I'd first seen this movie perhaps a year or so after it was theatrically released via a home video rental. My interest back then in seeing it was focused mostly on Mickey Rourke as the lead. I recall that I thought back then in 1988 A Prayer For The Dying wasn't a great movie but was a film I certainly didn't dislike.
Watching it recently in 2022 for the first time in more than a few years, I'd say my opinion on the film has more than somewhat diminished.
The downgrading of my estimation doesn't have to do with the subject matter or the general terms of the plot, which concerns an Irish Republican Army (IRA) assassin on the run. That subject matter did cause a lot of people back in the 1980's to disparage the film before it was even released, perhaps understandably so to a degree: whatever one thought of the IRA pertaining to the righteousness of cause, the tactics the IRA used via bombing public places/persons/buildings were brutal and elicited repulsion. These emotional factors didn't inhibit my ability to view the movie fairly. I didn't have a political stance, pro or con, toward the IRA.
I would say that upon the recent viewing I do find there are elements of the film that had the potential to produce a more compelling movie than what eventually was released. The subject matter itself was certainly unique re: the IRA assassin angle. In addition, the film had a lot of very capable actors in addition to Rourke by way of Bob Hoskins, Alan Bates, Liam Neeson and Sammi Davis. It's a very British film due to the settings (mostly taking place in London) and characters. Rourke plays the IRA assassin convincingly enough in that his Irish accent and mannerisms are passable. The plot has a lot of components and different threads of the story, from the IRA assassin to a priest to a London crime boss to some IRA operatives searching for the assassin to a prostitute employed by the London crime boss to a niece of the priest the assassin befriends...whew! A lot for the viewer to keep track of, to say the least.
I've never read the book the movie was based on, but another feeling I had with my recent viewing was that this story was complex enough to the point where it would have been better served as a novel and was probably ill-suited as a subject of a film from the get-go. Simply put, there are 4 subplots and upwards of a dozen primary characters one has to keep track of. In that respect, the editing of the film keeps jumping around from those 4 subplots and dozen characters throughout the movie. It's not confusing so much as it is needlessly jumbled which tends to blunt the dramatic effect. The subplot involving Liam Neeson and his female cohort could have been left on the cutting room floor since ultimately those two characters have no impact upon the main thrust of events.
All of that to one side, the ultimate reason I downgraded A Prayer For The Dying has to do with numerous situational plot holes resulting in the viewer constantly wondering why any given character is making the choices they are making when a different, more realistic choice would provide the result they are seeking with more ease and less chance of something happening to derail their desired result. Being that this is a 35-year-old movie, I'm not too worried about giving too much away and therefore can ask the following questions in this review (none of which will give away the conclusion of the movie):
Would an IRA bomber wait until just before a military convoy he desires to blow up passes by to put his bomb into place, doing so in broad daylight? Would he set the bomb on a timer with barely enough time made to get clear from the blast site? Wouldn't he rather detonate the bomb remotely? Would it be necessary for said bomber to be observed by two IRA cohorts from a couple hundred yards away? Wouldn't it make more sense for just one IRA member to place the bomb and detonate it remotely?
If a London crime boss is looking to murder a rival London crime boss, surely for purposes of avoiding detection it would be unwise to contract an IRA assassin on the run to perform the crime. Does the London crime boss not have anybody in his employ he can use to perform the murder? Why subcontract it out to an IRA assassin being chased by the London police, Scotland Yard and Interpol? Even if opting to go with the IRA assassin, if the plan was to then assassinate the assassin why put said assassin up in your brothel for a week and allow him to wander around London?
If you are said IRA assassin and you kill said London crime boss, why not just stay at the brothel until you make your escape? Why hang around and continually visit the area adjacent to the murder scene, running the risk of being caught by the police?
I won't belabor the point re: plot holes other than to say what I mentioned were only a few of the many in the movie. In addition, the viewer is clearly supposed to feel some sympathy or empathy for Rourke's IRA assassin because he claims to have seen enough killing, yet even after constantly saying so he continues to either physically assault or murder people when not trying to seduce the young, naive and blind niece of a priest.
A Prayer For The Dying is overall a rather unsatisfying attempt to fuse political and religious themes for dramatic purposes, unrealistic in terms of the actions happening onscreen, emotionally downtrodden, bleak and despite the serious nature of the subjects in real life terms the movie uses those elements in very silly ways to tell a pointless story. 3 stars for the acting and the brave nature of the ending.
