Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971) (2025)

Popular reviews

• Review by minick ★★★ 2

  the little girl was accused of smoking pot her response was "are you bourgeois??"

• Review by Sam ★★★★½ 2

  Two older adults who are discreetly in a parallel relationship with a younger man, both fulfilling themselves with dissimilar occupations yet use this man as a source to reclaim their youth and elation. It’s not exactly a film about desperation and pain but rather jealousy and spiritual obligations, emphasizing one's desire to feel accepted. Sunday Bloody Sunday showcases homosexual affection in a way I’ve rarely seen on film: normal. The screenplay doesn’t shift focuses unprecedentedly, utilize certain characters’ storylines over others, misrepresent sexuality and, mostly importantly, it doesn’t try to act “clever” or “witty” as much as it is authentic and truthful. Absolutely stunning.

• Review by Evan ★★★★

  An aching love triangle, permeating with passive angst. Considering this is a British production released in 1971 (four years after the laws against homosexuality were dismissed), John Schlesinger’s risks are many in Sunday Bloody Sunday, men kissing men being the least of it. Kids smoke joints, angry bourgeois couples submit to drunken deviance and Bar Mitzvah’s awaken feverish dreams of religious judgment. Even in its duller scenes, Peter Finch’s lustful energy alone is enough to keep it all going, and Schlesinger ultimately succeeds in depicting the universal quality of companionship and its transcendence over sexuality. As imperfect as perfection gets.

• Review by zoë rose bryant ★★★★

  essential chaotic bisexual cinema

• Review by nick ★★★½

  This is groundbreakingly queer for its time, but hasn't aged well enough. I applaud the intimate depiction of an older-younger gay relationship, but this lacks the emotional impact of Midnight Cowboy which fully showcases director John Schlesinger's queer visions.

  A bisexual man swings both sides with two lovers, but his work requires him to leave both behind. This is very 70s British arthouse drama with its unique aesthetics and style, characterized by delicate shots and witty frame compositions. I absolutely enjoyed watching softcore gay sex scenes from the beautiful, legendary Peter Finch, and he was believable as the elegant Jewish doctor who hides his homosexuality.

• Review by mari.

  so many movies about how when you are bisexual and wear a turtleneck you are probably god or the devil or sth like that

• Review by marcos ★★½ 2

  fock..... issa sunday

• Review by kauan. ★★★½ 2

  I would compete with both of them for him

• Review by Dante ★★★★ 1

  i'm lowkey that soulful bisexual white boy

• Review by Kunga Sagar ★★★★

  Peter Finch has been the embodiment of “woke” since 1976, so it’s fitting that this one of his roles prior. Three films into John Schlesinger, and he truly was the man, as Midnight Cowboy was game changing for those involved as well as the film industry (its the editing of his films that is truly breathtaking).Sunday Bloody Sundayis progressive for its time,althoughnot in the way that one would think. Itsimplypresents homosexual affairs as normal, thus creating a far more authentic and honest presentation of the story. Glenda Jackson’s character would’ve been easy to turn into obnoxious, but she shows enough vulnerability to empathize her loneliness, as is Murray Head’s free spirited character. There’s neither a beginning nor end, just a…

• Review by Justin Peterson ★★½ 2

  Criterion Collection Spine #629

  An intimate look into the mundane lives of a female divorcée and a older male doctor, both in relationships with a young male artist.

  "I always expect Saturday to be the best day of the week."

  Sunday Bloody Sunday has been a Criterion that has been on my radar for the longest time, since I saw William Friedkin mention it in his Criterion Closet video, since it came out the same year as 'The French Connection'. Kind of ironic that I watched this bloody slow and dull movie on a Sunday. I suppose it is my own fault for coming into it blind, becasue this really is not my kind of movie with it centering around…

• Review by David Conner ★★★★★ 5

  This is yet another one of those films that had been languishing on my must-see list for decades and which I only just now got around to watching. In a way, I’m glad I happened to see it in such close proximity to Matarrazzo’s Torna and Visconti’s L’Innocente because it struck me as a rather queer sort of anti-melodrama.

  At the level of its basic plot elements, it couldn’t be more suitable for the full soap opera treatment. We start with a bisexual, intergenerational love triangle among members of the world-weary global intelligentsia, and then we mix in long-held family secrets and intimations of childhood damage. But as ripe as all these elements are for bombastic revelations and emotional meltdowns,…