The Devil's Own

Rating:
Summary: The Devil's Own
Review: The movie rates with one of my favorites... dim the lights, lean back and enjoy this well made film. The soundtrack, the acting, and the story line mesh together to make a true believable story that is an enjoyable and emotional experience. And to those who commented that it certain things didnt make sense...you didnt pay attention.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful dialouge, horrid plot
Review: There are so many aspects of Devil's Own that I really really like! But there are some really bad plot flaws that I desperately wish could be corrected. Firstly, the story begins introducing these characters (For instance, a member the British Intellegence unit who murders an IRA man) that end up having little sugniffiance to the story line. As it is, the whole plot is VERY unrealistic-- down right tacky in some places as it begins to slip into a typical Harrison Ford action flick. But if that can be over-looked (and let's face it, plot is pretty important to a film), it's a pretty good movie. The dialouge is absolutely marvolous-- lines which will stick with you all throughout your life. One in particular, I believe, sums up the whole movie: "Don't be looking for happy endings, Tom, it's not an American story, it's an Irish one."

Rating:
Summary: brad pitt is a great actor
Review: This film shows how we, no matter how hard we try not to, have to recognize that life on any term is complex, illogical, and incredibly vulnerable to human pain. Harrison Ford proved a long time ago that he can act. In this film, Brad Pitt demonstrates that his soul knows and understands completely the depths of human suffering. This film does not condone violence, but it recognizes the horrible consequences of the human need to react to violence with violence. This is a great film!

Rating:
Summary: THE DEVIL WILL FIND WORK FOR IDLE HANDS TO DO...
Review: This film was one of those wastes of time that you sometimes experience. Left to my own devices, I would never have seen this film, but I had the misfortune of meeting too many people who dictated what movies we would see, and I saw more than one of these time killers. I hated this film because it was just too unrealistic and far too dramatic. Everything about it was contrived and overblown, and the script was terrible. I won't bore with plot details because you can read those elsewhere. And even worse than that, sometimes good or experienced actors can make the best of bad scripts and give the characters life somehow to make a film at least... viewable. However, no one in this cast lends any kind of likeability or credibility to their characters, least of all Brad Pitt and Harrison Ford, the two leading actors who should by all accounts lead the way to greatness. Right? Well the only performance that stands out here at all is the lovely Natascha McElhone, who usually delivers beautifully, no matter what her part (think Ronin, Truman Show or Surviving Picasso).

Rating:
Summary: Not really that 'offensive' at all...
Review: This is one tired film... bland, boring and sermonising (bit like this review... if sermonising is a word) it's chief interest lies in its representation of the northern irish problem

Brad Pitt's IRA terrorist seems to belong to the cult of the Hollywood Irish republican 'freedom fighter', he is good looking, mild mannered and thoroughly naive in the ways of oraganised crime as represented by Treat Williams (oh Hollywood if you only knew!). Like Richard Gere in 'the Jackal' Pitt is not a bomber but a 'soldier', it seems Hollywood (and they are not alone) believes one to be less human than the other, witness Tommy Lee Jone's 'mad bomber' in the hilarious 'Blown Away'. This is pretty lazy thinking, is it beyond them to write a complex human being capable of taking civilian lives yet who is not a blood thirsty gestapo like sadist? it always strikes me that the american novelists i have read are totally incapable of writing a believable terrorist... well Hollywood has bypassed this problem by not writing a terrorist! I mean i know they are frightened of alienating the audience but it doesn't do 'the troubles' (heh, imagine the israeli-palestine conflict being referred to as 'a spot of bother') and the plight of the northern irish people much justice to be presented with these ridiculous stereotypes, consider this: the IRA have bombed so many civilian targets, their organisation saw this as the most effective method of warfare (and given the British and American tactics in WW2 its hard to square the condemnation of these acts by people in Britain with the popularity of Winston Churchill and the public statue of 'Bomber' Harris) not to mention the amount of civilians they have shot dead (both deliberate and through bungling) and abducted and murdered is it really believable that in such a (relatively) small oragnisation obsessed with causing such atrocities neither the Gere or Pitt characters have been involved in such actions? Besides, sniping at and killing troops whose original purpose was to protect the catholic population from murderous protestants (shades of iraq), is that really so much better than detonating bombs? Well, maybe, the troops were also probably there to reinforce the status quo and following bloody sunday scared, crazed and trigger happy would describe a portion of the British armed forces present in the province (i should imagine most were scared). But better believe you'll never see a Hollywood movie star playing an IRA terrorist who burns down the homes of members of the SDLP (i doubt you'll ever see a palestinian who shoots israeli soldiers in a positive light in a hollywood film either). The talks that lead to the good friday peace accords revealed one of the most intelligent and humane people at the table to be David Ervine, a former protestant terrorist convicted of explosives offences who had broken the cycle of violence that had either began with or been further cultivated by IRA bombings of protestant civilians. While imprsioned he gained an education and realised the full extent of the oppresion of the catholic population.... It would be interesting to see a Hollywood film about protestant terrorists, i get the impression from certain films (like the rancid Kevin Spacey mega flop 'Ordinary decent criminal') that Hollywood is determined to avoid portraying these unpleasant people, they appear in the Devil's Own to kill Pitt's father at the beginning then never seen again, you'd think it was just the british army, intelligence services and the IRA involved in this conflict the way some of these films represent it (seems pretty common for mainland europeans to know the IRA but to not even know of the existence of the groups on the other side).

