In the Name of the Father Blu-ray Review
That was then, this is now.
Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman, May 5, 2013
It probably goes without saying that Daniel Day-Lewis is among the most esteemed actors of his generation, and some
might argue that he is
the most esteemed actor of his generation. Day-Lewis became the only performer to
have won three Best Actor Academy Awards when he was feted this year for
Lincoln (trivia buffs will know that Walter Brennan won three Best
Supporting Actor Oscars and Katharine Hepburn won
four Best Actress awards over the course of her
long career, though one of those she had to share with that young upstart Barbra Streisand, so that might average out
to 3 1/2.) Day-Lewis has become such a legendary figure for his precise Method approach to his roles that he actually
became one of the funniest punchlines of this year's National Correspondents' Dinner in Washington, D.C. (the perhaps
aptly nicknamed "Nerd Prom"), where an hilarious short film purported to show Steven Spielberg's follow up to
Lincoln, an outing about the current resident of the White House (a certain Mr. Obama), with Spielberg
announcing that after wondering who could play the President, he had finally realized the answer was staring him right
in the face during the filming of
Lincoln: Daniel Day-Lewis. Barack Obama himself then appeared in the short,
playing Day-Lewis playing Obama (it's more confusing to read than it was to
see), to uproarious effect. But one
has to assume that if given the opportunity (and ignoring the "politically incorrect" firestorm that would arise from such
a casting choice), Day-Lewis would have made a perfectly believable Obama, such are the abilities of this impeccably
gifted performer. One of Day-Lewis' non-winning Academy Award nominations came for the 1993-1994 drama
In
the Name of the Father, a reteaming of Day-Lewis with writer-director Jim Sheridan, the man who had directed Day-
Lewis to his first Oscar in
My Left Foot in 1989. (That two year release schedule above is due to the fact that
Sheridan chose to premiere
In the Name of the Father in Ireland—an appropriate choice, given the subject
matter—in late 1993, while the worldwide rollout didn't occur until early 1994.)
"The Troubles", as they've been so euphemistically called through the years, need to be understood in order to place at
least some of what happens in
In the Name of the Father in context, though the film's general thesis of a
massive
injustice being perpetrated against innocent people can certainly be understood outside of the film's sociopolitical
milieu. At the
core of this conflict is a heady mix of national and religious identity issues. Northern Ireland, unlike Ireland itself, has a
Protestant majority and a Catholic minority, and decades (some might say centuries) of discrimination against that
minority
had reached a boiling point that was only exacerbated by the fact that the Catholic minority wanted to expel the
supposed British occupiers and reunite their land with the rest of Ireland. Part of this conflict can of course be traced
back
to the whims of one Henry VIII and his obsession to father a male heir, which had the perhaps unforeseen
consequences
of divorcing England from the Catholic Church and the creation of the Anglican Church, which then sought to wipe out all
vestiges of so-called "Popism". Part of those attempts included massive influxes of Britishers to Northern Ireland, many
of
whom were granted land that was usurped from the natives. While Ireland remained
relatively independent
(any
Irish reading this will no doubt want to argue with that assessment, but I repeat
relatively), Northern Island
was
almost seen as yet another "colony" of England, being ruled from afar and being dictated to in terms of what it should
believe and how it should worship. This conflict and all of its entangled ramifications, which may
strike outsiders as patently odd, continues in some form or fashion to this day.
In the Name of the Father begins first with a literal bang as we first see the Guildford Pub being blown apart by
an
bomb planted by the Provisional Irish Republican Army and then with a framing device that allows Gerry Conlon (Daniel
Day-Lewis) to narrate snatches of the film
and to provide some context. An attorney named Gareth Peirce (Emma Thompson) is driving around London while
listening to cassettes of Conlon in her car. Conlon begins to relate the tortuous history of his adult life. While some
aspects of this true story have been at least slightly fictionalized, quite a bit of what it portrays actually
happened. Gerry
Conlon isn't exactly a meek and retiring soul and in fact has been engaged in some petty criminal activity
as Conlon's memories begin, activity which ironically gets him in trouble with both the IRA and the occupying British
forces. His
well meaning parents, including his father Giuseppe (Pete Postlewaithe, another Oscar nominee
for this film), decide that it's probably best to get Gerry out of Belfast for a while and send him to London, a place where
Gerry's tendencies toward hedonistic pursuits have plenty of opportunity to flower. Gerry makes a spectacularly ill
timed return to Belfast with an uncharacteristically large amount of money (due to having robbed a prostitute's flat) in
the wake of a disastrous pub bombing masterminded by the P-IRA (a
"militia" of the Catholic Northern Ireland minority dedicated to getting the British out of their land) that has left several
British soldiers and one civilian
dead. Gerry soon becomes one of the prime suspects in the bombing and finds himself hauled away to prison in
London. Gerry's concerned father also travels to London, but soon finds himself swept up in the rabid investigation and
is soon jailed himself as a co-conspirator.
Without belaboring what takes up the bulk of the middle section of the film, suffice it to say a horrifying travesty of
justice ensues, with Gerry, his father and several other innocent people wrongly accused and convicted (twice—once on
appeal) of having masterminded the Guildford bombing. The film moves on to a devastating portrayal of the two
Conlons, father and son, locked up together in prison (one of the few silver linings in this scenario is that the two are
allowed to room together, though there is a bit of family dysfunction that may keep part of that silver lining hidden from
Gerry at least). What's ultimately so horrifying about this turn of events is that the police knew almost instantly that
the Conlons had absolutely nothing to do with Guildford and yet they sat on the evidence, for no really good reason
(
could there have been a good reason?). Gareth Peirce almost by accident discovers the cover-up and is finally
able to achieve a modicum of salvation, albeit too late for one major character.
What's so frighteningly prescient about
In the Name of the Father, and something that is almost incredibly
relevant due to the heated debate (and rhetoric) that has recently sprung up in the wake of the abhorrent Boston
Marathon bombings, is how a government should respond to terrorism. In the wake of repeated IRA terrorist attacks,
the British Parliament had enacted a very tough anti-terrorism law that allowed them to hold any suspects for up to
seven days without charging them with anything. This actually sounds relatively reasonable given the current state of
affairs where enemy combatants are held in a sort of judicial limbo seemingly forever, which is of course part of the
major national debate we in America have been having for years. This debate has also focused on the recent Boston
case with some wondering why the surviving suspect was "Mirandized" so quickly and not forced to undergo weeks (if
not months or years) of interrogation.
In the Name of the Father makes a very potent case that governmental
overreach is all that led to the (forced) confessions of Gerry and his cohorts, simply because they were being tortured
and threatened with horrifying potential calamities if they didn't "come clean".
The film is a devastating emotional experience if only because Conlon, obviously no angel (as one of his own relatives
mentions at one point), is so completely powerless in the situation. Sheridan and his co-writer Terry George keep
things focused on the human toll this sad state of events exacted on Conlon and the other innocent defendants rather
than dwelling on the underlying political (and religious) subtexts (though those are certainly well in evidence). It was a
brilliantly incisive film upon its initial release but it seems almost psychically attuned to what we've been living through
recently. Different religion(s) and a different government, but many of the same issues roil around those of us in the
United States even now and
In the Name of the Father is a cautionary tale that offers some disturbingly
compelling portraits of imbalances that can occur when terrorism rears its exceedingly ugly head.
