In the Name of the Father

12 November 2018

In the Name of the Father

• Director: Jim Sheridan
• Based on the autobiography of Gerry Conlon
• Cast: Daniel Day-Lewis, Pete Postlethwaite, Emma Thompson, John Lynch, Beatie Edney, Mark Sheppard, Corin Redgrave, Phil Davis, John Benfield
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Daniel Day-Lewis – Nine, There Will Be Blood, Gangs of New York, The Boxer, The Crucible, The Age of Innocence, The Last Mohican, My Left Foot, Stars and Stripes, A Room with a View, My Beautiful Launderette, Gandhi
• Pete Postlethwaite – Inception, The Constant Gardener, The Shipping News, Amistad, The Usual Suspects, Brassed Off, Romeo & Juliet, The Last Mohican, Aliens 3, Hamlet
• Emma Thompson – The Love Punch, Beautiful Creatures, Harry Potter, An Education, The Boat that Rocked, Nanny McPhee, Last Chance Harvey, Brideshead Revisited, Stranger than Fiction, Angels in America, Love Actually, Wit, The Winter Guest, Sense and Sensibility, The Remains of the Day, Much Ado About Nothing, Peter’s Friends, Howards End, Dead Again, Impromptu, Henry V, The Fortunes of War, Tutti Frutti
• John Lynch – The Fall, Merlin, Sliding Doors, Some Mother’s Son, Moll Flanders
• Beatie Edney – Poldark, Wallander, A Touch of Frost, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Morse, A Handful of Dust
• Mark Sheppard – Doctor Who, The X Files
• Corin Redgrave – The Girl in the Café, To Kill a King, Shackleton, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Excalibur, Oh What a Lovely War, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
• Phil Davis – Poldark, Merlin, Case Histories, Brighton Rock, Sherlock, Another Year, Doctor Who, Notes on a Scandal, Bleak House, Rose and Maloney, Vera Drake, Nicholas Nickleby, Secrets and Lies, Alien 3, Morse
• John Benfield – Prime Suspect, Spender, Titus Andronicus, The Winter’s Tale
• Why? The cast, the subject
• Seen: 11 November 2018      

       1974. A bomb in a pub in Guilford, England.

       Gerry Conlon (Day-Lewis) is a petty thief in Belfast, being chased by the IRA and British soldiers. A riot ensues. His Da Guiseppe (Postlethwaite) sends him off to London to keep him out of trouble. He and his old friend Paul (Lynch) join a hippie commune. It doesn’t go so well, some of them don’t like the Irish. Gerry and Paul end up on a park bench with an old Irish homeless man. And that’s when the bomb goes off nearby.

       Gerry robs a hooker and they go to a hotel. They buy fancy hippie clothes. Gerry goes back to Belfast. Paul is arrested. Some of the hippies are arrested. Then Gerry is arrested and brought back to London. His father goes to help him.

       Gerry, Paul and the others are brutally interrogated, terrorised, manipulated and forced to sign confessions. His father, his aunt and her family are arrested. Guiseppe and Gerry are put in the same cell where old father-son conflicts emerge.

       The trial. The verdict. The sentencing. Prison. The campaign for justice. Enter lawyer Gareth Pierce (Thomson).

       It’s a compelling story with compelling acting.

       Anti-terrorist laws are still being used to oppress the innocent.

5* of 5