In the Name of the Father
Encyclopedia
In the Name of the Father is a 1993 biographical film
directed by Jim Sheridan
. It is based on the true life story of the Guildford Four, four people falsely convicted of the IRA's Guildford pub bombings which killed four off-duty British soldiers and a civilian. The screenplay was adapted by Terry George
and Jim Sheridan
from the autobiography Proved Innocent: The Story of Gerry Conlon of the Guildford Four by Gerry Conlon.
) is shown in Belfast stripping lead from roofs when the security forces home in on the district with armoured cars, and the dustbin lids beat out a riot. His father later saves him from IRA justice, as they are about to kneecap him, and he is sent off to London for his own good. There he finds a squat, to explore, as he puts it, "free love and drugs." The evening when he walks off with some money from a prostitute's flat is when an explosion at a pub in Guildford
kills five people and wounds 65.
Returning to Belfast to share his fortune, the house is raided by special forces who arrest the whole family. Gerry and his friend are interrogated by police who torture and threaten them until both finally agree to sign a confession. In the subsequent trial, his aunt's family (the Macguire seven including his father) are convicted of supporting the bombing on the basis of unsubstantiated nitroglycerine traces, and the four, including Gerry, are sentenced to long terms of imprisonment.
His time in jail shows a progression from a bitter son who rails at his father to an awakening when he discovers the real perpetrator of the bombing in the same jail. When this man sets fire to a hated jailer, Gerry is the one who saves him with a blanket. Gerry takes over the fight for justice himself when his father dies in custody.
A campaigning lawyer (Emma Thompson
) who has been trying to talk to Gerry has a break when she tries to access his father's file and is able to look instead at Gerry's, finding a file marked "Not to be shown to the Defence". This leads to a triumphant scene in court when she produces the evidence that the police officers have been lying all the way through, which leads to the acquittal of all the accused.
at the 44th Berlin International Film Festival
.
The film was also nominated for seven Academy Awards
, including Best Actor in a Leading Role
(Daniel Day-Lewis), Best Actor in a Supporting Role
(Pete Postlethwaite), Best Actress in a Supporting Role
(Emma Thompson), Best Director
, Best Film Editing
, Best Picture
and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium
.
and written by Bono
, Gavin Friday
, and Maurice Seezer
. It also includes "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)" performed by The Jimi Hendrix Experience
.
The soundtrack on sale featured these songs:
Biographical film
A biographical film, or biopic , is a film that dramatizes the life of an actual person or people. They differ from films “based on a true story” or “historical films” in that they attempt to comprehensively tell a person’s life story or at least the most historically important years of their...
directed by Jim Sheridan
Jim Sheridan
Jim Sheridan is an Irish film director. A six-time Academy Award nominee, Sheridan is perhaps best known for his films My Left Foot, In the Name of the Father, Get Rich or Die Tryin and In America.-Life and career:...
. It is based on the true life story of the Guildford Four, four people falsely convicted of the IRA's Guildford pub bombings which killed four off-duty British soldiers and a civilian. The screenplay was adapted by Terry George
Terry George
Terry George is an Irish screenwriter and director. Born and raised in Belfast, Northern Ireland much of his film work involves the Troubles in Northern Ireland...
and Jim Sheridan
Jim Sheridan
Jim Sheridan is an Irish film director. A six-time Academy Award nominee, Sheridan is perhaps best known for his films My Left Foot, In the Name of the Father, Get Rich or Die Tryin and In America.-Life and career:...
from the autobiography Proved Innocent: The Story of Gerry Conlon of the Guildford Four by Gerry Conlon.
Synopsis
Gerry Conlon (Daniel Day-LewisDaniel Day-Lewis
Daniel Michael Blake Day-Lewis is an English actor with both British and Irish citizenship. His portrayals of Christy Brown in My Left Foot and Daniel Plainview in There Will Be Blood won Academy and BAFTA Awards for Best Actor, and Screen Actors Guild as well as Golden Globe Awards for the latter...
) is shown in Belfast stripping lead from roofs when the security forces home in on the district with armoured cars, and the dustbin lids beat out a riot. His father later saves him from IRA justice, as they are about to kneecap him, and he is sent off to London for his own good. There he finds a squat, to explore, as he puts it, "free love and drugs." The evening when he walks off with some money from a prostitute's flat is when an explosion at a pub in Guildford
Guildford
Guildford is the county town of Surrey. England, as well as the seat for the borough of Guildford and the administrative headquarters of the South East England region...
kills five people and wounds 65.
