War of the Buttons

There are two villages on the Irish coast and the children of each hate the other. Every encounter ends in a fight. One day they hit on an idea: the losing side will have its buttons cut off. Coat buttons, braces and shoelaces will be taken and the boy will go home like that. Because the real punishment is not the beating; it is his mother's reaction at home. The war grows. One side finds a new strategy: they will fight with nothing on and there will be no buttons to take. The other side makes a plan too. John Roberts directs; Colin Welland wrote the screenplay. Gregg Fitzgerald, Liam Cunningham and Colm Meaney are in the cast. The source is Louis Pergaud's novel, published in 1912. The novel is set in France; this adaptation moved the story to Ireland and it was shot in the Cork region. David Puttnam is among the producers. Most of the child actors were chosen from local schools and had not acted before. The matter it treats is war producing its own rules; the children set up an order and that order hardens. The narrative keeps the adults in the background; teachers and families are outside it. Its last section changes the register and the game ends somewhere. Its limit is structure; the narrative proceeds in pieces and there is little depth of character. Who it is for: viewers who like films from a child's viewpoint and Irish productions. Who it is not for: it is episodic, the humour simple, and the ending abrupt.