The Second Death

This was an interesting and mysterious little short. It's only 10 minutes or so, but I enjoyed watching it. It has Aiden Gillan and David Wilmot, plus Liam Cunningham, so many known faces. I love to draw conclusions from this type of film, but here it seems harder than most. What is the connection between the girl and Liam Cunningham? Who knows.

A

This is very good, short, but powerful. Too short to really get into it, the 10min fly by, but Cunningham is great and the score stands out as well. McDonagh's talent as a director is clearly apparent.

B+


Those are questions I'd just as much have a tough time answering. It's well made, but there's hardly much of a plot.

The synopsis in the first post tells us that there's a connection. The girl is from his past. It is nothing supernatural - the girl's ghost just embodies his guilt, and to me it seems like his guilt is just too much, which eventually (after a ton of drinks) causes him to have a heart attack. When she went missing those ten years ago, it seems as though he was something to do with it, and he maybe did something to her that she has never gotten over, so she killed herself. Which is probably why he was also down at the hospital, seeing her but at the same time checking about his heart palpitations.

Agreed. It's a great song that's playing for most of the first half.

That makes complete sense yeah, that there would be some connection like that with the girl is probable, but I wouldn't be able to get that out of just watching it.

Just watched it again. It's all there if you look for it. Anyway, I think I have a theory. When he gets home, you can see he has religious paintings on his wall. I am betting he was a priest or local vicar, and he may have sexually abused the young girl all those years ago. Now he is feeling the guilt, which is causing his heart problems. Notice also that he lives alone (the barmaid says he is lonely), which holy men often do once they've left the church.

And tying this all up, Liam Cunningham's character name is James Mangan. Brendan Gleeson's character in Calvary is Father James. It all seems connected. Just like the policeman in this short is called Gerry and Gleeson's guard in The Guard is Gerry Boyle.

Yep
It requires some reading in between the lines, but it's good.

Here's that song:

Just to complete the film's soundtrack, these are the other two songs in it:





I like all three songs, but especially the ones by Townes Van Zandt (I might be an instant fan!). I also changed my grade for this short to an A. I appreciated it more on second viewing, and I love how it sort of connects to McDonagh's other films.

I thought half way through that it's great, and up there with the best I've seen of film, but then, not rather ending abruptly but just a little bit with..."oh, ok, so that's it"...I didn't feel invested enough in the film to go higher than a B+ for it...although if I'd rewatch it, which im not planning to really, my opinion might alter.

The could be McDonagh's Connemara cinematic universe.

This film's thread already has more posts than the most successful independent Irish film of all time in terms of Irish box-office receipts.

hehe.