The steamroller of the British state security system flattens one Gerry Conlan and turns this unlikely petty thief into a radical.

Rating: Null/10 (12 June 1999)

Director Jim Sheridan has crafted a finely nuanced cross-section of the "Irish Troubles" seen through the filter of a gradual father/son reconcilliation.
The both of them, father and son, are clumsily, but brutishly sucked into the dark belly of one of Britian's maximum security prisons. Here Daniel Day-Lewis, as Gerry, the son, innocent of the terrorist bombing he's accused of committing, gets to first befriend a bona-fide terrorist, then see him commit a politically-motivated attack, close up.
Here's where the story turns. Daniel Day-Lewis, despite his self-loathing and bitterness, rejects the violence of his friend and recognizes his "Da's" dogged determination to right the wrongs done to them as a proper outlet for his rage and grief stemming from his horrible misfortunes.

Conlan's character does what all radicals do. He's able to remove himself and his momentary storm of emotions from a larger perspective, and see clearly what havoc the system has done to him. And he has done so in a stirring, contradictory and ultimately heroic way.