The Last Bus Home is a
Irish film from
The '90s. Beginning in 1979 on the day of Pope John Paul the Second's visit to Ireland, the film follows a group of Dublin punks as they form a band and struggle to find success. They start getting gigs and even a recording contract, but the pressure is rising and it all ends in tragedy...
This film provides examples of the following tropes:
- Bittersweet Ending
- Closet Gay: Drummer Petie is guarded about his sexuality - for good reason, as it turns out...
- Cool Old Lady: Unlike Reena's parents, Reena's granny doesn't mind that she's not religious, gets on well with Reena's working-class punk boyfriend Jessop and helps Reena find a place for the band to play. Towards the end of the film, she explains why she's so much less conservative than Reena's parents by saying that she "grew up in a young country".
- The '80s: This film is a rare fictional depiction of the Dublin punk scene in the late 70s and early 80s - the only other Irish film that depicts the time and place is Killing Bono.
- Gayngst: Played with. While Petie is closeted and faces homophobia, eventually killing himself, Billy Byrne, who is also gay, is stoic about it, telling Petie "We won't be outlaws forever".
- Poor Communication Kills: the inability of the band members to tell each other the truth or explain what they're up to results in Jessop going ape onstage (with the gig descending into a brawl), Petie throwing himself into oncoming traffic and dying, Reena breaking up with Jessop and emigrating and the band breaking up. Some of the miscommunication isn't cleared up until 20 years later when Reena comes back to Dublin.
- Irish Accents: What with the film being set in Dublin, these abound. In the Dead Patriots alone you have Jessop with a working-class Dublin accent, Petie with a middle-class "polite" Dublin accent and Richie with what sounds like a Dundalk accent. Reena's gran has a slightly more old-fashioned "polite" Dublin accent while her friend May has a Donegal-ish midlands accent.
- The Irish Revolution: Inspired by the nationalist kitsch present everywhere in 70s Dublin, Jessop names his punk band "The Dead Patriots" and writes a song parodying nationalist hagiography of the 1916 leaders.
