In the Name of Respect, Dignity and Truth ...

Rating: 9/10 (10 February 2013)

After "My Left Foot", 1989' inspirational biopic of one of the most famous Irish artists, that received universal acclaim and earned his first Oscar to Daniel Day-Lewis, Jim Sheridan relates four years later another page of Irish history through "In the Name of the Father", a powerful and solid drama comforting Day-Lewis' reputation as one of the most talented actors of his generation.
"In the Name of the Father", chronicles the events that lead to the arrest of the infamous 'Guildford Four': four Irish people falsely accused and convicted for the bombing of the London pub of the same name. It's a nice directorial touch that the film opens with the explosion that killed five innocent persons, the very action that would imply a vengeance- ridden reaction from the British law. Innocent people would then pay for the crime, and this is the tragedy of Gerard Patrick Conlon, a feckless Irish lead stealer, who was in London at the wrong place, at the wrong moment.
Yet even as a true story, the injustice and level of sadism displayed by the British Police, with the relative complicity of the Court, seem unbelievable, flirting with the most one- dimensional kind of cinematic Manichaeism. This is where the context plays a crucial role: after a series of bombing terrorizing the British population, the Parliament voted a Terrorism Act allowing the Police to arrest suspects for seven days. Although the use of torture was prohibited, any other kind of pressure became legitimate and could be used to force the suspects to sign a confession, or their own convictions' papers.
We're in a sort of post September-11 like paranoia, where the British system, lacking all the necessary perspective to properly investigate the case would spot the perfect scapegoats to compensate their own ineffectiveness. Any rational mind wouldn't believe an IRA bomber or criminal mastermind would rob a prostitute and goes back to his home like Gerry did. But those were irrational, fear-induced times. The torture scenes benefits from the spectacular performance of Daniel Day-Lewis, as the tough hoodlum reveals a vulnerable side, demonstrating innocence in every single meaning of the word. The nervous breakdown is inevitable, marking the triumph of the sadist Police officer played by Corin Redgrave, followed by a tragic domino effect.
Gerry's friends and family are all arrested, including his father Giuseppe, a honest, hard- working and sensible man. It was Giuseppe who encouraged Gerry to leave Belfast for London, fearing an arrest because of his illegal activities. And Giuseppe, the character who revealed the immense actor who was the late Pete Potlewhaite, is the soul of the film. He incarnates both the educational background of Gerry: an apparent failure, and a constant guiding force meant to elevate his son, to a level of dignity despite the adversity. The titular father is Giuseppe, and the gap between him and Gerry would trace the line of Gerry's evolution and understanding process, the ultimate key of his moral triumph.
The roots of Day-Lewis' torments are to have given up the conflict against the system for the more convenient one: his father, the one who holds for being responsible of all his faults. By constantly patronizing him, Giuseppe forged Gerry's rebellious instinct. Gerry lost self- respect by blaming everything on his father. He never shared room with him, but this one fictionalization is perhaps the strike of genius because the best moments of the film all focus on the father-and-son relationship. Giuseppe accepts fate as it comes while Gerry fights back without thinking. Gradually, Gerry's experience will reveal the limits of his own perceptions, even when it comes to the Irish responsibilities.
The jail scenes plays a powerful counterpart to the black-and-white depiction of the British justice and are also the setting of the greatest and most emotional performances from the trio Day-Lewis, Postlewhaite and Emma Thompson as the British lawyer who'd reopen the case and allow the 'Guildford Four' to be rejudged, for an immediate release, fifteen years after the first sentence. Giuseppe would never be a free man and his death from pulmonary condition would forge the spirit of his son and give a meaning to his fight for Justice. Jim Sheridan's film is a powerful human drama featuring a magnificent and emotionally gripping metamorphosis of the central character.
However, the film suffers from a few flaws on the scenes' arrangements, a criticism I also had with "My Left Foot" whose clumsy editing left a few interrogation marks, notably on the relationship between Day-Lewis and his father. "In the Name of the Father" seems so eager to be a poignant father-and-son story, a character study that the trial part was treated with more rush, only leveraged by the powerful acting of Daniel Day-Lewis. A few less scenes would have allowed to focus on Thompson's investigation, and prevent the final trial from its rather abrupt or anticlimactic feeling, maybe less the trial than the way the pivotal evidence were found. However, this is rather a regret than a criticism, the film still relies on Day-Lewis tour de force and his believable transition from a young self-centered thug to a man who'd do his best to Honor the memory of his father
It's fitting that one of the scenes feature "The Godfather", especially the garden moment between Vito and Michael as the very scene represented the succession between the two persons, the transmission of heritage, between Giuseppe and his son, the transmission of common values. Conlon's personal fight would be to find out the part of him he had in common with his father, and make the most of it. In the Name of His Father.