The IRA plans to use the hostage as a bargaining chip for the release of an IRA prisoner who is due to be executed in Belfast the following morning. The play’s structure is loose and some of the dialogue comes straight out of on-the-spot improvisations, but the basic plot revolves around the IRA’s kidnaping of a British soldier.
The work has subsequently become one of the pillars upon which Behan’s reputation rests, and the original Littlewood production has since become recognized as evidence of the Theater Workshop’s important role in Postwar British theater. The Hostage received mixed reviews upon its debut, but as Littlewood’s Theater Workshop became increasingly well-known and respected, interest in the original production increased. The premiere of The Hostage opened on the 14th of October, 1958, at Littlewood’s Theater Royal in Stratford, London. Following the success of that production, Behan translated the play into English and Joan Littlewood, the innovative director of the Theater Workshop in London agreed to direct it. Stephen’s Green in Dublin, Ireland, in 1957. Hostage House is available to watch on Netflix in the US, the UK, Australia and South Africa now.Behan’s absurdist tragi-comedy, The Hostage, was originally written in Irish Gaelic and performed in that language as An Giall at the Darner Hall, St. It’s almost as if the filmmakers wanted to “elevate” this particular TV-movie tale into something more, so added a diatribe about rich folk in hopes of giving this film substance it so desperately needs.īut Hostage House doesn’t have any substance, its very much a “turn off your brain” type of film that spoon feeds the audience all they need to know without every having to think, because if you did think you’d question why the hell most of what’s happening is taking place and how people can be so dumb! It’s a plot we’ve seen a million times before: “bad guy wants money and tries to take it”, adding a socio-political statement on the rich getting rich and the poor getting poorer does nothing to change anything – especially when the film descends into the screaming match over money towards the end of the film. In this case robbing large homes and/or blackmailing homeowners. And our villains? They’re the poor 99%, the folks who have no money but want it – taking it anyway they can. Remarkably, Hostage House aims its target at the great American 1% the rich folk who live in big houses the Ivy League university types who have money.
#THE HOSTAGE HOUSE MOVIE#
West has peened films such as Manny Dearest, Psycho Wedding Crasher, Killer Single Dad and Am I a Serial Kiler… which is my way of saying you can probably tell what you’re in for with Hostage House just on those titles alone! Whatever happened to good TV movie thrillers? When did parody and satire become the norm? Which ties more into the work of writer Daniel West rather than the directors previous work.
Which kind of fits into Netflix’s recent spate of terrible cheesy movies that seemingly are satires of said TV movies – films like Secret Obsession and Dangerous Lies. this one goes down the “Lifetime/Hallmark” movie route, playing more for the melodrama than anything else.
You’d assume that Benullo might bring some of that horror experience to this film – perhaps make it more like 2016’s Intruders which was a more terrifying take on the genre. Which is odd considering director David Benullo previously directed the quasi-religious horror Hallowed Ground. I does feature its protagonists eventually taking on the thieves but the bulk of the film plays more on the tension between captives and captors – only finally moving into anything resembling your typical home invasion movie in the final third of the film. Who doesn’t love a good Die Hard-esque home invasion movie? Homeowners versus thieves in a battle of wits… Or maybe an adult version of Home Alone, with traps taking out crooks? Yeah Hostage House is neither of those things no matter how much I wanted it to be. Hostage House sees an ambitious realtor, who’s showing a palatial-looking home in her neighbourhood, get caught up, along with her daughter, in a hostage situation during an open house… Schilling, Patrick Cronen, Richard Neil, Kamen Casey | Written by Daniel West | Directed by David Benullo
Stars: Jennifer Taylor, Julia Terranova, Emily Sweet, Justin C.
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