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The Devil's Own (1997)

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85 comments in total

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49 out of 66 people found the following comment useful :-
Why must Hollywood meddle in things it doesn't understand?, 14 mayo 2001

Author: Howlin Wolf de Oldham, Gtr Manchester, England.

I say this making no pretense at completely understanding the Irish conflict myself (you'd have to ask someone with experience of Belfast for a more authentic take on the situation), but the irresponsible way the troubles were used here as a backdrop to what is supposed entertainment staggers me. It isn't as if it needed this detail; the terrorist could have been from any unspecified organisation. In the incompetent handling of sensitive issues that the makers really have no idea of, the production team involved in this really have let themselves down. Brad Pitt realised this too late and henceforth disowned the film, a fact which made me admire and respect him even more.

For this I wanted to hate the film, and yet found myself unable to. Beneath the misbegotten attempts at 'political comment', there is a decent little thriller struggling to get out. Pitt is great as the terrorist (dodgy accent aside) and Ford is as reliable as ever in the role of the honest cop. Director Pakula keeps the story moving at all times and stages the action well. Despite all these pluses, I constantly felt uncomfortable at the ways in which the script tried to manipulate my sympathies. While it's not quite enough to make me downgrade the film on an enjoyment level, it loses big points from an ethical perspective. Shame on you Tinseltown.

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38 out of 55 people found the following comment useful :-
Inaccurate, 1 marzo 2003
Author: Glenn Walsh de Belfast

This film is just a second-rate thriller which uses Northern Ireland as a convenient backdrop to add colour. Unfortunately, the portrayal of Belfast and the terrorists and intelligence community is stereotypical, romanticised and hugely inaccurate. The gun battle at the beginning is just ludicrous and from then on the film becomes a showcase for nauseating Irish-American 'culture,' all blarney and dreaming of the 'oul country. The acting doesn't help as Ford sleepwalks and Pitt can't maintain the accent. It is possible to make good thrillers set in Northern Ireland which do not dodge the politics and have sensitivity, but none of them have been made by US production companies. 'Harry's Game' is by far the best example, devastatingly accurate closely followed by 'The Children of The North' and the black comedy 'Divorcing Jack' more recently. See these and give this Hollywood rubbish a miss.

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34 out of 53 people found the following comment useful :-
One Sorry Mess, 11 junio 1999
Author: Allie-18 de Dublin, Ireland

There seems to be a certain template for making "Oirish" movies in Hollywood. Add some or all of the following ingredients to your movie script - Aran Sweaters, a sub-Deliverance rural setting, comely maidens with red hair, a village idiot (teeth optional), impromptu céilís and dancing at the crossroads, priests, drunken violence and the obligatory "Ooh arr, begorrah" accents and you have an Irish film. And if you want some controversy, why not try to tackle the situation in Northern Ireland by adding in some IRA men for good measure. Unfortunately, the Devil's Own has quite a few of the aforementioned clichés in abundance.

It is a great shame that with a cast and director of this calibre, they couldn't have come up with something better. There have been very few, if any, decent films ever made about Northern Ireland and perhaps it's time Hollywood stopped trying to put forward its own take on it, especially when it is as cack-handed as The Devil's Own. Not only is the whole movie grossly offensive to Irish people, and anyone else with a brain, but it is a dangerous message to be sending out to gullible Irish Americans. It's time film-makers stopped buying into the idea that the IRA are noble warriors when in fact they and others of their ilk are terrorists, pure and simple.

Avoid this like the plague. Brad Pitt's accent is the least of the problems in this film. He just isn't convincing as the cold-blooded killer he is supposed to be - he's far too nice. Harrison Ford is his usual reliable self but too much of the movie is taken up with a largely irrelevant sub-plot featuring himself and Ruben Blades as his police partner. At times, The Devil's Own seems like an IRA film mixed up with NYPD Blue.

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38 out of 62 people found the following comment useful :-
It's an Ammurkan film not an Oirish one., 26 octubre 2001
Author: Martin Knight de santa barbara ca

In this, perhaps the worst film ever about Northern Ireland, we see the true arrogance of the Hollywood film machine. They take one of the world's political hotspots as background, twist the situation in a ridiculous and inflammatory way, and then market this bilge in the sure knowledge that the American public is too stupid to know better and that foreigners are either star-struck morons or will just have to lump it. The preposterous action sequences alone should have been enough reason for the execs to get out of their hot tubs long enough to cancel this project but perhaps that would have messed up their hair. This is a film that leaves no cliche unturned in its fevered depiction of Oirland including the reluctant but noble urban terrorists, the lovely redheaded Colleens that love them, and the annoying pipe music that follows them everywhere: it's a sap's paradise.