Returning to Belfast to share his fortune, the house is raided by special forces who arrest the whole family. Gerry and his friend are interrogated by police who torture and threaten them until both finally agree to sign a confession. In the subsequent trial, his aunt's family (the Macguire seven including his father) are convicted of supporting the bombing on the basis of unsubstantiated nitroglycerine traces, and the four, including Gerry, are sentenced to long terms of imprisonment.
His time in jail shows a progression from a bitter son who rails at his father to an awakening when he discovers the real perpetrator of the bombing in the same jail. When this man sets fire to a hated jailer, Gerry is the one who saves him with a blanket. Gerry takes over the fight for justice himself when his father dies in custody.
A campaigning lawyer (Emma Thompson
Emma Thompson
Emma Thompson is a British actress, comedian and screenwriter. Her first major film role was in the 1989 romantic comedy The Tall Guy. In 1992, Thompson won multiple acting awards, including an Academy Award and a BAFTA Award for Best Actress, for her performance in the British drama Howards End...
) who has been trying to talk to Gerry has a break when she tries to access his father's file and is able to look instead at Gerry's, finding a file marked "Not to be shown to the Defence". This leads to a triumphant scene in court when she produces the evidence that the police officers have been lying all the way through, which leads to the acquittal of all the accused.
Cast
- Daniel Day-LewisDaniel Day-LewisDaniel Michael Blake Day-Lewis is an English actor with both British and Irish citizenship. His portrayals of Christy Brown in My Left Foot and Daniel Plainview in There Will Be Blood won Academy and BAFTA Awards for Best Actor, and Screen Actors Guild as well as Golden Globe Awards for the latter...
as Gerry Conlon - Pete PostlethwaitePete PostlethwaitePeter William "Pete" Postlethwaite, OBE, was an English stage, film and television actor.After minor television appearances including in The Professionals, Postlethwaite's first success came with the film Distant Voices, Still Lives in 1988. He played a mysterious lawyer, Mr...
as Guiseppe Conlon - John LynchJohn Lynch (actor)John Lynch is an Irish actor from Northern Ireland.-Biography:John Lynch was born in the United Kingdom and moved to his father's native home in Corrinshego, County Armagh, near Newry, County Down in Northern Ireland as a child. He attended St Colman's College, Newry, a Catholic school...
as Paul Hill - Mark SheppardMark SheppardMark Andreas Sheppard is an English actor and musician, born in London of an Irish-German background. He is often credited as "Mark A. Sheppard".-Personal life:Mark Sheppard is the son of actor W. Morgan Sheppard...
as Paddy Armstrong - Beatie EdneyBeatie EdneyBeatrice "Beatie" Edney is an English television actress.Born Beatrice Edney in London, she is the daughter of famous British actress Sylvia Syms and cousin of Nicholas Webb. Edney first came to audiences' attention as Heather MacLeod the 1986 film Highlander, the first film in the Highlander series...
as Carole Richardson - Emma ThompsonEmma ThompsonEmma Thompson is a British actress, comedian and screenwriter. Her first major film role was in the 1989 romantic comedy The Tall Guy. In 1992, Thompson won multiple acting awards, including an Academy Award and a BAFTA Award for Best Actress, for her performance in the British drama Howards End...
as Gareth Peirce - Don BakerDon Baker (musician)"Donald Baker" redirects here. You may be looking for the plaintiff in Baker v. WadeDon Baker is an Irish blues musician and actor....
as Joe McAndrew - Corin RedgraveCorin RedgraveCorin William Redgrave was an English actor and political activist.-Early life:Redgrave was born in Marylebone, London, the only son and middle child of actors Michael Redgrave and Rachel Kempson...
as Inspector Robert Dixon - Eileen AtkinsEileen AtkinsDame Eileen June Atkins, DBE is an English actress and occasional screenwriter.- Early life :Atkins was born in the Mothers' Hospital in Clapton, a Salvation Army women's hostel in East London...
as Cheryl Conlon - Joan CusackJoan CusackJoan Mary Cusack is an American film, stage and television actress. Throughout her career, Cusack has appeared in many films as well as appearing in stage productions....
