Caleb Landry Jones plays young, newly ordained pastor torn between the congregation he inherits in a small Texas town and an unhoused community desperately in need of help in Down the Arm of God, a powerful indie drama that’s clearly on the side of the angels.

With assistance from producer Luc Besson among others, Austrian-born director Peter Brunner, making his second feature with Jones after To the Night, elicits sincere, persuasive performances from his varied cast, including a fair few non-professionals with direct knowledge of homelessness. Peter Flinckenberg’s lively lensing and engagement with the distinctive light conditions of the location add an entrancing glow to the proceedings.

While all that weighs in the film’s favor, on the debit side Brunner and Jones make it pretty clear where their sympathies lie, which makes the film feel a bit manipulative and ploddingly polemical. Admittedly, viewers on the festival circuit, like those in Locarno where this debuted, and folks who might catch it on streamers or in niche distribution are unlikely to be very bothered about the film’s lack of impartiality. But arguably the script by Jones and director Brunner might have been a skoosh more impactful if the small-minded townsfolk, clearly coded as bigoted MAGA types, weren’t quite so hateful with only a few exceptions.

As the story starts, Landry Jones, himself a native Texan, is Nick, a fresh-faced minister from Dallas originally just settling into the small community near the Panhandle that he’s been assigned to shepherd. His flock consists mainly of white families whom we see mostly in their Sunday best, so it’s not easy to judge the economic realities that underpin this community, nor is the film very specific about what denomination exactly this is supposed to be. Suffice to say, that there’s no obvious dancing with snakes or speaking in tongues that suggest Pentecostalism, or choice of readings that would mark the congregation as, say, Episcopalian — although the choice of songs (like Sunday school banger “I Got the Joy Joy Joy”) Nick likes to play on the guitar lean low church.

This lack of specificity is also a bit of a flaw, because it suggests the filmmakers aren’t very interested in the theological forces and powers that be that shape what turns out to be a self-centered, possibly racist worldview. That narrow-mindedness is immediately apparent when Nick asks his congregation to help the group of unhoused people, a little over a dozen souls or so, who live in a makeshift camp on the edge of town. Most of them react fearfully and clearly want nothing to do with them, especially a classically WASP-ish blond-haired, clean-cut nuclear family led by Chris (Nick Stahl) and Anna (Mena Suvari), parents to pre-adolescent youngsters Elijah (Atlas Fulton) and Faye (Fable Fulton). Anna practically clutches her pearls when asked to help the homeless.  

That said, some folks, like the local nurse (Amanda Davis), agree to come out to the encampment and treat the residents, many of whom are physically disabled, suffer from mental disorders or are war veterans probably still in the throes of PTSD. Young Raven (India Marie Cross, a real find making her feature debut here) emerges as a de facto leader of the unhoused, passionate about protecting her friends but able to see reason when Nick argues, for example, that they should come stay inside somewhere when a harsh winter storm damages their encampment.

Naturally, the townsfolk fly into a rage at the mere suggestion that the unhoused should be put up in their community hall or school gymnasium, afeard as they are that their children will be in danger. Especially fierce in his objections is John (John Jones), a veteran himself of the Afghan war who lost his legs to a landmine. When confronted with fellow soldiers among the homeless community, John simply refuses to believe them when they say they too served in the military, or berates them for not taking up the benefits they might deserve. Angry words soon turn into protests and outright violence, with the gun violence that seems as inevitable as a winter storm on the horizon.

As Childish Gambino says, this is America, and at its best moments the script captures the way this nation’s irreconcilable differences play out in arguments with people interrupting and talking over one another, all sides refusing to listen. The climax is as needlessly tragic as one might expect, although Brunner rather rushes through the aftermath in a way that risks seeming implausible.

But at least there is a tiny sliver of hope in the very last scene, which features Jones’ real father in a silent but moving cameo role. Further balm is provided by the lovely, country-folk songs by Rhonda Bennett that she both plays onscreen here as one of the unhoused people and that are heard over the end credits.

British filmmaker John Irvin, known for action movies including Hamburger Hill and Raw Deal and the BAFTA-winning TV series Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, has died. He was 86.