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25 out of 42 people found the following comment useful :-
Better if you do not expect an action (and especially not a thriller) film, 16 enero 2005

Author: Brandt Sponseller de New York City

As a child in Ireland, Frankie McGuire (Brad Pitt) sees his dad gunned down for his involvement with the Irish Republican Army (IRA). As an adult, McGuire has followed in his dad's footsteps. When the IRA decides it needs more firepower, they hatch a plan that involves McGuire going to the United States to pick up a shipment of Stinger missiles. Through American IRA contacts, McGuire adopts a false identity and housing is arranged with a non-involved Irish family headed by New York City cop Tom O'Meara (Harrison Ford).

There is an impression that The Devil's Own is an action film. The Internet Movie Database has it listed as "Action/Drama/Thriller". Although there are some action elements in the film, this is really a tragic drama, almost in a classical sense, and it's best to approach the film with only that genre in mind. The plot is fairly complex and the film tends to move slowly--much more slowly than a typical actioner or thriller.

The heart of the story is McGuire's relationship with O'Meara and his family. All of the other material--the IRA stuff, the mob and terrorist stuff, the New York City cop stuff, and so on, are not the focus. Those elements are present to help establish characterization, to build the relationship and understanding between McGuire and O'Meara, and to provide a justification for the developments in the film, and particularly the conclusion, which all have poignant things to say about the decisions that we make and why we make them.

The film largely succeeds if seen from this dramatic perspective. It's not quite a 10, however, as it always seems slightly distanced from the viewer. It's an 8 out of 10 for me.

(This comment was originally posted on January 16, 2005 and ended with the above. The following was added much later after reading through some other user comments:) We should not forget that even though it takes elements from the real world to construct its story, The Devil's Own is NOT intended to be journalistic or a documentary. There is no claim that it is giving an accurate portrayal of political situations, and it's not intended to campaign for one side or another in a real-world political situation. This is fiction, folks, and should be judged _as fiction_. For that, you should forget about what you know of the real world, and assess the story, images and sounds you experience from your television. Does the story work as a self-contained entity? Are the performances good? Is it visually attractive/rewarding? Those are the kinds of things we should be judging.

For me, The Devil's Own succeeded as a drama about relationships, with its poignancy arrived at primarily by making two people from very different worlds, with very different outlooks, learn to see things from different perspectives.

That's great if you're very knowledgeable about Northern Ireland in the real world and if you have strong opinions about terrorism. However, your knowledge and opinions on that stuff have nothing to do with this film.

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17 out of 29 people found the following comment useful :-
It's not an American stoory, it's an Oirish oon!, 20 julio 2000
Author: (meisterpuck@yahoo.com) de detroit, michigan

A large part of Brad Pitt's genius as a movie star is his ability to pick scripts. "The Devil's Own" certainly indicates a lapse in judgment, but to a Hollywood tough guy, an IRA role is irresistible. You get a leather jacket, a ski mask, a machine gun and a cool accent. The Ulster accent is, as every movie star knows, very easy to master: just randomly scramble your vowel sounds, say "fook's seek" frequently--and you're Oirish!

But far more laughable than the accents are the action scenes, which are so badly choreographed and edited, it's hard to believe the film is a Hollywood product. First there is Sean and Frankie's shootout with "half the fookin' army," which they win. Then they escape because the British forget to watch the back door. Also, there is the mysterious appearance of a vast forest in the middle of downtown Belfast, into which IRA terrorists can easily escape when cornered. Next there is the shootout with Billy Burke, in which Frankie somehow manages to fire three rounds from a double-barrelled shotgun (taking out a sniper who, oddly enough, falls forward from the impact of a shot in the chest), retrieves his pistol and fires the same shot twice--hitting Billy Burke, who for some reason counted to ten before lunging for his own gun.

The biggest mistake was in casting Harrison Ford, a lead man who commands $20,000,000 per film, and putting him in a supporting role, which of course had to be rewritten and elevated to a co-lead. The result: instead of a film about an IRA terrorist who comes to the States to buy munitions (which is a good precept), we get a film about a New York cop who's got an IRA terrorist living in his basement. Anyone who initially proposed such a story to the studio would have been turned down, and that would have been fortunate for all involved.

In fairness to Pitt, he did try to walk away from the project, and in order to save face, ridiculed the movie before it hit the theaters, which suggests that he had more sense than anyone else on the set.

