interesting film about an intriguing love triangle that does not really go anywhere.

Glenda Jackson is outstanding as she shares her bisexual amour with an old dude. That's the story, that's it. There's nothing else to the film and as a character study it's pretty limited. Probably shocking at the time but nothing else to note of the film.

Much like A Taste of Honey, Sunday Bloody Sunday attempts to define itself by what were at the time radical social concepts (in the former, a biracial relationship and disadvantaged lifestyle; in the latter, a love triangle that variously incorporates homosexuality, bisexuality, and religious orthodoxy). Both films are crafted with the intention to shock conservative audiences with what could only be seen as ultra-progressive tastes, with one of the first depictions of relatively well-adjusted and unashamed homosexuals in mainstream film. However, with the inevitable generational and moral shifts that have occurred in the meantime, the film loses much of its edge even while some of Schlesinger's other work depicting similarly themed characters (e.g., Midnight Cowboy) still feel sharp, perhaps due to the very real consequences that they suffer as a result of their lifestyles. While some of the luster has clearly faded, other elements are admittedly quite well-executed - the exploration of romantic abandonment, aging, and disillusionment with life all still hit home. Finch and Jackson bring an appropriate melancholy to their roles, and contribute substantially to the functionality of the film. Despite its reputation and capability, I can't see this film as a true classic for posterity. (3.5/5)

The performances are better than the script.

John Schlesinger's semi-autobiographical adult romance of a divorcée, an older doctor and their younger lover is a disputatious exposition of the moral and loneliness crisis of the bourgeois civilization in London in the late 1960s.

I've always wanted to live in the shoes of the self-congratulating extrovert, the kind who seems to have an endless number of friends but, in reality, goes from person to person depending on how enticing an offer is, looking at people as pastimes but not ... people. What keeps them awake at night, what their fears are, we can hardly tell: they seem to have it all, being the most-talked about and most well-liked person in the room that, oddly, no one actually seems to know. What is it like being a charismatic user? As an introvert who oft cares too much, the characteristic fascinates me. One such self-congratulating extrovert is "Sunday Bloody Sunday's" Bob Elkin (Murray Head), a bisexual artist carrying on affairs with Daniel Hirsch (Peter Finch), a Jewish family doctor, and Alex Greville (Glenda Jackson), an employment office worker reeling from a recent divorce. To Daniel and Alex, Bob is a real-life Jesus, a youthful free-spirit easily able to heal their self-doubts and everyday frustrations. But to Bob, Daniel and Alex are different kinds of delicacies, appetizing only when the mood is right. They're good times, not individuals with feelings. The second things begin to become real, he drifts to the other. Daniel and Alex know of one another, and are aware that Bob is using both of them, but, being middle-aged and lonely, they'd rather continue lying to themselves that their affair is one of love to feel whole. How much longer they can continue to be pieces of meat to be snacked on during times of hunger they aren't so sure; but the idea of being alone once again is far too terrifying to admit. "Sunday Bloody Sunday" is a coercive character study, one so subtle that we have to find deeper meaning within ourselves, to feel Daniel and Alex's pain through empathy and not bouts of overacting. Schlesinger's direction, choosing understated moxie over explain-it-all, wishy washy artifice, lets human emotion speak for itself. Like in people we'd find roaming around the streets, announced misery is not something to expect; to look into the eyes, the mannerisms, of such individuals is far more revealing than wholesale melodrama. Released at the beginning of the 1970s, among the finest decades in film, it is one of the many cinematic works of the era that chose to make something extraordinary out of the ordinary, not something ordinary out of the extraordinary like so many pieces released decades prior. It is also particularly seminal for the way it treats homosexuality and bisexuality, which are not presented as taboo but rather everyday - sexuality is unspoken, never alienated. Daniel is a successful doctor who isn't much bothered by his sexual orientation; Bob is not defined by who he sleeps with. Because of the film normalizes these features and therefore does not make them focal points, we find ourselves watching a character study regarding desperate loneliness, not out to break any walls. We are enticed by the way it questions how people act when faced with crippling solitude, who they're attracted to less than important. And that, for being released at a time where anything culturally out of the ordinary was pushed aside, is a major accomplishment. But I was most taken aback by the performances, the actors so in touch with their characters that we can identity their personal demons with the ferocity of a clairvoyant. Finch is sensitive and slightly eccentric as a man oppressed his entire life; his character's relationship with Bob is not pulsing alive with love, instead working as representation of one of the few times in his life where he hasn't had to hide who he truly is. Jackson, as authoritative and articulate as she is vulnerable, provides her character with stark acuteness that proves that Alex is so in love with being kissed, being slept with, that she'd rather ignore reality just to have the sensations continue. Quietly villainous, Head convinces in the way his character is thoroughly unaware of his narcissistic ways. There is no climax in "Sunday Bloody Sunday," and there is relatively no designated plot structure to speak of. It burgeons on the complexities of human relationships, sexuality, and the lurking torrent of the mid-life crisis - it creeps up on us, its emotional impact huge but nearly silent.

This trailblazing Schlesinger classic features an unusual love triangle and great performances from Finch & Jackson.

What a strange early seventies British film. I must admit when I first saw the title I thought of Northern Ireland and then I saw it starred Glenda Jackson in one of the lead roles. The film focuses on the bizarre love triangle between two couples one Bob Elkin and divorcee Alex Greville (Jackson) and the other Bob Elkin and Dr. Daniel Hirsh. Yes your eyes don't deceive you. The character Bob Elkin has both a heterosexual and gay relationship at the same time and what's even more bizarre about the arrangement is that both Greville and Hirsh know about it. The film is pretty slow going nowadays but back in 1971 when it was made it was critically acclaimed and had Oscar nominations and BAFTA wins. We learn that Elkin is about to leave both relationships to pursue work in New York. What will each patner left in the UK do? Added to this is Dr. Hirsh's Jewish background and Greville's childhood memories and parents. Director John Shlesinger carves a love story between three people. It took me two viewings to make it through the 110 minutes.

Bold in it's day, the film is not "shocking" as it must have been in 1971, but it is still clever, intelligent and brilliantly made.

Of course, what was progressive then is now mundane, but its mundanity is kind of what makes it progressive even today; no histrionics or forced drama, just people loving who they love, and mourning when that love is taken away and then moving on with their lives. It's very rare in fiction (with good reason; only the surest of hands can make it work) so it's nice to see it happen every so often.

Something new for the time period. Good acting and character development.

Glenda Jackson and the late Peter Finch deliver a solid drama and exploration of relationships but cannot be considered among the top pantheon of films.

Schlesinger at his very best. It was considered shocking when it was first released but it's one of those films that I MUST see at least twice a year. It's definitely a big influence on the directors of the new queer cinema, of which many weren't even born when it was first released. The critics loved it so, while it was well respected, people stayed away in droves. Their loss.