In the Name of the Father

Rating:
Summary: heartbreaking and bittersweet
Review: Gerry Conlon (Daniel Day Lewis) was a small-time petty thief in the early seventies and found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time when IRA terrorists bombed a pub in 1974 - killing 4 people.

Totally innocent, Conlon is treated with contempt - even physically tortured and terrorized until he confesses only to make the torture stop.

Soon his father and most of his family are also convicted of bomb making and being part of larger conspiracies including being deeply entrenched in the IRA.

His father Giuseppe (played masterfully by Pete Postlethwaite) and most of his family are also rounded up and promptly convicted - from the youngest cousin to an elderly grandmother - all wrongly convicted and sent to bleak, dank prisons for very lengthy terms.

What makes this so compelling and tragic is that this is entirely a true story. Conlon really served 15 years in prison and thanks to his diligent attorney and the discovery of withheld evidence that freed him in 1989 - otherwise he may well still be languishing in jail, with little sympathy from the outside.

The only good side of this horrific twist of justice was the closeness Gerry ends up having with his father. Once somewhat distant, they find themselves as unwilling cellmates in prison. As miserable as they both are at the situation, the fact that they can keep each other company is a bittersweet comfort.

They grow closer than they likely would have ever gotten had they not been imprisoned together. Compounded by age and the damp, awful conditions of the prison, Giuseppe finds himself sicker and sicker until he is finally taken to the hospital all too late. Gerry is not permitted to be at his father's side as he is taken to the hospital, only to find out later that his father has died, leaving Gerry alone with no one to console his broken heart.

The injustice done to the "Guildford Four" in a small way was a necessary evil, in that it so shocked the conscience of British common man, that many reforms were put in to place to help prevent this sort of thing from happening again.

While Emma Thompson's character (Conlon's lawyer) doesn't make an appearance until near the end of the story, her presence is powerful and an important balance for the film.

Only someone with the stoniest of hearts will not feel at least a lump in their throat at many scenes of this well acted, compelling, real-life drama - nor will you finish watching it and not be changed in some way.

Rating:
Summary: One of the best movies ever done on its genre!
Review: For whom this is a first approach to the movie, expect a memorable experience in the last scene, when the the charges are dismissed in the appealing trial of Gerry Conlon (Daniel Day-Lewis) and his acctitude toward his new possibilities of life, a performance that will touch you in deed. But, if you are of the lucky ones who had the chance to see the movie in home theathers, you will certainly miss the very well known U2 song which uncomparable enhanced the impact of Daniel Day-Lewis and Emma Thompson performances at the culminating scene. Simply memorable.
Anyway, despite of this, the DVD release of this movie really worths it and it's a "must have" if you are addicted to this genre.

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant
Review: This film just really goes to show what kind of horrible acts of cruelty and inhumanity can happen even in so-called 'civilized' societies. A perfect example of injustice. `In the Name of the Father' is an account of the true saga of an Irish man, Gerry Conlon, who is wrongfully imprisoned for life. He and his family are made scapegoats by the police and legal system for the bombing of the Guildford Pub of London in 1974. The film goes on to show the bitter trial of Conlon, his father and 3 of his companions accused in the case, and Conlon's spirit as he faces the brutality of unfair imprisonment, and his inimitable spirit as he attempts to reopen the case after 15 years with the aid of a lawyer, Gareth Pierce.
I have no hesitation in stating that `In the Name of the Father' is one of the best films I have seen.

Rating:
Summary: Bold but Brilliant!!
Review: This is a bloody brilliant film. Its shows what pure bastards the Brittish were to us,the Irish, in the past. The Brittish who did this were never brought to justice but at least tis film gives the poor innocent irish who suffered some compensation even just the fact that now the world knows how much we suffered.

Rating:
Summary: Strange and difficult, but emotionally deep.
Review: I must admit, I encountered a major stumbling block in trying to watch this movie. All I can say is if you have as much trouble understanding heavy Irish accents as I do, watching a subtitled edition of this film might be a good idea.