According to Irvin’s producers, the filmmaker died peacefully at the UK home of his sister-in-law on August 11, surrounded by his family.

Irvin made more than 30 features in a career that spanned TV, documentaries and independent film.

Irvin was known for his versatility and breadth of career. In a 2021 interview with Roel Haanen, it was written: “Not many filmmakers directed both Fred Astaire and Patrick Swayze. Or followed up a tender, thoughtful film written by Harold Pinter with an Arnold Schwarzenegger action flick. But John did …”

Born to parents Charles and Elsie Winifred Irvin (neé Bending) his father Charles was a mechanical engineer who during the war joined the Royal Engineers and was deployed to the Middle East where he was involved in the construction of the Iran/Iraq Pipeline transporting oil from the Middle East. John Charles Greenway Irvin and his twin brother, David, were born in Wallasey Cheshire, on the 7th May 1940. Both boys went to Durham School, a renowned chorister school where John featured prominently in the choir. He was also a keen boxer and rowed competitively for Durham College

Irvin opted not to go to university; for a short while he taught Latin in a preparatory school to fund his enrollment into the London Film School. Irvin began his career working for British Movietone News. He directed his first film Gala Day (1963), a documentary financed by the British Film Institute, which was bought by the BBC. Within the same year his documentary short Inheritance (1963) was released. It was a film about the aftermath of the Algerian War, narrated by the legendary Richard Burton. It would win Irvin his first BAFTA, presented to him by Audrey Hepburn. The filmmaker would go on to be nominated for BAFTAs in three decades: the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s.

Throughout the sixties, Irvin made a number of acclaimed documentaries for his own company Mithras Films. He also worked during this time for the BBC and ITV where his work included several short films starring the young actors Edward Fox and Sir Anthony Hopkins. Irvin gave Hopkins his first TV role in The Peasants Revolt (1969), culminating in the same year was his omnibus film Beautiful, Beautiful (1969) an acclaimed documentary that highlighted photojournalists and the work of the war photographers who defined visual reporting in the 1960s. It featured Sir Don McCullin, Larry Burrows, Bruce Davidson and Eugene Smith, and was shot primarily in Vietnam, Northern Ireland and various conflict zones.

At the start of the seventies, Irvin began a prolific career in TV drama. He directed the acclaimed TV dramas The Nearly Man and Hard Times starring Timothy West for Granada TV. Then followed the critically acclaimed John Le Carre TV adaptation Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (1979) for the BBC. Sir Alec Guinness, Sir Ian Richardson, Sir Patrick Stewart, Beryl Reid O.B.E and Michael Jayston starred. The series scored multiple BAFTA wins and was Emmy-nominated in the U.S.

Guinness wrote in later years about Irvin that he “admired a director with balls behind the camera!”

For the next thirty years Irvin worked closely with Hollywood and various studios. First up of note was The Dogs of War (1980), an adaptation of the Fredrick Forsyth bestselling book starring Christopher Walken and Tom Berenger. Irvin followed this with the horror film Ghost Story (1981) starring Fred Astaire, Melvyn Douglas, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and John Houseman. The film was the third-highest grossing horror film of its year, taking $24M at the box office.

Next, Irvin made the biographical film Champions (1984) starring Sir John Hurt, Turtle Diary (1985) was adapted for the screen by Harold Pinter and starred Sir Ben Kingsley, Dame Glenda Jackson and Sir Michael Gambon. Then Raw Deal (1986) starred Arnold Schwarzenegger. The well-received Hamburger Hill followed in 1987 starring Don Cheadle, Dylan McDermott, Michael Boatman, Steven Weber and Courtney B. Vance – a film about one of the bloodiest battles of the Vietnam War. Paramount picked the film up for release stateside.

Irvin then made the crime thriller Next of Kin (1989) starring Patrick Swayze and Liam Neeson. Eminent Domain (1991) starred Donald Sutherland and Anne Archer. Next, Robin Hood(1991) starred Patrick Bergin and Uma Thurman. Widows Peak (1993), starring Mia Farrow, Dame Joan Plowright, Natasha Richardson, Jim Broadbent and Adrian Dunbar. Then, A Month By The Lake (1994) starring Dame Vanessa Redgrave, Edward Fox and Uma Thurman. In 1997 Irvin directed City Of Industry, a neo-noir crime thriller starring Harvey Keitel, Stephen Dorff and Timothy Hutton.

