Sunday Bloody Sunday

Another hit from John Schlesinger, Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971) is unfairly overlooked. Remarkably restrained, it handles a potentially cliched story with uncommon skill.

Free-spirited artist Bob Elkin (Murray Head) carries on two affairs at once. One paramour is Daniel Hirsch (Peter Finch), a middle-aged doctor; the other Alex Greville (Glenda Jackson), a career woman. The threesome go about their business, but grow tired of Bob's undependability and unfulfilled promises. Alex starts a fling with a client (Tony Britton) while Daniel reconnects with his Jewish faith. When Bob decides to visit New York, Alex and Daniel must both embrace life without him.

Sunday Bloody Sunday scores on multiple fronts. Schlesinger and writers Penelope Gilliatt and David Sherwin deftly avoid expected cliches: each lover knows about Bob's infidelity and their only confrontation is polite, even friendly. The movie avoids an explosive finale or a tragic ending, finishing on a downbeat but life-sized note. All parties are simply forced to move on when their arrangement dissolves, without undue drama.

Schlesinger scores biggest with his closely-observed characters. Alex has a strained relationship with her parents (Peggy Ashcroft and Maurice Denham) and an unfulfilling career. An extended sequence has her and Bob babysitting the bratty kids of a bohemian couple, providing her with a surrogate family. However, when push comes to shove Alex makes no effort to fight for her man, accepting his flightiness and sinking into ennui. It's a depressing fate but a wholly credible one.

Daniel's characterization is more effective still. Unlike the era's other screen gays (Dirk Bogarde in Victim, Shirley Maclaine in The Children's Hour), he's not a tortured deviant but content with his lifestyle and a skilled doctor to boot. Like Alex, he doesn't mind Bob's infidelity: aging and lonely, he needs something to cling to, even Bob's promises of an Italian vacation. Nonetheless, he's able to find solace with his family, friends and co-religionists. He's the rare gay character not to be defined by sexuality: "I am happy, apart from missing him."

Fresh off his Hollywood breakthrough Midnight Cowboy, Schlesinger successfully returns to his English roots. He colors the film with his usual odd touches: an ill-fated dog, pot smoking children, recurring images of a switchboard, a vividly rendered nightmare, a curiously phallic lava lamp. For all his stylization though, Schlesinger never loses sight of his characters.

Peter Finch (The Nun's Story) is outstanding, exuding charm, middle-aged weariness and subtle emotion. This might be his best performance. Glenda Jackson gives another fine turn in her string of remarkable films: Women in Love, Mary Queen of Scots, A Touch of Class. Singer Murray Head is an effective sexual catalyst but never grows into a convincing character.

The supporting cast is full of interesting faces. Tony Britton (The Day of the Jackal) plays Alex's client-turned-paramour. Peggy Ashcroft (A Passage to India) and Maurice Denham make an outsized impression in small parts. A young Jon Finch (Frenzy) turns up briefly, and 14 year old Daniel Day-Lewis can be spotted keying a car.

Sunday Bloody Sunday is a solid drama. John Schlesinger gives a commendably mature and affecting rendering of a thorny subject.