That's my problem, though, not the film's. In the Name of the Father isn't quite as dead serious as its cover suggests. While its soaring emotional peaks are just phenomenally powerful and its messages ring clear and true, the film also contains enough offbeat humour to make it a well-rounded experience.

Daniel Day-Lewis gives a searing performance as Gerry Conlon, an Irish drifter wrongly accused of terrorism and imprisoned, a victim of a police conspiracy. Day-Lewis, an Oscar-winning actor who has done only five films in the '90s, gives his signature dedication, enormous charisma, and sense of humour to the role, and he is no less than amazing in any given scene. Pete Postlethwaite rises to the challenge as Conlon's father Guiseppe, a complete opposite to the deliciously diabolical turn he gave in The Usual Suspects. Here Postlethwaite is warm, complex, and painfully human, with all the strengths and vulnerabilities attached. And director Jim Sheridan's narrative voice is highly eccentric but engaging; the film moves in lurches and spurts, often with major plot points occuring very suddenly. Strangely enough, I was never lost. And Emma Thompson's work, when it finally surfaces (her character is mostly relegated to the last third of the film), is terrific as well, helping to anchor the final developments in the story.

One of my favourite points about this film is that, while it vilifies the British characters, it also does not scorn to show their side of the story. The opening scene of the bombing grounds our awareness in the fact that, despite their incredibly brutal and unjust tactics, the police are simply crumbling under the pressure and trying to hide their folly, not plotting for the destruction of our central characters. Such moral complexities help enrich the thematic elements of the film, always a desireable thing when it comes to politically charged material such as this.

You'll need to be patient with this film to enjoy it -- because of its two-hour-plus running length, the dense, accented dialogue, and idiosyncratic narrative approach -- but I am sure you will find it an emotionally resonant and relevant film, as I have.

Rating:
Summary: Emotionally harrowing
Review: This is a powerful story, and watching it absolutely wrings you out. You should see this movie, because the story is so emotional. You should also see it because of the quality of the acting. Daniel Day-Lewis' and Pete Postlethwaite's performances are so raw and perfectly understated that they make the film seem like the reality the story is based on.

Readers can get the gist of the plot from other reviews here, but there are a few remarks that should be made.

In this post-September 11 world, it should be noted that the thing that enabled these injustices was a bill that allowed British officials to hold suspected terrorists for up to 7 days without charging them. This gave these officers all the time they needed to beat and intimidate Conlon into confessing something he didn't do. The kind of power such a bill provides requires more responsibility than this.

While the British government does come out looking very bad in this film, it must be fairly pointed out that you can see why these officers were initially convinced of the Four's guilt: they had been lied to by someone who disliked Gerry Conlon. Naturally, at first, the police thought the Four were just lying to evade prosecution. However, much later in the film, we see that Conlon's innocence had been proven to at least some of the officers a month or so after his arrest. However, this was concealed from the rest of the judicial system, and the Four were still incarcerated.

I have to mention that some of the most powerful moments in the film actually come from Pete Postlethwaite's performance as Giuseppe Conlon. His attempts, while in the middle of these horrible circumstances, to draw closer to his son are so genuine and heartfelt that it makes you want to cry. This gentle, nice man's life was surrendered to these injustices, and all the while he still tried to teach his son to be good, to be honest, and to have ethics - in other words, to be a man.

There has been some commentary as to whether the Guildford Four were really innocent. It should be stated here that the judge who released them - chief justice Lord Lane - stated that he felt the police involved in the case "must have lied." Also, aside from an official apology from Tony Blair, the British government has made financial restitution to the Four. I think that's enough to decide that they were probably innocent.

While occasionally seeming over-dramatized - like all films based on factual events - this movie succeeds in riveting you to the screen. This is a good rendering of events that prove how tragedies can occur when you have people with too much power and not enough conscience.