When Trumpets Fade (1998), with Ron Eldard, was commissioned by HBO as a forerunner to the same network’s Band Of Brothers.

It was at this time that Irvin, a longtime client of Independent Talent Group, made the move to making indie pictures in Europe. These include Shiner (2000) starring Sir Michael Caine, The Boys And Girl From County Clare (2003) starring Andrea Corr and Colm Meaney, followed by The Moon And The Stars (2006) starring Alfred Molina, Catherine McCormack and Sir Jonathan Pryce, and The Garden Of Eden (2008) with Jack Huston, Mena Suvari, Richard E Grant, Carmen Maura and Matthew Modine.

Irvin divided the last twenty years of his life between London and the Sussex countryside where he co-founded with his producer Claire Evans their own production company DearHeart. They began research in 2008 for Mandela’s’ Gun. Developed and researched by John and Claire, it was six years in the making and shot in seven countries. In 2016, producer Vaughn Mullady joined them. In early 2017 a festival cut of Mandela’s Gun was requested by the speaker of the U.K. Houses of Parliament to be screened in honor of President Nelson Mandela in the Speakers State Rooms where Mandela had been in residence.

At the time of Irvin’s death, he was working with new material and completing a final edit of Mandela’s Gun. He was also directing a feature documentary Water From An Ancient Well about his friend, the late and great South African musician Abdullah Ibrahim.

In 1970, Irvin married Sophie (neé Litchfield) who tragically died of cancer in 1991. Together John and Sophie had three children; Emilie, Luke, and Amy Irvin (who survive him) and two grandchildren, Finn and Isla Irvin, all of whom surrounded him in his final weeks and months of his life, rewatching movies with him while Irvin still found time to dictate work to his producers.

British filmmaker John Irvin, known for action movies including Hamburger Hill and Raw Deal and BAFTA-winning TV series Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, has died aged 86.

According to Irvin’s producers, the multi-BAFTA nominee died peacefully at the UK home of his sister-in-law on 11th August, surrounded by his family.

Irvin made more than thirty features in a career that spanned TV, documentaries, and independent film.

Irvin was known for his versatility and breadth of career. In a 2021 interview with Roel Haanen, it was written: “Not many filmmakers directed both Fred Astaire and Patrick Swayze. Or followed up a tender, thoughtful film written by Harold Pinter with an Arnold Schwarzenegger action flick. But John did …”

Born to parents Charles and Elsie Winifred Irvin (neé Bending) his father Charles was a mechanical engineer who during the war joined the Royal Engineers and was deployed to the Middle East where he was involved in the construction of the Iran/Iraq Pipeline transporting oil from the Middle East. John Charles Greenway Irvin and his twin brother, David, were born in Wallasey Cheshire, on the 7th May 1940. Both boys went to Durham School, a renowned chorister school where John featured prominently in the choir. He was also a keen boxer and rowed competitively for Durham College

Irvin opted not to go to university; for a short while he taught Latin in a preparatory school to fund his enrollment into the London Film School. Irvin began his career working for British Movietone News. He directed his first film Gala Day (1963), a documentary financed by the British Film Institute, which was bought by the BBC. Within the same year his documentary short Inheritance (1963) was released. It was a film about the aftermath of the Algerian War, narrated by the legendary Richard Burton. It would win Irvin his first BAFTA, presented to him by Audrey Hepburn.

Throughout the sixties, Irvin made a number of acclaimed documentaries for his own company Mithras Films. He also worked during this time for the BBC and ITV where his work included several short films starring the young actors Edward Fox and Sir Anthony Hopkins. Irvin gave Hopkins his first TV role in The Peasants Revolt (1969), culminating in the same year was his omnibus film Beautiful, Beautiful (1969) an acclaimed documentary that highlighted photojournalists and the work of the war photographers who defined visual reporting in the 1960s. It featured Sir Don McCullin, Larry Burrows, Bruce Davidson and Eugene Smith, and was shot primarily in Vietnam, Northern Ireland and various conflict zones.

