Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Ken Loach is one of the greatest filmmakers in the world. This is one of his finest films. Journalist/police procedural combined, with terrific performances, esp. Brian Cox, Frances McDormand and Jim Norton. Cover-ups, intractable positions, a frightening police state in Belfast, a top-notch script, a fast moving story - my only quarrel with these films (The Constant Gardener and The Ghost Writer come quickly to mind) is their downbeat endings - I would prefer for positive endings, even if they are "unrealistic" at this time, it becomes demoralizing for the bad guys to win again and again in these type of films - we need to see the good guys winning because it can become a prophecy of getting people to think outside of their pre-programmed thinking (they are taught incorrectly). This movie is infuriating, which is what it should be. Definitely worth watching!!! (:

Whooaa! Slow down, sol1218 from Brooklyn NY.The political scene in the U.K. looked like this: Edward Heath, bachelor leader of the Conservatives, won the election in 1970. He took Britain into the then Common Market in 1973, but called an election in February 1974 when the miners forced him to declare a three-day week.The Tory slogan for the election was: Who governs Britain? The result was confused, but the message was fairly clear: Not you, matey. Labour under Harold Wilson took office with a slim majority. Wilson called a second election in October, which he won narrowly, increasing his majority slightly.He held a referendum on the Common Market in 1975, which he won by sidelining the extremists of both Left and Right. He ruled until 1976 when he resigned from politics, for reasons which were obscure at the time, but probably because he had been diagnosed with Parkinson's. It is certainly true that the Right plotted endlessly against him.Jim Callaghan, who had been Chancellor, Home Secretary and Foreign Secretary, took over as P.M. and called an election after his full five-year term. (In the U.K. governments normally call elections after four years.) In fact Callaghan was forced to do so because of a move by the Scottish Nationalists. Had he called the election just a year earlier, he stood a good chance of winning, say many pundits.Meanwhile, the Conservatives had deposed Edward Heath who had lost them two elections, and Maggie Thatcher replaced him as leader. She swept to power in 1979, and as we all know, won the next two elections.Economic chaos was the watchword of the day and there were many strikes. The situation in Northern Ireland, which had started simmering with the Civil Rights movement of 1968, gradually deteriorated. The assassinated politician of the film whose name is Nevin, may well represent Airey Neave, a war hero who had escaped from the high-security Colditz Castle, a German-speaking lawyer who had attended the Nuremberg Trials and a hardline Conservative with military and security connections, who was a close adviser of Thatcher. He was blown up outside the House of Commons on March 30, 1979, by the INLA a few weeks before the election.Ken Loach has never made any secret of his sympathies for the Irish cause. His powerful film "Wind that shakes the barley", which apparently did not make much money in the U.K., had Conservative politicians fulminating about treason and lack of patriotism because of his portrayal of the brutal Black and Tans. The name was given to the ex-British army personnel and (inaccurately) also to the auxiliaries who were sent to Ireland between 1920 and 1921 to crush the IRA and Sinn Fein, but who also attacked and killed civilians. Historians agree, however, that Loach was pretty accurate in his historical recreation. The film also shows the ruthlessness of Irish-on-Irish killings in the Civil War afterwards.

"Hidden Agenda" was an enjoyable political thriller. The story was a somewhat typical Irish against the bloody English set in the late 1980's. The strength of the movie was in the fine acting by Frances McDormand, as usual, Brian Cox and many others. The ending some may find unsatisfactory. It tends to be open ended. I thought it provided much speculation on what Frances McDormand would do. I also thought it to be true to life.

"Hidden Agenda" - another in a long list of films about the conflict in Northern Ireland - focuses on the investigation by British detective Kerrigan (Cox) of the assassination of an American civil liberties investigator. The film gets down to business quickly as it shows the pervasive and deeply rooted divisive sentiments of Ireland with a straight forward, no frills approach and a whodunnit type plot. A well made location shoot with no frills, "HA" will most likely be appreciated by those with some understanding of the Irish conflict.