Taglines: It’s about three decent people. They will break your heart.
Sunday Bloody Sunday movie storyline. In London, employment consultant Alex Greville and Dr. Daniel Hirsh are each in a relationship with much younger industrial artist Bob Elkin. Alex and Daniel, who have mutual friends besides Bob, know about the other in Bob’s life. Within each coupling, both partners profess to love the other.
Conversely, Bob easily moves between Alex and Daniel, especially when he starts to feel penned in by one, or has an argument with one. Alex and Daniel, who give each other the space when with Bob, accept the situation if only to hold onto their small piece of Bob out of that love and a need to fill the void caused by other issues in their lives.
Alex is at a crossroads professionally, she who is contemplating quitting her less than satisfying job, without a sense of what to do in its place. Although comfortable with his homosexual orientation when with his friends, Daniel, feeling generations of Jewish guilt, has not told his family, who still expect him someday to get married and have children, despite he being in middle age. Their respective family situations and a move by Bob may show them what the future lies for their love triangle.
Sunday Bloody Sunday is a 1971 British drama written by Penelope Gilliatt, directed by John Schlesinger and starring Glenda Jackson, Peter Finch Murray Head and Peggy Ashcroft. It tells the story of a free-spirited young bisexual artist (played by Head) and his simultaneous relationships with a divorced female recruitment job consultant (Jackson) and a gay male Jewish doctor (Finch).
The film is significant for its time in that Finch’s homosexual character is depicted as successful and relatively well-adjusted, and not particularly upset by his sexuality. In this sense, Sunday Bloody Sunday was a considerable departure from Schlesinger’s previous film Midnight Cowboy (1969), which portrayed its gay characters as alienated and self-loathing, as well as other gay-themed films of the era, including The Boys in the Band (1970) and Some of My Best Friends Are… (1971).
About the Story
Set in London, the film tells the story of a middle-aged gay Jewish doctor, Daniel Hirsh (Peter Finch), and a divorced woman in her mid-30s, Alex Greville (Glenda Jackson), who are both involved in an open love triangle with sculptor Bob Elkin (Murray Head), a younger man in his mid-20s. Not only are Daniel and Alex each aware that Bob is seeing the other but they know one another through common friends. Despite this, they are willing to put up with the situation through fear of losing Bob, who switches freely between them. Bob has his own coterie of artist friends who support his work, which consists of glass fountains.
Alex and Daniel are both close friends with the Hodsons, who are a conventional middle-class family living somewhere in a leafy London suburb. They alternate having Sunday dinner with the Hodsons, who are quite aware of their relationships but don’t talk about them, though the Hodson children are inclined to snicker. Alex also has a depressed friend who has recently lost his job to age discrimination. They sleep together at Alex’s flat, and then Bob announces his arrival, forcing them to pretend to be having a casual drink. Bob tells Alex that he has no problem with her sleeping with other men. They are, in his words, “free”.
There are minor crises in the narrative. The Hodson’s family dog is run over by a truck which narrowly misses the children. Daniel has to deal with a former lover (Jon Finch) who is a heroin addict. After unsuccessfully trying to fill a heroin prescription for him at a pharmacy, being unable to prove he is a doctor, Daniel finds that his medical bag has been stolen from his car.
For Alex, the relationship is bound up with growing disillusion about her professional life, failed marriage and uneasy childhood. For Daniel, it represents an escape from the repressed nature of his Jewish upbringing. Both realise the lack of permanence about the situation. When Bob decides to leave the country to settle in New York, after receiving an offer to open his own art gallery, they both come face to face for the first time in the narrative. Despite their opposed circumstances, Daniel and Alex come to realise that it is time to move on; Bob leaves for the United States.
Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971)
Directed by: John Schlesinger
Starring: Peter Finch, Glenda Jackson, Murray Head, Peggy Ashcroft, Tony Britton, Maurice Denham, Bessie Love, Vivian Pickles, Frank Windsor, Hannah Norbert, Richard Pearson, June Brown
Screenplay by: Penelope Gilliatt
Production Design by: Luciana Arrighi
Cinematography by: Billy Williams
Film Editing by: Richard Marden
Costume Design by: Jocelyn Rickards
Set Decoration by: Harry Cordwell
Art Direction by: Norman Dorme
Music by: Ron Geesin
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: United Artists
Release Date: July 1, 1971
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