Why Richard Did

Motivator

Having watched the film on RTE1 I began thinking of how easy things can happen. Having been in the wrong place at the wrong time on a few occasions thankfully nothing as severe has happened but it could have easily. There were a incidents where I've looked back on & thought how lucky I was that nobody was killed.

One particular incident a few years back, I was in college in Limerick & saw a row break out & rather than step in & stop it I walked away. I later learned that the guy beaten up suffered from a disability & had no way of defending himself. After hearing that I became ridden with guilt & have never forgiven myself for not intervening.

Has anyone else had similar experiences? That film tonight really got me thinking.

Fox_In_Socks

Well in that incident above, you could have been the one seriously injured or killed. You can never know how things pan out.

irish bloke

Is it not What Richard Did?
Crap ending on it too

Kylo Ren

WHAT DID RICHARD DID? AND WHY DID HE DID IT? I MUST KNOW!

wazky

Turning the toaster off when I did, my toast could have been burnt.

Eoin247

Hated the ending. Were we supposed to feel sympathy for the main character?

Motivator

irish bloke wrote: »

Is it not What Richard Did?
Crap ending on it too

****e just spotted my mistake! Seriously crap acting in it.

Tasden

irish bloke wrote: »

Is it not What Richard Did?
Crap ending on it too

Yep, I hate endings like that! Alot of Irish films I've seen, no matter how great they are, have had similar endings that leave you thinking you may as well not have watched it

irish bloke

Did ye see Fran from love hate in it.
Big posh accent on him doing the door..

131spanner

Would an Irish drama that isn't set in Dublin and about something other than crime be too much to ask?

C.K Dexter Haven

Eoin247 wrote: »

Hated the ending. Were we supposed to feel sympathy for the main character?

That's up to you to decide.

sonny jim bob jones

Did he do a poo in the zoo or something?

Gatling

The sex was crap

richymcdermott

What did i do ?

MadsL

Locked the Princes in the Tower?

ted1

131spanner wrote: »

Would an Irish drama that isn't set in Dublin and about something other than crime be too much to ask?

You do know it's based on a true story

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/30-seconds-of-madness-that-led-to-brian-murphys-death-26018702.html

irish bloke

ted1 wrote: »

You do know it's based on a true story

So Richard must have been caught so???

irish bloke

Gatling wrote: »

The sex was crap

Preferred the blond one

Stojkovic

131spanner wrote: »

Would an Irish drama that isn't set in Dublin and about something other than crime be too much to ask?

What ! More Darby O'Gill ****e !!!

We've had enough of that.

Eoin247

C.K Dexter Haven wrote: »

That's up to you to decide.

I meant it as a rhetorical question. I can't understand how anybody can feel sorry for this guy who has a perfect life (like literally, this guy had absolutely EVERYTHING) and caused it to become imperfect by his own stupid actions (i say imperfect because his life is still pretty damn good after he killed the guy).

I remember when this film came out first the principle at my school spoke about Richard as if he was the victim in the story.

biko

131spanner wrote: »

Would an Irish drama that isn't set in Dublin and about something other than crime be too much to ask?

Cowboys and Angels was filmed in Limerick, great film.
The Guard, Galway, also great. Is about crime though, a bit.

gg2

irish bloke wrote: »

Is it not What Richard Did?
Crap ending on it too

Just watched it on plus one - why end it like that?? Stoopid:mad:

131spanner

Stojkovic wrote: »

What ! More Darby O'Gill ****e !!!

We've had enough of that.

Yeah, because everything outside the M50 is Darby O'Gill country :pac:

biko wrote: »

Cowboys and Angels was filmed in Limerick, great film.
The Guard, Galway, also great. Is about crime though, a bit.

I liked Pure Mule when it was on, and the Guard was 100% brilliant. Anything else I'd only have vague memories of in fairness. I dunno, it kind of reminded me of Love / Hate and there's only so much of that you can watch before you'd like something else

gg2

Stojkovic wrote: »

What ! More Darby O'Gill ****e !!!

We've had enough of that.

Darby O'Gill is a great movie! For she's my dear my darlin one:P:P

Also 131spanner, pure mule was a brilliant tv show imo. Skobie, absolute beefcake.

ted1

About half the population of Ireland live in Dublin. Its easy for people to associate with them.

131spanner

ted1 wrote: »

About half the population of Ireland live in Dublin. Its easy for people to associate with them.

What about the other half!? :P I kid. It's certainly a good point, the days of Glenroe etc. are fast fading away.

Just thought of Garage with Pat Shortt there too. That was good, if a little depressing.

