A powerful story with one of the best performances of all time.

Rating: 10/10 (30 December 2007)

An emotionally wrenching and immensely powerful true story of an innocent man who is put in prison for fifteen years, after being forced by interrogators to sign a confession out of the threat that they'd kill his father if he didn't, and this man's fight to clear his name and his father's. Due to an incident with the IRA, Gerry Conlon (Daniel Day-Lewis) moves to London and after a chance opportunity to rob a prostitute he returns to his home in Belfast, coincidentally the day after a huge bombing committed by the IRA in London. His best friend, who was with him that night, Paul Hill is arrested and after being forced to confess with a gun in his mouth he lists Conlon and two other friends as members of the IRA. Now known as the Guildford Four, these innocent people were all sentenced to very lengthy jail sentences and, after painful torture, the government plants false accusations on members of Conlons' family including his father Giuseppe (Pete Postlethwaite). Gerry has to deal with pent-up aggression that he has built up against his father for years while also trying to survive in a British prison as an accused IRA member.
Even after Joe McAndrew (Don Baker) is arrested and confesses to the police that he was behind the Guildford bombing and the people they have in prison were innocent, Gerry and Giuseppe remain in prison suffering more and more by the day. Eventually Giuseppe begins working with Gareth Pierce (Emma Thompson) to investigate their case and prove the innocence of the Conlons and the other members of the Guildford Four. After Giuseppe dies of natural causes, Gerry gains a new drive to prove their innocence and takes over the task of working with Gareth. The film is a powerful character study of a man put under unimaginable circumstances and has the discipline to rise up and, along with Pierce, prove the innocence of not only himself but of his father and the other three members of the Guildford Four. It's an immensely heart-wrenching, emotional story that had me in tears several times throughout.
Highlighting this sensational film is Daniel Day-Lewis who further proves that he is the greatest actor of all time and delivers what I believe is the best performance of his career. Taking on the role of Gerry Conlon requires the ability to subtly flow from a naive, immature young man to a disciplined adult working to clear the name of his father. Along that journey there are several highly emotional scenes that could have felt melodramatic or silly if another actor were portraying the man, but Day-Lewis brings a power to Conlon that no one else could. His brilliance is unparalleled. Pete Postlethwaite and Emma Thompson also deliver fantastic performances that rank among the best of the 90s. In the Name of the Father is a phenomenal film that studies the torture that one man had to go through due to the government and the journey he took to clear his name and the name of his father. It's the best film of 1993, in my eyes and Day-Lewis' portrayal is very high among the best performances of all time.