Maze, written and directed by Stephen Burke - 8.4 out of 10

Maze, written and directed by Stephen Burke

8.4 out of 10

Maze is a small, independent motion picture that is very unlikely to show on your radar soon.

Considering this low probability and the likelihood that someone would read this note – to the end – and then decide to try to look for Maze on Netflix – although it was on our local Cinemax, part of the HBO package - I can go wild and tell the whole story to the very end.

On the other hand, the film is based on real events and thus the record of what happened is more or less public.

When it was first aired on television, the characters seemed so unpleasant that this cinephile gave it a miss.

Given that the protagonists are IRA prisoners, it is rather difficult to empathize with them, given that they used to call themselves soldiers in a just war, but many others consider them terrorists.

Indeed, only about a week ago, a young woman journalist was killed in Derry also known as Londonderry by a vicious group that calls itself “The New IRA”, which has vainly apologized for the death in the meantime, maintaining that they had targeted a police car and the reporter happened to be close by.

In Maze, it is before 1983 and in the maximum-security detention facility there are inmates that have been enrolled in the IRA – they are actually still members while inside, correspond with the outside world, take and give orders from within the walls of the jail.

Jailed with them are their enemies, loyalists who also have a different religious faith, and there are several clashes that involve prisoners, but with ferociously different perspectives on the future of Northern Ireland, ready to kill opponents in order to advance their cause.

The hero, main character of the film is Larry Marley, excellently interpreted by Tom Vaughan-Lawlor, who has had a very challenging task, given the complexity of the personage, the fact that this man is ready to kill, involved in what has been a very violent – again, for many terrorist – outfit and on the other hand, there is a side of him that we can appreciate, the father, dedicated fighter, brave, smart and superb organizer and psychologist.

He decides to plan an escape that would shock the enemy and the world, advertise the – what he sees as just and honorable – cause of the IRA, revenge the death of those who have chosen to go on hunger strike and have died in prison and ultimately strengthen the Irish Republican Army, for he has in mind an operation that would set free a record number of inmates.

It is very difficult and it makes viewers think of other great motion pictures on the subject, The Great Escape with Steve McQueen and The Shawshank Redemption for instance, the latter being voted by audiences as the best or most popular film of all times.

In one scene, the widow of one of those who had died of starvation comes to the maximum security facility and talks to Larry Marley, who has a message for the woman who dismisses it, anticipating that she would hear that he wanted her to know that he has died for Ireland and the just fight, only it is a different story, just before dying, the IRA member wanted his spouse to know that he had fallen in love with her from the first moment he had seen her, but was scared to approach her and so he would wait for some time.

The widow is crying and says that the deceased is able to move her to tears even from his grave and she is very critical of Larry, when he says that they used to be friends, the woman protests and says that if he would have been a friend, then he would have stopped her husband from striking and saved him.

The mastermind of the escape tries to get close to Gordon Close (sic), who is a warden, but his attempt appears to be jeopardized when an attack is ordered, when the official is in a car park with his wife and daughter and albeit this fails, he is infuriated and then his wife lefts him, terrified of the death danger her daughter is in, while the husband works at that particular jail.

Somehow, this tension and separation of the family of the Gordon Close would help the escape plan, for his isolation, the frustration and ultimately vulnerable psychological mindset would make him rather susceptible to become friendlier with the inmate that had offered to work – an attitude that would have him ostracized by other prisoners who see this as a sellout, a fraternization with the enemy and finally, a betrayal, until they find his true motives.

For a while, the ringleader of IRA cell within the cells disapproves of the plan of the main character and favors another alternative, that presented by some other, newer arrivals, who suggest using ropes and other impossible means of avoiding the measures taken to keep them inside.

After long analysis, recording of the details of the plans of this complex, large facility, looking even at aerial photos, aired on television and smuggled inside, the smart Larry Marley identifies the main weakness of the system, which has all the security centralized and – spoiler alert – he finds that if they jump onto the large van that delivers food, they take out scores of inmates…

If the prepared escape works as calculated is of course another matter, for there are unpredictable developments that occur, especially given the unbelievable scale of the operation and the number they had wanted to free.