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19 out of 33 people found the following comment useful :-
*** Insert Equally Pretentious Review Name Here ***, 8 mayo 2004
Author: Karl Self de Yurp

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

There are a number of Hollywood productions that use a foreign political conflict as a cheap backdrop for an action flick to give it a sense of urgency and authenticity -- many of which, incidentally, Harrison Ford chose to star in (I always get confused and mix up The Devil's Own with Patriot Games and Clear And Present Danger, mainly because Harrison always seems to play the same, generic character with the same, generic wife), but this one manages to take the price for most dubious politics AND being dead boring as well. Quite a number of commentators seem to take the view that "hey, it's not a documentary", but I wonder whether their reactions would have been the same if the "freedom fighter" had been Palestinian ("his father has been killed by the Israelis and now he's out to buy Stinger missiles to fight back against the occupation of his home land") or Iraqi ... I dare say that the reception wouldn't have been quite so sympathetic. As it is, the movie stands for a time before 9-11, when the US position on terrorism was slightly less well defined, if not totally different altogether.

But even taken as mere entertainment, this flick fails miserably. Starting with the preposterous title; then there is only one blood-guns-and-explosions action scene, at the very beginning (noble freedom fighters vs. the Forces Of Evil). Next, both the good guy and his opponent are, ahem, good guys, which necessitates the introduction of some more bad guys to keep the plot moving: namely the weapons dealer (boy, didn't they ever try hard to make him look sinister -- I was already expecting a scene where he serves beer to some college kids without asking to see their licenses first) and Harrison's cop colleague; actually, when he first showed up I thought that he looked somewhat sinister for a good guy --pock marks, greasy hair, Hispanic -- until a bit further in the movie it miraculously turns out that, naturally, he IS a baddie after all! Director Alan Pakula masterfully rounded this off with some of the most nauseating cinematographic stereotypes in the book -- especially the use of quaint Irishy flutes full blast whenever the subject comes to Ireland, but I also found the scene where the two terrorists play war with water hoses quite memorable. In a way I'd wager that because the film tries so hard to cover up its sympathies for the militant Irish Republican cause it derails so badly in the entertainment department.

But like I said, this movie is quite interesting, if only for historical and political reasons. Nowadays you it would be impossible to produce a movie which so blatantly justifies terrorism (now that the US have become the victim) or that portrays the British so badly (now that they have become allies #1). Watch this as an example for how quickly attitudes can change.

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29 out of 53 people found the following comment useful :-
A shamelessly simplistic film that is offensive in its depiction of the Northern Ireland situation and also a flat and boring piece of "entertainment", 19 abril 2005
Author: bob the moo de Birmingham, UK

Having become public enemy number one thanks to his murders of RUC, Army and Loyalists alike, Francis McGuire is being hunted by the British Army. With his freedom-fighting brothers being executed by the cruel and ruthless British, Francis has NO CHOICE but to illegally travel to America in order to purchase Stinger missiles from Afghanistan to use them to bring about a United Ireland by blowing up British helicopters. Being put up by family man and cop Tom O'Meara, Francis makes his connections but "they" are closing in on him while Tom also starts to suspect something is up.

In America, many seem to have an idealised view of Northern Ireland and perhaps do lots of things in their minds to justify (or just ignore) the terrorism that occurs there but even Pitt saw this film as "a mess" and "the most irresponsible bit of film-making – if you can even call it that – that I've ever seen" and trust me when I say that he isn't wrong at all. From the very start, those with any sort of knowledge or understanding of the NI situation will recognise some perversion of facts in the running gun battle that occurs and the way that senior British officers simply execute a prisoner. You could be mistaken for hoping that this was a one-off but the entire film is sympathetic to terrorism and never misses a chance to twist reality, justify it or simplify when it can. In case I'm accused of being a typical Prod and anti-IRA, I would like to point out that terrorism on both sides of the divide is unacceptable and is nothing about "fighting for independence" or any other such wonderful ideals – in fact in the past few years the victims are mostly within the groups' own community and the "action" is more about crime such as drugs etc.

It is only slightly interesting to view in this the light of events since 11th September and the recent murder of a catholic man by the IRA over a minor barroom squabble. Can you imagine this film being made about a man from the Middle East who turns to terrorism against the West due to events he witnesses – can you imagine such an idea ever being OK'd? Hopefully the recent murders, punishment crimes and the massive bank robbery will have served to show the US that Northern Ireland terrorist groups are no different, regardless of what this film tries to show. The bias and care taken to win the extremist support is even shown in how the film has an entire subplot with Tom's partner and a bad shooting to show how Tom will turn his back on people when it is "the right thing to do" – thus in part excusing him for eventually having to take a stand against Francis and, by default, the IRA.

Maybe it is unfair to rip at this film for being totally irresponsible, insulting and truly offensive to me personally and the thousands who have died and the countless who continue to suffer under the self-proclaimed authority of these groups; no, maybe it is unfair to watch this as anything other than the piece of entertainment that it is. However even on this level the film is rubbish; it drags, has no sense of realism, nothing to emotionally involve you in the characters and a total lack of pace. The action is overblown, stupid and lacking excitement; meanwhile the narrative is plodding in both development and delivery.