as Jennifer Smalls - Gerard McSorleyGerard McSorleyGerard McSorley is a theatre, television and an Irish film actor.-Early life:He was born in Omagh, County Tyrone, and after attending a Christian Brothers school in his hometown he attended St. Columb's College in Derry. He then attended Queen's University, Belfast, where he was taught by among...
as Detective Pavis - Kathleen TurnerKathleen TurnerMary Kathleen Turner is an American actress. She came to fame during the 1980s, after roles in the Hollywood films Body Heat, Peggy Sue Got Married, Romancing the Stone, The War of the Roses, Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Prizzi's Honor...
as Elaine McAndrew - Frank HarperFrank HarperFrank Harper is a British actor and film producer. He is best known for his "Hard Man" roles, such as Billy Bright in The Football Factory , Dog in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels .-Career:...
as Ronnie Smalls - Fiona ShawFiona ShawFiona Shaw, CBE is an Irish actress and theatre director. Although to international audiences she is probably most familiar for her minor role as Petunia Dursley in the Harry Potter films, she is an accomplished classical actress...
as Marlene Dixon - Robert EnglundRobert EnglundRobert Barton Englund is an American actor, voice-actor and director, best known for playing the fictional serial killer Freddy Krueger, in the Nightmare on Elm Street film series. He received a Saturn Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors in...
as Michael Peirce - Jamie HarrisJamie Harris (actor)Jamie Harris is an English actor. He is the son of actor Richard Harris and socialite Elizabeth Rees-Williams. His two brothers are actor Jared Harris and director Damian Harris.-Life and career:...
as Deptford Jim - Jessica TandyJessica TandyJessie Alice "Jessica" Tandy was an English-American stage and film actress.She first appeared on the London stage in 1926 at the age of 16, playing, among others, Katherine opposite Laurence Olivier's Henry V, and Cordelia opposite John Gielgud's King Lear. She also worked in British films...
as Brooke Armstrong - Natasha RichardsonNatasha RichardsonNatasha Jane Richardson was an English actress of stage and screen. A member of the Redgrave family, she was the daughter of actress Vanessa Redgrave and director/producer Tony Richardson and the granddaughter of Michael Redgrave and Rachel Kempson...
as Susan Hill - Tom Wilkinson as Grant Richardson
Awards
In the Name of the Father won the Golden BearGolden Bear
According to legend, the Golden Bear was a large golden Ursus arctos. Members of the Ursus arctos species can reach masses of . The Grizzly Bear and the Kodiak Bear are North American subspecies of the Brown Bear....
at the 44th Berlin International Film Festival
44th Berlin International Film Festival
The 44th annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from February 10 to 21, 1994.-Jury:* Jeremy Thomas * Chinghiz Aitmatov* María Luisa Bemberg* Hsu Feng* Morgan Freeman* Francis Girod* Corinna Harfouch* Carlo Lizzani...
.
The film was also nominated for seven Academy Awards
Academy Awards
An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
, including Best Actor in a Leading Role
Academy Award for Best Actor
Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...
(Daniel Day-Lewis), Best Actor in a Supporting Role
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. Since its inception, however, the...
(Pete Postlethwaite), Best Actress in a Supporting Role
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. Since its inception, however, the...
(Emma Thompson), Best Director
Academy Award for Directing
The Academy Award for Achievement in Directing , usually known as the Best Director Oscar, is one of the Awards of Merit presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to directors working in the motion picture industry...
, Best Film Editing
Academy Award for Film Editing
The Academy Award for Film Editing is one of the annual awards of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Nominations for this award are closely correlated with the Academy Award for Best Picture. Since 1981, every film selected as Best Picture has also been nominated for the Film Editing...
, Best Picture
Academy Award for Best Picture
The Academy Award for Best Picture is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to artists working in the motion picture industry. The Best Picture category is the only category in which every member of the Academy is eligible not only...
and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium
Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay
The Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay is one of the Academy Awards, the most prominent film awards in the United States. It is awarded each year to the writer of a screenplay adapted from another source...
.
Soundtrack
The soundtrack of the film includes the song "You Made Me the Thief of Your Heart" performed by Sinéad O'ConnorSinéad O'Connor
Sinéad Marie Bernadette O'Connor is an Irish singer-songwriter. She rose to fame in the late 1980s with her debut album The Lion and the Cobra and achieved worldwide success in 1990 with a cover of the song "Nothing Compares 2 U"....
and written by Bono
Bono
Paul David Hewson , most commonly known by his stage name Bono , is an Irish singer, musician, and humanitarian best known for being the main vocalist of the Dublin-based rock band U2. Bono was born and raised in Dublin, Ireland, and attended Mount Temple Comprehensive School where he met his...
