If you missed it first time around, you should rectify that immediately!
In case you don’t know how it works with Netflix and their non-original programming and movies, basically they pay a licensing fee to the folks who made that movie/show so they can host it on Netflix, with the hopes that when customers pay to see them, they’ll stick around to watch a Netflix original movie or show next.
It is how a decades-old TV show can end up being the biggest hit on Netflix for weeks on end, but those licensing agreements also exist for a finite amount of time, so sometimes you can log on to Netflix and, oh, that amazing movie you heard was on there is actually no longer available to stream.
That was the case with ’71, an outstanding thriller released in cinemas in 2014, which was added to Netflix in August 2021, but the licensing ran out in 2022. However, it has been re-licensed as of this week, so you’ve got a few days less than a year to check it out on Netflix once again.
Set in 1971, this incredibly tense nail-biter tells the story of a young and disoriented British soldier (Jack O’Connell) who is accidentally abandoned by his unit following a lethal riot on the streets of Belfast. Unsure of who to trust, he must rely on his instincts and training to make it safely back out of the centre of the city.
It turned out next-to-nobody watched ’71 first time around
Released in cinemas in October 2014, ’71 was actually a bit of a box office dud ($3 million worldwide on an approximately $10 million budget), but those who did see it earmarked it as a bit of a modern classic, with critics giving the movie 96% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Los Angeles Times – “Nothing is extraneous, no moment that doesn’t enhance the tension of this nightmare scenario is allowed to survive, until the proceedings become, in the best possible sense, almost unbearable to watch.”
The Playlist – “‘71 is more than just a performance showcase, delivering a gripping, at times almost unbearably tense, incredibly involving anti-war statement, made the stronger for being set against the less cinematically familiar backdrop of Belfast in the year 1971.”
Variety – “A vivid, shivery survival thriller that turns the red-brick residential streets of Belfast into a war zone of unconscionable peril.”
Netflix thriller ’71 is available to watch on Netflix in Ireland and the UK right now, but who knows for how long, so best check it out while you still can!
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