It is the seventies. MAN, is it the seventies, man. This movie is determined to establish THE HELL out of the fact that it is, indeed, the seventies - by any means necessary. In Ireland, the IRA is waging a war against the British government through riots and bombings. Gerard Conlon (Daniel Day-Lewis) is a, sort of, hippy drifter with little allegiance to either side. But after the bombing of two pub in England, he finds himself and his friends and family accused of creating and planting the bombs.
Under pressure from the government, the police suppress inconvenient evidence and obtain confessions through psychological torture. Several people including Gerard Conlon and his dad are sentenced to rot in prison for years until the case builds that the convictions should be appealed.
Based on a true story, this movie is part courtroom drama, part prison movie and part other courtroom drama. And when Gerard and his dad go to the same prison - even becoming cellmates - it adds a father-son plot-line.
Daniel Day-Lewis is (obviously) extremely good and the script has the gravity of a true story but there's something missing. Every single element of the movie is something we've already seen before in other movies. The police are corrupt baddies, the trial is a mockery of justice, life in prison is cruel and the lawyer who wants the case reopened sure is full of pluck and moxy.
It's a horrible injustice that really happened, and in modern times but, as cinema, it's a real problem when every aspect of a movie is a movie cliche. Drama turns to melodrama and its heavy-handedness in drawing out outrage from the viewer sometimes feels like a Lifetime movie of the week.
5/10.
Total Top "250" Movies Seen: 365.
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