, Gavin Friday
Gavin Friday
Gavin Friday is an Irish singer and songwriter, composer, actor and painter.-Career:Gavin was born in Dublin and grew up in Finglas, a neighbourhood located on Dublin's Northside...
, and Maurice Seezer
Maurice Seezer
Maurice Seezer is an Irish musician, whose real name is Maurice Jebidiah Roycroft. He has frequently written and composed songs with Gavin Friday, who he first met through a mutual friend...
. It also includes "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)" performed by The Jimi Hendrix Experience
The Jimi Hendrix Experience
The Jimi Hendrix Experience were an English-American psychedelic rock band that formed in London in October 1966. Comprising eponymous singer-songwriter and guitarist Jimi Hendrix, bassist and backing vocalist Noel Redding and drummer Mitch Mitchell, the band was active until June 1969, in which...
.
The soundtrack on sale featured these songs:
- BonoBonoPaul David Hewson , most commonly known by his stage name Bono , is an Irish singer, musician, and humanitarian best known for being the main vocalist of the Dublin-based rock band U2. Bono was born and raised in Dublin, Ireland, and attended Mount Temple Comprehensive School where he met his...
& Gavin FridayGavin FridayGavin Friday is an Irish singer and songwriter, composer, actor and painter.-Career:Gavin was born in Dublin and grew up in Finglas, a neighbourhood located on Dublin's Northside...
- "In The Name Of The Father" (5:42) - The Jimi Hendrix ExperienceThe Jimi Hendrix ExperienceThe Jimi Hendrix Experience were an English-American psychedelic rock band that formed in London in October 1966. Comprising eponymous singer-songwriter and guitarist Jimi Hendrix, bassist and backing vocalist Noel Redding and drummer Mitch Mitchell, the band was active until June 1969, in which...
- "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)Voodoo Child (Slight Return)"Voodoo Child " is the closing track on Electric Ladyland, the third and final album by the Jimi Hendrix Experience. The song is known for its wah-wah-heavy guitar work. It is #101 on Rolling Stone's list of 500 greatest songs of all time....
" (5:09) - BonoBonoPaul David Hewson , most commonly known by his stage name Bono , is an Irish singer, musician, and humanitarian best known for being the main vocalist of the Dublin-based rock band U2. Bono was born and raised in Dublin, Ireland, and attended Mount Temple Comprehensive School where he met his...
& Gavin FridayGavin FridayGavin Friday is an Irish singer and songwriter, composer, actor and painter.-Career:Gavin was born in Dublin and grew up in Finglas, a neighbourhood located on Dublin's Northside...
- "Billy Boola" (3:45) - The KinksThe KinksThe Kinks were an English rock band formed in Muswell Hill, North London, by brothers Ray and Dave Davies in 1964. Categorised in the United States as a British Invasion band, The Kinks are recognised as one of the most important and influential rock acts of the era. Their music was influenced by a...
- "Dedicated Follower Of FashionDedicated Follower of Fashion"Dedicated Follower of Fashion" is a 1966 single by British band The Kinks. It lampoons the contemporary British fashion scene and mod culture in general...
" (3:00) - Trevor JonesTrevor Jones (composer)Trevor Alfred Charles Jones is a South African orchestral film score composer. Although not especially well known outside the film world, he has composed for numerous films and his music has been critically acclaimed for both its depth and emotion.-Career:At the age of five, Jones already had...
- "Interrogation" (7:11) - Bob Marley & The WailersBob Marley & The WailersBob Marley & The Wailers were a Jamaican reggae, ska and rocksteady band formed by Bob Marley, Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer in 1963. Additional members were Junior Braithwaite, Beverley Kelso, Cherry Smith and Aston and Carlton Barrett...
- "Is This Love" (3:51) - Trevor JonesTrevor Jones (composer)Trevor Alfred Charles Jones is a South African orchestral film score composer. Although not especially well known outside the film world, he has composed for numerous films and his music has been critically acclaimed for both its depth and emotion.-Career:At the age of five, Jones already had...
