Director Sheridan chronicles the father-son relationship perfectly and also handles the courtroom confrontations skilfully without ever falling into movie melodramatics.
In the Name of the Father (1993)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:39
Fresh:37
Rotten:2
Average Rating:7.6/10
Runtime: 2 hrs 13 mins
Genre: Dramas
Synopsis: Based on Gerry Conlon's autobiography, PROVED INNOCENT, Jim Sheridan's IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER tells the tumultuous and wrenching tale of a man wrongfully imprisoned in 1974 for the bombing of a... Based on Gerry Conlon's autobiography, PROVED INNOCENT, Jim Sheridan's IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER tells the tumultuous and wrenching tale of a man wrongfully imprisoned in 1974 for the bombing of a London pub. Daniel Day-Lewis stars as Conlon, a young Irish petty thief living in London who gets picked up after he and a friend, Paul Hill (John Lynch), rob a hooker's apartment. The British police, desperate to produce results in their search for the culprits in the pub bombing, force a false confession out of Conlon after subjecting him to days of sadistic torture and threats. The Guildford Four--Conlon, Hill, Paddy Armstrong (Mark Sheppard), and Carole Richardson (Beatie Edney)--are found guilty of the bombing, and members of Conlon's family, including his sickly father, Guiseppe, are imprisoned as co-conspirators. Conlon's desire to bring the truth to light builds as his harrowing incarceration in a maximum security prison stretches on. The relationship between Conlon and his father, played with silent strength by Pete Postlethwaite, provides a stirring pulse at the core of this portrait of politically motivated injustice. Emma Thompson also turns in a fine performance as the lawyer who stubbornly battles for Conlon's exoneration. And Day-Lewis, who won the Academy Award for Best Actor in MY LEFT FOOT, an earlier collaboration with director Sheridan, adds to his impressive body of work with a mind-boggling performance erupting with rage, pride, heart, and courage. [More]
Starring: Daniel Day-Lewis, Emma Thompson, John Lynch, Corin Redgrave
Starring: Daniel Day-Lewis, Emma Thompson, John Lynch, Corin Redgrave, Mark Sheppard, Beatie Edney, Marie Jones, Britta Smith, Pete Postlethwaite
Director: Jim Sheridan
Director: Jim Sheridan
Reviews for In the Name of the Father
Letter-perfect performances from Day-Lewis and Postlethwaite do a lot more than a dozen editorials to make an unforgettable point about the miscarriage of justice.
Sheridan's movie seeks to engage and enrage. It's not, however, a film with an ideological axe to sharpen, but one which unfolds, with a sense of passionate conviction, a story of injustice.
Sheridan takes a controversial subject and gives it wider appeal by focusing on the family drama of two men who are also political prisoners.
Most of the way ... this is rousing stuff, and the performances -- especially those by Day-Lewis and Postlethwaite -- are definitely Oscar-caliber.
Passionate true-story about an Irish youth who was wrongfully convicted of a terrorist act.
As good a compromise of fact and fiction as you could hope for -- and still call it a movie.
This film, although still being good, had capacity to be really great.
In this powerful, Oscar-nominated movie, Jim Sheridan infuses a fact-based social injustice drama with a more intimate family tale of estranged father and son, splendidly played by Daniel Day-Lewis and Peter Postlethwaite.
The film offers layers of dramatic detail for those who might be confused at points but teased to inquire further.
The brilliance of Jim Sheridan's motion picture is that we come to view every event from the perspective of how it impacts on the relationship between Gerry and his father, in whose name the final struggle is fought.
Daniel Day-Lewis gives one of his greatest performances, disappearing into the character the way he did in My Left Foot and A Room With a View.
The acting's so good it frequently transcends the simplicities of the script, and whenever Day-Lewis or Postlethwaite is on-screen the movie crackles.
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