Rating:
Summary: Best Film ever
Review: This film may be biased but it never pretends to be anything else. Gerry Conlon was a petty thief who lived in Belfast, did they disguise this? No, they made him to be everything he was a liar, petty thief and drug taker but the fact remains he was dealt with very very unjustly.
Daniel Day Lewis was made for this role, he is Gerry Conlon, he was real the perfect actor to play this role. The supporting cast made the film, Giuseppe, Paul, etc.. came alive because they played their parts so well. Being from Ireland this film really touched me and made me feel for the people involved.
Emma Thompson was excellent as the British attorney, i don't think anyone else would ave fitted the part.
The location, Kilmainham Jail in Dublin, which ive visited many times was perfect because it actually was a jail, and made the film even more alive.
Although the film left out a lot of details such as the lives of Paul Hill, Paddy Armstrong and Carol Richardson and their attorney, which many people argue, it was meant to be the biography of Gerry Conlon and his Da hence the title.
If your lookin for a reccomendation......BUY IT!!!!!

Rating:
Summary: Powerful and Disturbing.....
Review: This movie, based on a true story, is vivid and shocking indictment of the English criminal justice system. It depicts a British society so obsessed with IRA terrorism that they would stop at nothing, even physical torture and near police state conditions, to bring a "guilty person" to justice. It shows a system in which when the truth is uncovered that Conlon and his family were in fact blameless the authorities refuse to acknowledge this fact and allow to Conlon's to remain in prison. Also shocking are the scenes in which not only are the prisoner's visits monitored but a transcript is taken of the conversations. However, not everyone victim of the British system was guilty. This is the story of Gerry Conlon (Daniel Day Lewis) a young Irish man caught in the wrong place and the wrong time and is implicated and ultimately convicted in an IRA bombing attack on a British pub. The movie takes the viewer through this process. From his time in London to his arrest and torture, both physical and psychological, at the hand of the British police during his interrogation to his 15 year incarceration in a maximum security facility to his triumphant appeal and release. The interrogation sequences are most disturbing in their depiction of the combination of physical and mental abuse used to wear down a suspect to the point where he or she will admit and confess to any thing in order to end the abuse. We also see how the police arrest Conlon's entire family including his father as co-conspirators. Ultimately, they are all convicted and sentenced to varying term in prison. Conlon and his father Giuseppe are cell-mates and the movie goes on to explore the transformation of their relationship from a rather distant and cold one to a caring and loving one as the years of their incarceration drag on. Daniel Day Lewis turns in a memorable performance in his monument to excesses of Britain's war on domestic terrorism. Emma Thompson is OK in her role has a stalwart supporter of the family and their cause but her role could have been bigger. This movie is not intended to be in any way balanced whatsoever. The viewer is supposed to be sympathetic toward the Conlon family and have nothing but contempt for the British authorities. The aforementioned instances and more make this emotional connection very easy to make. That is a little more than disturbing. As with other fact based movies, "JFK" et. al., we are getting a one sided view of the issue. In many cases the makers use artistic license to "tweak" the plot in one way or the other. As a result, viewers who may not be as up to speed on these issues may accept these interpretations as gospel when in fact they are not. I am suggesting that viewers should not just accept at face value the opinions or views of very often biased director and producers who are out to make a political point.

Rating:
Summary: Good movie!
Review: Daniel Day-Lewis is a fine actor and this is an interesting tale. Not a must view, but worth renting.

Rating:
Summary: Being Irish Means Your Gulity...
Review: "...once again England's name is sullied in the eyes of honest men.." Excellent protrayal of an Irish family caught up in the twilight zone called British Justice. When you watch this it just seems totally unbelievable. Unfortunately it was all very real for the entire Conlon family. The sad thing is it is one of many that will come to light over the next few years as British dirty laundry is put on display for the whole world to see. Great movie and of course an excellent potrayal of the adage that truth is stranger than fiction....