Essay Questions

In changing some facts to suit the dramatic objectives of the movie, how does Jim Sheridan open the movie to criticism from historians and others who disagree with his account of the events?

The question of accuracy in this movie is a complicated one. Jim Sheridan admits changing certain key facts with the sole intention of making the film more dramatic and to add tension, for example, showing Gerry and his father sharing the same cell, which never actually happened. Recreating one key fact in this way opens the door to suggestions and questions about how many of the other key moments in the film that are presented as facts are in reality exaggerations or additions by the director for the sake of the storyline or for dramatic impact. The larger question of accuracy pertains to the question of the innocence of the Guildford Four; the movie stays more or less true to the book which inspired it, but the book is written from the standpoint that innocent men were wrongfully imprisoned rather from the standpoint of whether the evidence led the police to a justified arrest, the agenda of the author of the book being presented as fact in Sheridan's film. This understandably did not resonate with the families of the victims of he pub bombings who felt that almost every part of the movie was presented without impartiality and with a particular political intention in mind.

Daniel Day Lewis is renowned for immersing himself in a role. What are some of the ways in which he prepared to play Gerry Conlon?

Daniel Day Lewis went to great lengths to prepare himself for this role and not just to play Gerry Conlon but to almost become him for the duration of production. He lost over fifty pounds in weight and also spent three nights in a jail cell at considerable physical danger to himself; other prisoners would bang on his cell wall with metal cups to prevent him from going to sleep and he also went through interrogation by Special Branch operatives for nine hours to try to gain an understanding of why a man would confess to something as heinous as being involved in a bombing and mass murder if he had not really done it. He requested that the crew were verbally abusive to him and that they throw things at him whilst the movie was in production and during the entire filming process he would only talk with a broad Northern Irish accent both on and off the set.

How is the father/son relationship between Gerry and Giuseppe presented in the film?

The relationship is shown to be a difficult one because Gerry is like many Don's who rail against their father's authority and the two clash antlers like two male stags fighting for dominance. Gerry comes across as rather bitter about their relationship and for quite some while appears either oblivious to, or in denial of, the ways in which Giuseppe has been trying to protect him from the life that he himself leads. The most interesting part of their relationship is that their terrorist ties seem to follow a "like father, like son" pattern and it is apparent that Giuseppe is far more active within the IRA than Gerry is. Gerry seems to have an epiphany about his father after he dies in custody, fueling Gerry to fight for justice for Giuseppe even though his father won't be alive to witness his son's new found loyalty.