An honourable piece of cinema

Rating: 8/10 (22 June 2001)

Being an account of a true story, this movie has to be assessed both as a film in it's own right and as a historical documentation which reflects the reality of the events.
On the first count, it is excellent: Pete Postlethwaite and Daniel Day-Lewis sympathetically portray the wrongfully imprisoned father and son and wonderfully develop their relationship from warring factions to reconciliation with love and respect for each other. The film is clear in it's position and focuses on this angle, keeping many of the judicial complications to a minimum and works well because of it. Demonstrating the closeness that can be between people achieved against tremendous adversity and condemnation.
As a direct result of this, the film suffers from the factual angle, mainly because Gerald and Giuseppe were never actually imprisoned together. However, other than this, the story seemed to stay fairly close to the main historical facts surrounding the Guildford 4 trial and should be commended for trying to inform about this tragic happening, rather than glorify it in order to attract viewers.
All in all, Jim Sheridan and everyone who worked on this film should feel proud of what they have created, a film which informs and entertains both as a factual account of events and as a tale of tolerance and acceptance both socially and within the family unit.