Watching it recently in 2022 for the first time in more than a few years, I'd say my opinion on the film has more than somewhat diminished.
The downgrading of my estimation doesn't have to do with the subject matter or the general terms of the plot, which concerns an Irish Republican Army (IRA) assassin on the run. That subject matter did cause a lot of people back in the 1980's to disparage the film before it was even released, perhaps understandably so to a degree: whatever one thought of the IRA pertaining to the righteousness of cause, the tactics the IRA used via bombing public places/persons/buildings were brutal and elicited repulsion. These emotional factors didn't inhibit my ability to view the movie fairly. I didn't have a political stance, pro or con, toward the IRA.
I would say that upon the recent viewing I do find there are elements of the film that had the potential to produce a more compelling movie than what eventually was released. The subject matter itself was certainly unique re: the IRA assassin angle. In addition, the film had a lot of very capable actors in addition to Rourke by way of Bob Hoskins, Alan Bates, Liam Neeson and Sammi Davis. It's a very British film due to the settings (mostly taking place in London) and characters. Rourke plays the IRA assassin convincingly enough in that his Irish accent and mannerisms are passable. The plot has a lot of components and different threads of the story, from the IRA assassin to a priest to a London crime boss to some IRA operatives searching for the assassin to a prostitute employed by the London crime boss to a niece of the priest the assassin befriends...whew! A lot for the viewer to keep track of, to say the least.
I've never read the book the movie was based on, but another feeling I had with my recent viewing was that this story was complex enough to the point where it would have been better served as a novel and was probably ill-suited as a subject of a film from the get-go. Simply put, there are 4 subplots and upwards of a dozen primary characters one has to keep track of. In that respect, the editing of the film keeps jumping around from those 4 subplots and dozen characters throughout the movie. It's not confusing so much as it is needlessly jumbled which tends to blunt the dramatic effect. The subplot involving Liam Neeson and his female cohort could have been left on the cutting room floor since ultimately those two characters have no impact upon the main thrust of events.
All of that to one side, the ultimate reason I downgraded A Prayer For The Dying has to do with numerous situational plot holes resulting in the viewer constantly wondering why any given character is making the choices they are making when a different, more realistic choice would provide the result they are seeking with more ease and less chance of something happening to derail their desired result. Being that this is a 35-year-old movie, I'm not too worried about giving too much away and therefore can ask the following questions in this review (none of which will give away the conclusion of the movie):
Would an IRA bomber wait until just before a military convoy he desires to blow up passes by to put his bomb into place, doing so in broad daylight? Would he set the bomb on a timer with barely enough time made to get clear from the blast site? Wouldn't he rather detonate the bomb remotely? Would it be necessary for said bomber to be observed by two IRA cohorts from a couple hundred yards away? Wouldn't it make more sense for just one IRA member to place the bomb and detonate it remotely?
If a London crime boss is looking to murder a rival London crime boss, surely for purposes of avoiding detection it would be unwise to contract an IRA assassin on the run to perform the crime. Does the London crime boss not have anybody in his employ he can use to perform the murder? Why subcontract it out to an IRA assassin being chased by the London police, Scotland Yard and Interpol? Even if opting to go with the IRA assassin, if the plan was to then assassinate the assassin why put said assassin up in your brothel for a week and allow him to wander around London?
If you are said IRA assassin and you kill said London crime boss, why not just stay at the brothel until you make your escape? Why hang around and continually visit the area adjacent to the murder scene, running the risk of being caught by the police?
I won't belabor the point re: plot holes other than to say what I mentioned were only a few of the many in the movie. In addition, the viewer is clearly supposed to feel some sympathy or empathy for Rourke's IRA assassin because he claims to have seen enough killing, yet even after constantly saying so he continues to either physically assault or murder people when not trying to seduce the young, naive and blind niece of a priest.
A Prayer For The Dying is overall a rather unsatisfying attempt to fuse political and religious themes for dramatic purposes, unrealistic in terms of the actions happening onscreen, emotionally downtrodden, bleak and despite the serious nature of the subjects in real life terms the movie uses those elements in very silly ways to tell a pointless story. 3 stars for the acting and the brave nature of the ending.