Ryan McNeil
Just before the lights dimmed, I wondered why a smaller film about the IRA struggles would choose a title so similar to a famously Oscar-nominated movie? These are the things that pass through my sleep deprived brain these days.
Fifteen years ago, it felt like every month there was a new IRA film hitting screens. These days, with the ugliest moments of violence behind us, and new ugly violence happening elsewhere in the world, the stories of Irish violence are fewer and further between. But everything old eventually becomes new again, so perhaps the time was right for FIFTY DEAD MEN WALKING.
Jim Sturgess (ACROSS THE UNIVERSE) stars as Martin McGartland, a young man with no life direction who finds himself getting recruited by the IRA. As he rises through the ranks, he is contacted by a British Intelligence officer (Sir Ben Kingsley) looking for an informant. Persuaded to do the right thing, and save innocent lives from the violence, Martin works as a snitch, and happens to keep many British officers one step ahead of the viciousness burning up the streets of Belfast in the early 80’s.
It wasn’t bad, but unfortunately FIFTY DEAD MAN WALKING faces the inevitable comparison to all the stories of Irish unrest that have come before. While the movie is well made, and Sturgess does his best to draw you in, the movie lacks the humanity, urgency, and tension of all its cinematic forefathers. It was a noble attempt, but the film fails to set itself apart. It steps up to the microphone, but finds itself with very little to say.
This was the final showing of FIFTY DEAD MEN WALKING at TIFF 08. It does not yet have wide release information. This is a film I’d probably advise waiting for DVD.