- "Walking The Circle" (4:42) - Thin LizzyThin LizzyThin Lizzy are an Irish hard rock band formed in Dublin in 1969. Two of the founding members, drummer Brian Downey and bass guitarist/vocalist Phil Lynott met while still in school. Lynott assumed the role of frontman and led them throughout their recording career of thirteen studio albums...
- "Whiskey In The JarWhiskey in the Jar"Whiskey in the Jar" is a famous Irish traditional song, set in the southern mountains of Ireland, with specific mention of counties Cork and Kerry, as well as Fenit, a village in county Kerry. It is about a Rapparee , who is betrayed by his wife or lover, and is one of the most widely performed...
" (5:44) - Trevor JonesTrevor Jones (composer)Trevor Alfred Charles Jones is a South African orchestral film score composer. Although not especially well known outside the film world, he has composed for numerous films and his music has been critically acclaimed for both its depth and emotion.-Career:At the age of five, Jones already had...
- "Passage Of Time" (5:52) - Sinéad O'ConnorSinéad O'ConnorSinéad Marie Bernadette O'Connor is an Irish singer-songwriter. She rose to fame in the late 1980s with her debut album The Lion and the Cobra and achieved worldwide success in 1990 with a cover of the song "Nothing Compares 2 U"....
- "You Made Me The Thief Of Your Heart" (6:21)
Filming locations
- Dublin DocklandsDublin DocklandsDublin Docklands is the area of the city of Dublin, Ireland, on both sides of the River Liffey, roughly from Talbot Memorial Bridge eastwards to the Point Depot.It is currently undergoing a large amount of development.-Projects:...
, Dublin, IrelandIrelandIreland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
(used for opening Belfast scenes) - Sheriff StreetSheriff StreetSheriff Street , known by locals as "Sheriffer," or "The Street" is a small area in the north inner city of Dublin, Ireland, lying between East Wall and North Wall and often considered to be part of the latter....
, Dublin, IrelandIrelandIreland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
(Sheriff Street flats complex (now demolished) used for riot scene) - Kilmainham GaolKilmainham GaolKilmainham Gaol is a former prison, located in Kilmainham in Dublin, which is now a museum. It has been run since the mid-1980s by the Office of Public Works , an Irish Government agency...
, Dublin, IrelandIrelandIreland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
(as Park Royal Prison) - LiverpoolLiverpoolLiverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
, EnglandEnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
(used for many London scenes) - ManchesterManchesterManchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
, EnglandEnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
(used for external court scenes)
See also
- Guildford Four and Maguire Seven
- Birmingham SixBirmingham SixThe Birmingham Six were six men—Hugh Callaghan, Patrick Joseph Hill, Gerard Hunter, Richard McIlkenny, William Power and John Walker—sentenced to life imprisonment in 1975 in the United Kingdom for the Birmingham pub bombings. Their convictions were declared unsafe and quashed by the Court of...
- Prevention of Terrorism ActPrevention of Terrorism Act (Northern Ireland)The Prevention of Terrorism Acts were a series of Acts of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1974 to 1989 that conferred emergency powers upon police forces where they suspected terrorism....
- Gareth PeirceGareth PeirceGareth Peirce is an English solicitor, educated at the Cheltenham Ladies' College, the University of Oxford and the London School of Economics. She is known for her work in high profile cases representing people with Irish and Muslim backgrounds accused of terrorism.-Personal life:Born with the...
- Historical and Cultural Context of In the Name of the FatherHistorical and Cultural Context of In the Name of the FatherHistorical and Cultural Context: In the Name of the Father is an analysis of 1993 film directed by Jim Sheridan based on the true life story of the Guildford Four, four people falsely convicted of the IRA's Guildford pub bombing which killed 4 off duty British Soldiers and a civilian...
- Irish Republican ArmyIrish Republican ArmyThe Irish Republican Army was an Irish republican revolutionary military organisation. It was descended from the Irish Volunteers, an organisation established on 25 November 1913 that staged the Easter Rising in April 1916...
- Dear SarahDear Sarah (film)Dear Sarah is a 1990 made-for-television film about Giuseppe Conlon who was sentenced to twelve years imprisonment after being implicated as one of the Maguire Seven during the 1970s. The film was produced by Raidió Teilifís Éireann, directed by Frank Cvitanovich and written by Tom McGurk...