Wattle

Eoin247 wrote: »

Hated the ending. Were we supposed to feel sympathy for the main character?

Not sympathy I think the point that they're trying to make is that guys from that strata of society can commit crimes and get away with them relatively unscathed because they have the moolah to afford the best legal teams. Just like the real life case.

fruvai

gg2 wrote: »

Just watched it on plus one - why end it like that?? Stoopid:mad:

It's an eternally recurring Irish theme - the abdication of responsibility for crimes that certain individuals/institutions have committed because of the fallout that would occur should those crimes be exposed. Everything gets swept under the rug. Normality reigns, nothing changes.It's more powerful if Richard gets away it - it's supposed to provoke a sense of outrage at the injustice of it all.

errlloyd

131spanner wrote: »

What about the other half!? :P I kid. It's certainly a good point, the days of Glenroe etc. are fast fading away.

Just thought of Garage with Pat Shortt there too. That was good, if a little depressing.

Off topic but I know its sky, but what is wrong with Moone Boy?

I think you'd be hard pressed to find any drama series anywhere in the world set outside a major city, as soon as you do that you really restrict the potential storylines.

131spanner

errlloyd wrote: »

Off topic but I know its sky, but what is wrong with Moone Boy?

I think you'd be hard pressed to find any drama series anywhere in the world set outside a major city, as soon as you do that you really restrict the potential storylines.

We don't have Sky at home so I'm missing out on that one

I think while there is plenty potential for rural storylines, the audience that would receive them would be too small given the amount of people now living in the cities of Ireland. Supply and demand I suppose

Galwayguy35

ted1 wrote: »

About half the population of Ireland live in Dublin. Its easy for people to associate with them.

So theres only 2 million people in Ireland?

BillyMitchel

errlloyd wrote: »

Off topic but I know its sky, but what is wrong with Moone Boy?

I think you'd be hard pressed to find any drama series anywhere in the world set outside a major city, as soon as you do that you really restrict the potential storylines.

How long as Emmerdale Farm gone on for? The village has seen more action than Iran and Iraq put together.

Though the film was just OK.

Old Dan Tucker

I liked the ending.

It was directed by Lenny Abrahamson (from Dublin) who also directed Adam & Paul and Garage and so he's kinda renowned a this stage for leaving the audience to make up their own minds on how things are going to end up for the characters involved. Which I like as far too many movies these days spoonfeed the viewer, treating them like they are dumb and almost manipulate them to think and feel a certain way about a character.

Anyway, here was one of his responses to how the film ended:

The ending is purposefully ambiguous – did you ever want it to be more clear cut?

Lenny: We did also shoot a scene in college with a less ambiguous flavour. It would still have been a shot of Jack but it would have been a more obviously diminished image of him. But in the end that moment that we end it with is powerful because of its ambiguity. And it’s probably the bit that critically, my sense of the reaction has been extremely positive and I think that some people really love that ending and some people really won’t but I am very particular about endings and I like to go out on an intake of breath, I don’t like to resolve things.

policarp

Richard the turd. . . .

ted1

Galwayguy35 wrote: »

So theres only 2 million people in Ireland?

No, theres 1,273,069 in the county of Dublin, but in the greater Dublin Area theres 1,804,156 which equtes to approx 39% of the population. so not to far off 50%.

http://www.dubchamber.ie/policy/summary-of-the-greater-dublin-region

Tombo2001

Its quite interesting how this thread has had absolutely NOTHING to do with the question asked in the first post by the OP.....

.....lets just ignore that rather serious question and instead talk about the crap ending the movie had......

yo-ho.

Eoin247

Old Dan Tucker wrote: »

I liked the ending.

It was directed by Lenny Abrahamson (from Dublin) who also directed Adam & Paul and Garage and so he's kinda renowned a this stage for leaving the audience to make up their own minds on how things are going to end up for the characters involved. Which I like as far too many movies these days spoonfeed the viewer, treating them like they are dumb and almost manipulate them to think and feel a certain way about a character.

Anyway, here was one of his responses to how the film ended:

In my opinion the ending is by far the most important and difficult part of the film, and when directors ''let the audience decide the ending'' its just a cop out IMO. If we're supposed to imagine the ending (the most important part of the film), then why don't we just imagine the whole story and not see the film at all.

upstairs for coffee

How come justice wasn't served? The DPP had no interest in prosecution in the end - http://www.irishexaminer.com/archives/2007/0919/ireland/jury-returns-verdict-of-unlawful-killing-42960.html

It's who you know I suppose, they were the rich boys after all.

