Directed by Jim Sheridan, this movie stars Daniel Day-Lewis as Gerry Conlon and Pete Postlethwaite as Guiseppe Conlon.
Movie starts out in British occupied Belfast Northern Ireland in the early 1970s. Daniel Day-Lewis plays the role of Gerry Conlon a young Irish man from a modest working class family. Rebellious by nature, Gerry and his friends tend to engage in small time theft and burglary. One day while attempting to flee pursuing English soldiers, Gerry and friends end up causing a small riot. Fearing for what trouble their son may eventually end up in, Gerry's father Guiseppe sends his son off to England to live with his aunt Annie, away from the chaos involving the English occupation forces and the IRA resistance movement. Once in England, Gerry and his schoolmate buddy Paul Hill decide to stay at a hippie commune where they spend their time in idle bliss. One night when a bomb goes off at a pub located in Guildford, England, 5 people are killed and many others injured. Under intense pressure to catch the terrorists, the police wrongly arrest Gerry and some of his hippie friends. Tortured, Gerry and friend Paul Hill both sign a statement confessing to the bombing despite their non-involvement. The British legal system would eventually sentence what became known as the "Guildford Four" as well as Gerry's father to jail terms ranging from 4 years to life. Being a young male Irish from a working class family with a criminal record, Gerry fits the profile whom British police have sketched in their minds as being the perpetrator of the pub bombing. Although indeed Gerry did commit some wrongs, his real crime is being at the wrong time and the wrong place, and being Irish. The movie is based on Gerry Conlon's autobiography titled
In the Name of the Father: The Story of Gerry Conlon of the Guildford Four, it was earlier published by the title of Proved Innocent. On the night of Oct 5, 1974 two pubs frequented by British soldiers is bombed, killing 5 and leaving many others injured. The pubs were located in Guildford, a small town outside of London. Following this bombing more bombings ensued. In their fervor to catch the perpetrators the British police cast a wide net and end up wrongly arresting and convicting Gerry Conlon, his friends and family. On November 28, 1974 when the British government enacts the Prevention of Terrorism Act, this grants British police with sweeping powers one of which is the right to arbitrarily detain people for 7 days and 7 nights without needing to charge them with any crime. The movie depicts how Gerry's ill father is arrested as an accomplice in the bombings. Gerry's father suffering from pulmonary thrombosis would eventually die in jail after serving 15 years. He would be buried in Milltown Cemetery, Belfast. The movie shows how the police seem to be preoccupied with engaging themselves in a witch hunt as opposed to trying to find out whether or not Gerry is the real perpetrator. Indeed in 1987 it's revealed that the police headed by Robert Dixon actually suppressed evidence which seemed to exonerate Gerry. In 1989, the convictions of the Guildford Four is overturned. Unfortunately none of the British police are convicted of having done any wrong, an eternal black mark tainting the professionalism and integrity of the British police as well as the British legal system. It is outrageous how Robert Dixon as portrayed in the movie seems to be totally focused on getting Gerry and his family convicted of the Guildford pub bombings despite being presented with evidence to the contrary. In the face of evidence pointing to the contrary as well as an admission of guilt by Joe McAndrew, the real perpetrator of the Guildford pub bombing, the inability of the British legal system and its police force to face the truth and admit its own guilt in its scapegoat convictions of innocent people is outrageous, frustrating, almost incredible, and makes this a great fantastic revealing movie.