At the start of the seventies, Irvin began a prolific career in TV drama. He directed the acclaimed TV dramas The Nearly Man and Hard Times starring Timothy West for Granada TV. Then followed the critically acclaimed John Le Carre TV adaptation Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (1979) for the BBC. Sir Alec Guinness, Sir Ian Richardson, Sir Patrick Stewart, Beryl Reid O.B.E and Michael Jayston starred. The series scored multiple BAFTA wins and was Emmy-nominated in the U.S.

Guinness wrote in later years about Irvin that he “admired a director with balls behind the camera!”

For the next thirty years Irvin worked closely with Hollywood and various studios. First up of note was The Dogs of War (1980), an adaptation of the Fredrick Forsyth bestselling book starring Christopher Walken and Tom Berenger. Irvin followed this with the horror film Ghost Story (1981) starring Fred Astaire, Melvyn Douglas, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and John Houseman. The film was the third-highest grossing horror film of its year, taking $24M at the box office.

Next, Irvin made the biographical film Champions (1984) starring Sir John Hurt, Turtle Diary (1985) was adapted for the screen by Harold Pinter and starred Sir Ben Kingsley, Dame Glenda Jackson and Sir Michael Gambon. Then Raw Deal (1986) starred Arnold Schwarzenegger. The well-received Hamburger Hill followed in 1987 starring Don Cheadle, Dylan McDermott, Michael Boatman, Steven Weber and Courtney B. Vance – a film about one of the bloodiest battles of the Vietnam War. Paramount picked the film up for release stateside.

Irvin then made the crime thriller Next of Kin (1989) starring Patrick Swayze and Liam Neeson. Eminent Domain (1991) starred Donald Sutherland and Anne Archer. Next, Robin Hood(1991) starred Patrick Bergin and Uma Thurman. Widows Peak (1993), starring Mia Farrow, Dame Joan Plowright, Natasha Richardson, Jim Broadbent and Adrian Dunbar. Then, A Month By The Lake (1994) starring Dame Vanessa Redgrave, Edward Fox and Uma Thurman. In 1997 Irvin directed City Of Industry, a neo-noir crime thriller starring Harvey Keitel, Stephen Dorff and Timothy Hutton.

When Trumpets Fade (1998), with Ron Eldard, was commissioned by HBO as a forerunner to the same network’s Band Of Brothers.

It was at this time that Irvin, a longtime client of Independent Talent Group, made the move to making indie pictures in Europe. These include Shiner (2000) starring Sir Michael Caine, The Boys And Girl From County Clare (2003) starring Andrea Corr and Colm Meaney, followed by The Moon And The Stars (2006) starring Alfred Molina, Catherine McCormack and Sir Jonathan Pryce, and The Garden Of Eden (2008) with Jack Huston, Mena Suvari, Richard E Grant, Carmen Maura and Matthew Modine.

Irvin divided the last twenty years of his life between London and the Sussex countryside where he co-founded with his producer Claire Evans their own production company DearHeart. They began research in 2008 for Mandela’s’ Gun. Developed and researched by John and Claire, it was six years in the making and shot in seven countries… in 2016, producer Vaughn Mullady joined them. In early 2017 a festival cut of Mandela’s Gun was requested by the speaker of the U.K. Houses of Parliament to be screened in honor of President Nelson Mandela in the Speakers State Rooms where Mandela had been in residence.

At the time of Irvin’s death, he was working with new material and completing a final edit of Mandela’s Gun. He was also directing a feature documentary Water From An Ancient Well about his friend, the late and great South African musician Abdullah Ibrahim.

In 1970, Irvin married Sophie (neé Litchfield) who tragically died of cancer in 1991. Together John and Sophie had three children; Emilie, Luke, and Amy Irvin (who survive him) and two grandchildren, Finn and Isla Irvin, all of whom surrounded him in his final weeks and months of his life, rewatching movies with him while Irvin still found time to dictate work to his producers.