Wattle

So what do you want? That Richard gets his girl back and everything is hunky dory? That would be a cop out. What the ending says to me is that Richard will continue his life despite the crime. If you belong to that class you will not pay as high a price as someone who is working class. If you look at the real case those three guys had a brief interruption to their lives but after a little while they were able to re-join the establishment and take high paying jobs. The victim and his family is almost completely forgotten.

Eoin247

Wattle wrote: »

So what do you want? That Richard gets his girl back and everything is hunky dory? That would be a cop out. What the ending says to me is that Richard will continue his life despite the crime. If you belong to that class you will not pay as high a price as someone who is working class. If you look at the real case those three guys had a brief interruption to their lives but after a little while they were able to re-join the establishment and take high paying jobs. The victim and his family is almost completely forgotten.

But Richard does get his girl back and things look to be pretty much hunky dory for him when you consider what his punishment should have been.

TBH I was hoping he would end up in jail and shamed in front of the entire community :pac: but any definitive ending is better than none. However I don't think his social/wealth class had much to do with him getting away with it. The reason he got away with it was because his family and friends were willing to cover up his crime.

losthorizon

Can someone answer a question for me was Grabbers based on Fact. Cause if it was there is no way I'm going to that island!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4e3izWdh9WM

OU812

131spanner wrote: »

Would an Irish drama that isn't set in Dublin and about something other than crime be too much to ask?

http://youtu.be/TOAb-sUCm7U

131spanner

OU812 wrote: »

http://youtu.be/TOAb-sUCm7U

If we've to go back to '92 for examples we're in trouble Remember War of the Buttons? That was brilliant.

thegreatgonzo

irish bloke wrote: »

Is it not What Richard Did?
Crap ending on it too

How did it end? I saw it to the part where he said to the girlfriend that he was turning himself in, then I went outside to bring my dog to the toilet and when I came back the film was over. The way it was plodding along I thought there was another 20 minutes left or so. The dog only needed a pee so I wasn't even gone that long!

LETHAL LADY

thegreatgonzo wrote: »

How did it end? I saw it to the part where he said to the girlfriend that he was turning himself in, then I went outside to bring my dog to the toilet and when I came back the film was over. The way it was plodding along I thought there was another 20 minutes left or so. The dog only needed a pee so I wasn't even gone that long!

His rich parents paid his way out of it. Then a year or two later he was done for verbally abusing a garda.

Blisterman

I actually found it refreshing to see an Irish movie that for once wasn't about people from poor rural or working class backgrounds.

Watch movies from any other country, and there's a wide variety of people from all sorts of backgrounds from very poor to wealthy. For some reason Irish filmmakers never seem to move away from the stereotype of the poor downtrodden Irish.

rock_dinasaur

irish bloke wrote: »

Is it not What Richard Did?
Crap ending on it too

the beginning and middle were awful aswell

how did that so called movie get decent reviews

made me dislike D4 folk even more and I didn't think that was possible

rock_dinasaur

Eoin247 wrote: »

I meant it as a rhetorical question. I can't understand how anybody can feel sorry for this guy who has a perfect life (like literally, this guy had absolutely EVERYTHING) and caused it to become imperfect by his own stupid actions (i say imperfect because his life is still pretty damn good after he killed the guy).

I remember when this film came out first the principle at my school spoke about Richard as if he was the victim in the story.

people from blackrock are never viewed as being capable of anything really evil

rock_dinasaur

Wattle wrote: »

So what do you want? That Richard gets his girl back and everything is hunky dory? That would be a cop out. What the ending says to me is that Richard will continue his life despite the crime. If you belong to that class you will not pay as high a price as someone who is working class. If you look at the real case those three guys had a brief interruption to their lives but after a little while they were able to re-join the establishment and take high paying jobs. The victim and his family is almost completely forgotten.

class is a huge influence when it comes to the law in this country

I once witnessed a doctor ( who was up on an assault charge I might add ) being addressed as DR by the presiding judge , the whole thing was a bad joke

Wattle

rock_dinasaur wrote: »

the beginning and middle were awful aswell

how did that so called movie get decent reviews

made me dislike D4 folk even more and I didn't think that was possible

No wonder you didn't like it, it sounds like you watched it while wanting to hate everybody involved.

P.Walnuts

Just on the actual thing that Richard actually did....he probably would of gotten off fairly lightly anyway...

He was hit first, went down...when he got back up the other guy was on the ground. Fair enough he kicked him once while on the ground. But there was no intention to kill. With his previous clean record and age he probably would of served 2 years max.

For an 18 yr old that's a huge deal yeah, but its not like he was getting sent down for life for murder.