This is how it was

Rating: 10/10 (13 August 1999)

Having lived through this whole period as an Irishman in Britain I could smell the authenticity of the film, from the drug-addled squats of the early 1970s to the joy experienced by so many Irish people when the Guildford 4, the Birmingham 6 and all the other Irish people who were framed were finally released because the lies were no longer plausible enough.
The acting is superb beyond belief and some of the scenes are so harrowing that they aren't easy watching, particularly if you have, like me, shared a milieu with people like Gerry Conlon. You get the feeling:"It could so easily have been me, since they were just looking for some Irish people to set up."
Despite criticisms that the screenwriters rejigged parts of the story to make them more dramatic (and to edit a few details that might have distracted attention from the main story - after all, real life is messier than the movies) I don't remember similar criticisms when history was rewritten to make it more dramatic in films like Zulu, Rorkes's Drift, Young Winston or Lawrence of Arabia, which tend to fit better into the British imperial self-image.
A highly political film, but still highly effective on a personal level. The central performance of Daniel Day-Lewis is riveting. And the soundtrack adds brilliantly to the atmosphere. A must for all fans of political films.