Aside from this, the fresh faced innocent look of the IRA members (not the hard faced intense stares of those you see released from the Maze prison, don't be fooled, these guys are hard men) and the pantomime MI6/MI5 villain 'I've been tracking these murderous baahstaards...'(but then out of all parties involved i hate british intelligence more than any of the rest... the rest i can understand) what is there to really upset people so much? The relentless oirish pipes on the soundtrack and the Guinness obsession? Brad Pitt's accent? I've heard much worse... With all the fuss surrounding this film it surprises me people don't absolutely slaughter that wretched slanderous piece of fiction that was Titanic where the English (upper class) brutalise the Irish (working class) by chaining them in the lower decks while the ship sank and a british hero is turned into a coward murderer (nice to see they apologised for that afterwards, heh) in order to give the film some kind of deeper meaning and relevant social and political dimension (and a bigger box office).

The film itself isn't much to talk about really... a simple plot is bloated by a good deal of pontificating and is dragged out for 30 minutes longer than it merits, Harrison Ford is his usual concerned and righteous self (he furrows his brow alot and screws up his face), oh for another indiana jones film to rescue him from 'serious' tripe like this, and not much really happens except 2 dimensional characters go around firing guns... But, the reviews on these pages are a real eye opener, in Britain the whispers are that Americans are ignorant of the realities of the IRA campaign and situation in Northern Ireland and deeply biased. Yet I keep reading how people are moved by this film to the point where they intend to investigate and read about Northern Ireland, and that at the moment they cannot offer an intelligent opinion. Its almost a paradox that this is the attitude of the viewer of a film while the views of american and british readers of books on the subject are so repulsive and ignorant (check out the reviews of the Peter Taylor book 'Loyalists' for an example). I thought it was supposed to be the other way round!! Like the previous reviewers have said this is much too complex a situation to expect a Hollywood blockbuster to do justice to it, you must read, and with the initial outlook of newcomers to this subject both at home (Britain and Ireland) or abroad on this page the chances of the current peace being a lasting one are greatly increased

Rating:
Summary: A great movie of our time
Review: This is undoubtedly one of the greatest movies I ever saw. It was the whole idea of freedom which I would say appealed to me the most. Brad Pitt is as usual, is a great performer. Surely a Must See!

Rating:
Summary: A weak and disappointing film.
Review: This was a boring and disappointing film. When I saw the theatrical trailer prior to its release into theatres, it obviously looked like a dynamic and exciting movie with a lot of action, like "Patriot Games." But when I saw it two months later in the theatre, there was almost no action at all (that involves Harrison Ford). If the theatrical trailer had shown that this is a movie with a story, I would have viewed this film with less disappointment.

Rating:
Summary: I liked it
Review: Why are a lof of reviewers trashing this movie because it's not as realistic as it could/should be ? IT'S A MOVIE. Nowhere did it claim to be a documentary. The story line was good and Brad Pitt did a great job. There was nothing wrong with his accent. I think they could of come up with someone better than Treat Williams to play the arms dealer.