With all this going on and the rumours of massive onset fights, one could perhaps forgive the cast for being awful but what can't be forgiven is Brad Pitts' accent. It is about the worst I've heard and those who defend it have simply not talked to enough people from Northern Ireland. It's only one of his problems though and he can't make a character that works out of the mess he has been handed. Ford is sturdy and seems to be off in his own little movie for part of the film – in fairness he is probably the strongest bit of the film but that isn't saying a lot. Support from Blades, Williams, McElhone and others all comes to nothing and they certainly can do nothing to stop the rot.

Overall this is a terrible film that is not only a poor piece of entertainment but an offensive treatment of a complex situation that involves politics and terrorists. I won't harp on about it but I hope that those who think I'm over the top will stick with me for one more moment. During September 1992 (when the film shows a raging gun battle between the evil army and a band of freedom fighters/IRA) the following people lost their lives in the struggles (ages in brackets): Peter McBride (18), Samuel Rice (30), Charlie Fox (63), Tess Fox (53), Michael Macklin (31), Leonard Fox (50), Gerard O'Hara (18) and Harry Black (27). All of these 8 people were civilians. One of them was a suspected member of a terrorist group and one was a former member of the UVF but the other six had little or no connections (Charlie & Tess Fox were shot because their son was in the IRA). Only one of the 8 was killed by the British Army and, to counter the depiction of the British officer coldly killing the terrorist without any comeback it should be noted that the shooting of McBride by a UK soldier ended with the two soldiers involved being sentenced to life in prison. Be careful of what Hollywood feeds you – have your own mind…these are real people, not an action movie.

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13 out of 22 people found the following comment useful :-
One Of Both Harrison's & Pitt's Best Films, 28 febrero 2006

Author: ccthemovieman-1 de Lockport, NY, United States

Harrison Ford has done a done a considerable amount of movies I have really enjoyed and this is one of my favorites. It has a great story, good acting, nice photography and a pleasing soundtrack. It also has an excellent mixture of violence and lulls, not overdoing either and some excellent suspense. All of that adds up to a good two hours of entertainment.

I think this is more of a man's movie. Well, I know it is since there really isn't any romance angle in here, even though the two leads - Ford and Brad Pitt - are very popular with most women.

Pitt also excels in here as the IRA terrorist who is extremely bitter, violently so, since as a young boy he witnessed his father's murder. It has to be one of Pitt's best performances.. Ford plays a New York City cop and an honest, good one at that, which is nice to see in a modern-day film in which filmmakers prefer to show corrupt policemen. Another very strong point of this film was the ending. When you read someone writing it was "unsatisfactory," don't believe it. Morally, the only objection I had to this film - other than the Lord's name in vain - was too much credence given to Pitt's revenge and violent lifestyle being "understandable" under the circumstances. No, sorry, but as sweet as revenge is to all of us, it shouldn't be condoned.

I love the Irish music in here, especially the final song sung during the ending credits. It's beautiful, so don't just the film off too soon.

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4 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
Thriller With Northern Ireland Backdrop, 12 noviembre 2001
Author: john smith de lONDON

I'm sure that many viewers will point out with venim that the film was inaccurate with regard to the conflict in Northern Ireland, as well as Brad's accent, which, personally, I thought he had put some work into.

The film is basically a thriller using the N.I conflicts as a backdrop to generate the pathos for the film; so anyone watching it to see an angle on the troubles will be disappoiinted.

However it gave Pitt a chance to show off his ability to be directed and follow staged fight scenes. He was his usual brilliant self at emotional expression.

The purpose of his journey to The States was almost glossed over with the film relying on the first few scenes to show why he had such a vengful purpose.

The title of the film is fairly misleading, as it serves only as an extra tag line. This is NOT a deep or meaningful film in any way, nor does it contain much accurate historical fact. The 'morphing' of the young boy after seeing a close family member being shot was a little hurried, but served to get you into the rhythm of the film.

As there were very few people actually hunting or chasing him on screen except for Ford, his worth for information/intelligence as far as those around him were concerned was almost nil.... but his intentions were far more sinister.

Maybe the point of the film was to demonstrate that to win the cause closest to your heart or carry out duty through conscience or revenge, you may have to kill the person who gets in your way. Either way the wasting of a life comes down to the same thing no matter how it's done.

I realise that it must have been a rather insulting film to those close to the troubles, in terms of trivialisation and attitude, but to repeat my earlier comment, the title of the film was a little misleading, and it may have given rise to higher expectations.

However Pitt's accent wasn't that bad, and his mannerisms were clearly worked on, and all in all the film was entertaining.

At least the film allowed you to reach your own conclusion at the end, and didn't particularly force any political points on the viewer.

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