IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1994 Mark R. Leeper
Capsule review: This is the true story of the victims of a conspiracy by British police to scapegoat eleven innocent people, many from a single family, for an IRA bombing. The main character spent fifteen years in prison before an enterprising lawyer uncovered the conspiracy and was able to overturn the conviction. Pete Postlethwaite is particularly effective as the main character's father who is imprisoned in the same cell as his son. Rating: low +3 (-4 to +4).
In 1974 eleven people from Belfast were sentenced to prison for an IRA bombing of a Surrey pub--four charged with the bombing itself, seven with complicity. Fifteen years later that conviction was proven in court to be a gross miscarriage of justice. Though this conviction could not have been obtained without a conspiracy to subvert justice and knowingly to scapegoat innocent people, the British government has yet to acknowledge wrong-doing. IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER tells the whole story of one of the men falsely imprisoned from his background several months before the bombing to his eventual exoneration. Daniel Day-Lewis plays Gerry Conlon, a petty thief who was in the wrong place at the wrong time and is railroaded to prison along with several members of his family. Gerry, who has never been able to get along with his stern father Giuseppe (Pete Postlethwaite), finds he now must share not a house but a small cell with that father. Where the film could have bogged down as standard prison movie fare we find an engrossing father-son relationship that gives more meaning and poignancy to the court proceedings that will eventually clear the names of both father and son. The insertion of this father-son theme would seem contrived in a fictional account, but since it is true, the film uses it well.
It almost goes without saying that Daniel Day-Lewis's performance turns in a good performance. He is a first rank actor. Surprisingly, Emma Thompson is considerably less memorable in a script that does not use her considerable acting ability. The real surprise is Pete Postlethwaite as Guiseppe. He had roles in ALIEN 3, HAMLET, WATERLAND and with Day-Lewis in THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS, but none was particularly memorable. This film may be a breakthrough for him as a man of character and older values trying to impart those values to his son. The relationship that the two are able to forge only when locked in together is one of the most moving features of the film.
Jim Sheridan, who previously directed Daniel Day-Lewis in MY LEFT FOOT, both directed and co-wrote the screenplay. Even though the film is 132 minutes, it tells a complete story and never bogs down. Instead it gets more engrossing as we come to see more of the pain inflicted by the miscarriage the degree of wrong-doing on the part of the police. By the end of the film Sheridan has really roused the passions of the audience.
This is a well-crafted film in all regards. While self-critical British films are not really a rarity, this is probably among the most powerful. I would give this film a low +3 on the -4 to +4 scale and will almost definitely include it among the top ten films of 1993.
Mark R. Leeper
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