oliverdearlove
This was finally shown on television - and was recommended as 'horrifically violent' - which it is. The bottom line is that he British persuade a teenager to inform on his ( freedom-loving ) or murderous colleagues and he turns to his task with enthusiasmI found the tension unbearable - having only lived thro a London bombing season which is nothing like the 'real thing'. Our Hero gets thro a road block by ringing his sister and the other fellow should know that he had no sister. Such small slips can lead to much greater breaks, and the plot is littered with them - leading to the suspense - will the IRA click our Hero is in fact no hero ?Various scenes seem unlikely but people have to realise it is a film and not a slice of real life. The torture ( IRA debrief ) scenes are horrifically graphic and presumably the IRA never learnt that rip off enough finger nails and the rippee will end up confessing to anything. None of the other reviewers seem to have wondered if people can be recognised, and whether the subplots were true - specifically if smaller fish ( our hero ) were sacrificed to save the identity of much bigger fish. I thought Delours Price got a decent look in ....The chief interrogator ( torturer ) was in real life unmasked as a British agent and the latter part of the film is devoted to the dastardly plan of flushing our hero down the John to save the identity of the torturer. Real life Freddie Scappaticci: see his interesting wiki entry. That accounts for the British MI5 man saying to the torturer at the very end let us call him Scappaticci - for chrissakes you are meant to have killed him by now ....I thought the hospital scenes OK - one point in real time the Belfast ITU was sprayed ( inside ) with machine gun fire so perhaps they were a tad underplayedso all in all - very watchable in a horrified - "did they, did we really do that?" sort of way ....
Jay Harris
Kari Skogland directed Micheal Davies screenplay based on Martin McGortland's book,on the authors 'adventures'first as a Belfast punk then a police informer who infiltrates the IRA & informs on them.Now I do not care how noble or righteous a cause may be, BUT an informer is at the bottom of the totem pole.Jim Sturgiss is effective as the troubled lad.Ben Kingsley is good as usual as the English cop who is his controller.Natalie Press is quite good as his young girl friend.There are many violent scenes including some good torture ones.Now here we come one of the points where I was turned off. All these action scenes are done using hand-held cameras. It reached a point where I could not tell what was being done to who & I really did not care.A few comments have been made on the thick accents. The DVD is closed captioned so I had no trouble this way.I normally like films about the IRA & the troubles with the English. There have been many movies on this subject over the years.This should have been a better film, I wish it were.Ratings: **1/2 (out of 4) 71 points (out of 100) IMDb 7 (out of 10)
kosmasp
Sometimes life gives us (or any director/screenwriter/producer etc.) stories, that are so amazing and touching, that a movie is inevitable. And although the "based on true ..." tag, might be like a cross/garlic to a vampire for some, I think it works here. The movie stays in a very raw and real environment.Jim Sturgess is the Center piece of course and you might have seen him in a couple of other movies. He is really great and he plays his characters (real people or fictional) with such an ease, that you can't distinguish, if he's actually acting or if that's just him on the screen. Which is a very good thing indeed. Based around his performance the movie seems to have some pacing problems, but then again since this is based on real events, that could be something we should expect. A good movie, with a great actor in it then.
filmsploitation
Phil's Quick Capsule Review: A gritty, dirty and violent look into the 80's & 90's conflicts in Northern Ireland, 50 Dead Men
is a highly enjoyable (if factually questionable), well acted and polished romp that is spoilt only by Ben Kinsley's stupid hair piece. IMDb Rating: 7/10Best Bit: TortureBuy, Rent or Borrow: RentIf you liked this try: Patriot Games (8/10); Devils Own (5/10); Blown Away (4/10)Phil Hobden For more reviews like this check out:http://www.mod-life.net/modlife/index_ugly.htm
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