In the Name of the Father **** (1993, Daniel Day-Lewis, Pete Postlethwaite, Emma Thompson, John Lynch, Corin Redgrave, Mark Sheppard) – Classic Movie Review 5543

Director Jim Sheridan’s 1993 film was Oscar nominated as Best Picture and rivetingly tells the story of the Guildford Four, young Irish people released after 12 years’ wrongful imprisonment after the IRA terrorist bombings of two pubs in the South of England.

This Hollywood-style thriller cum courtroom drama cum real-life biography is clearly partisan and biased since the screenplay is based on principal defendant Gerry Conlon’s autobiographical book Proved Innocent. But it grips and drives along with an accumulation of telling scenes, careful detail and powerhouse acting.

The coerced confession of Belfast small-time thief Conlon to an IRA bombing he did not commit, which happened while he was in London, also results in the imprisonment of his father Giuseppe Conlon. But English human rights lawyer Gareth Peirce fights to free them.

However, the film’s lack of balance does occasionally count against it when it fails to present a single fair cop or a decent person on the side of law and order, sometimes giving it a one-dimensional, one-note feel. The gist of the facts as presented here may well be true, but they do not always entirely convince and it is annoying that the writers feel so free with the details of a delicate and emotive case.

Oscar nominated as Best Actor, Day-Lewis gives an outstanding performance as Conlon, his most convincing for some time, since My Left Foot (1989). Oscar nominated as Best Supporting Actor, Pete Postlethwaite grabs the attention as Conlon’s religious father of the title and Corin Redgrave makes strong impression as the smug, brutal police chief who forces Conlon’s confession and later conceals evidence. Emma Thompson is effective but wasted in a somewhat contrived-feeling extended cameo as the dogged lawyer who frees the Four, but she too was Oscar nominated, as Supporting Best Actress.

There were seven Oscar nominations, but no wins thanks to the Schindler’s List seven Oscar win factor. There were four Golden Globe nominations, but no wins. There were two Bafta nominations, but no wins.

Bono’s song (You Made Me the) Thief of Your Heart was nominated for a Golden Globe.

Paul O’Grady (aka Lily Savage, but billed as Paul Savage) appears as a prisoner who winks at Conlon in jail. Also in the cast are John Lynch, Mark Sheppard, Beatie Edney, Don Baker, Saffron Burrows, Jamie Harris, Britta Smith, Gerard McSorley, Phil Davis, Bosco Hogan, Tom Wilkinson and Daniel Massey.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5543

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