I love movies from this timeperiod. They carry a vibe that's gone in modern day movies. Different camera action, less pace (even action movies) and a different psychology of the characters. TDO is not the best movie of it's genre, but Ford and Pitt bring a lot of weight to it. Pitt is charming as always, but is also convincing portraying a ruthless IRA commander. A decent script, lovely irish accents and convincing motives for the characters make this a nice movie for a sunday afternoon.
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waterman19767 December 2020
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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. -
This is a very mediocre movie, and a bad sign-off for Alan J. Pakula (who died a year later in 1998 from a car crash). Listen to Brad Pitt's awful accent for a few moments and you'll get a clear idea that this film is going nowhere.
It caused some controversy on release because of its simplified view of the IRA/Britain terrorism and some people (particularly Europeans I suppose) took offense to the fact that Brad Pitt's character is given a "motive" for what he does... and the film seems to sympathy with him.
Brad Pitt hated the film and Harrison Ford and him battled on set over who would become the focus of the film itself (apparently Pitt became upset because the script was re-written and his character was given less screen time).
I only recommend it to people who haven't seen many movies. Why? Because then the recycled dialogue, characters, plot, and performances may seem fresh.
But as it stands, "The Devil's Own" is a poor example of mediocre film-making. Or is that a "good" example of mediocre film-making? Whatever it is, the film is not anything special, and certainly not anything that hasn't been done before. -
Allie-1811 June 1999There 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. -
view_and_review14 October 2020One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter. Francis "Frankie" McGuire (Brad Pitt) was that man. He was an active member of the IRA. He was set on his IRA path at the tender age of eight when he saw his father murdered at the dinner table right in front of him. When he got older, he was one of the IRA's more effective members. His battle was a losing one unless he and his comrades could get missiles to shoot down the government helicopters and even up the fight. For that he'd have to go to America.
Frankie fled Belfast for New York. Once he got to America Frankie used the pseudonym Rory Devaney and roomed with Sgt. Tom O'Meara (Harrison Ford) while he coordinated the acquisition of missiles and transportation back to Ireland. Things didn't go quite as Frankie had hoped or planned and that's why we have a movie.
"The Devil's Own" was pretty good. I think it had a greater impact on individuals who were familiar with Ireland and the IRA. Perhaps it may have even had a deeper meaning and greater impact on anyone who is familiar with battles between radical groups and their government. As well as I followed the movie, it didn't fully draw me in.
There were parallel stories: Frankie and what I've already mentioned, and Tom O'Meara being an older honest cop in New York and all that entails. Frankie's story was more exciting and riveting while Tom's story was more pedestrian. The net total of the two stories added up to something--as I said--pretty good, but nothing to write home about. -
bkoganbing7 March 2007A quick survey of the reviews here, especially those from the United Kingdom and Ireland aren't exactly thrilled with the way the Irish troubles are presented. And it seems that nearly everybody doesn't like Brad Pitt's accent. I wonder what he did to prepare for the part. When he was in Sleepers playing an Assistant District Attorney, it was reported to me by friends who worked there that Brad spent some time just hanging around the Manhattan DA's office soaking up the atmosphere. It begs the question what he did and where he hung around to play Frankie McGuire, IRA terrorist.
Well the truce is holding there as I write these words. We can certainly pray it stays that way. I've always felt that the dirty little secret of Ireland is that the Republic long ago accommodated itself to losing those six counties and rejoiced in the fact it was the United Kingdom that had to deal with the problems. Looking at it that way it does make for the fact that all the violence seems to have been for naught.
But The Devil's Own does contain some universal truths. It's easy to make a terrorist if you've been through what Brad Pitt's character saw as a child. The Royal Ulster Constabulary could be every bit as nasty as the IRA was. Pitt saw his father shot down at the family dinner table as a child by masked gunmen. Knowing that we understand why he grew up the way he did. Grew up to become a most wanted person by the British.
After barely escaping from a gun battle with the British officials, Pitt gets a mission to go to New York and negotiate a purchase for stinger missiles from gangster Treat Williams. His directions come from George Hearn, who's a wealthy Irish American businessman who sends the IRA money, but never puts his own life on the line.
To keep his cover Hearn arranges for Pitt to stay with police sergeant Harrison Ford who is also of Irish background, but has no dealings at all with the politics of his ancestral home. Ford's a very upright and moral individual and he and Pitt form a bond that gets shattered when he finds out who he's opened his home to. Later on Pitt kills Ford's partner, Ruben Blades, during an escape and Ford takes it on himself to hunt him down.
Despite an accent that is making real Irish people cringe, both Pitt and Ford give moving performances in the film. I didn't find the film taking particular sides in this except why should the troubles of Ireland be visited on Harrison Ford and his family. If there is a villain in this film, that title should go to George Hearn without a doubt.
Friends tell me with the truce holding, the former IRA people finding little outlet for the skills acquired in terrorism now have gone into organized crime in a big way, especially in Belfast. It begs another question if Pitt survived to today, what might he be involved with now.
Given people's firm opinions on Ireland, I doubt if it is possible to make an Irish story that will satisfy all points of view. The Devil's Own isn't, but it does make a few valid points and is entertaining as well. -
ksf-21 December 2022Brad pitt, harrison ford. Frankie lives in ireland, in the early 1990s, where the irish republican army is alive and well. When he comes to the u.s., now he's rory, and staying with o'meara, a cop. Rory is here on a mission to get weapons to be used back home. When the deal goes bad, it brings violence to o'meara's door. And he's a cop, so he's got to do something! Small role for treat williams. It's mostly really good. It gets a bit awkward towards the end, but can't say too much. It feels like some scenes were cut out. The trivia section talks about reshoots and multiple script issues, but for the most part, it's not bad! The last twenty minutes were a bit choppy but overall, good story. Directed by alan pakula. Was nominated for some huge films over the years. Story by kevin jarre. At one point during the film, pedestrians walk past rory, humming the theme to rocky; jarre worked on several "rambo" projects with stallone. Died young at 56.
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moviesleuth230 June 2009Before 9/11, the subject of terrorism was never approached with any real vigor or understanding. For the most part, terrorists functioned as masses of bad guys for the hero to blow away in any number of ways. "The Devil's Own," a thriller heavily involving IRA terrorism, was made in 1997. Most likely this film wouldn't have been made post-9/11, and certainly not in the manner in which director Alan J. Pakula made it.
Frankie McGuire (Brad Pitt) is a notorious IRA terrorist who has been assigned to go to the US to pick up some stinger missiles. While there, he is staying with a family man (who also happens to be a cop) named Tom O'Meara (Harrison Ford). But Frankie runs into trouble with the gunrunner he's buying the missiles from (Treat Williams), putting both the lives of Frankie and Tom & his family in jeopardy.
The acting is solid. Harrison Ford has a pretty limited range, but when he's playing a role within that narrow window, he can be very effective. Tom O'Meara is not a complex part, and Ford is up to the task. There are certain similarities between Tom and President James Marshall from "Air Force One," but never mind. I've never been a Brad Pitt fan, but I have to admit, he has more talent than just being able to keep the tabloids salivating over his every move. Frankie (known to Tom and his family as Rory Devaney) is a charming, handsome man, but he's not against showing his brutal nature when the situation arises. He's a nice guy, but he's also very dangerous; Pitt never lets us forget that. Treat Williams is miscast as Billy Burke, the gunrunner. He tries to bring menace to the character by being one of those "pleasant" villains (the kind who mask their capacatiy for violence with an easygoing attitude). However, Williams isn't able to exude much menace this way. Ruben Blades is unmemorable as Diaz, Tom's partner, but Natasha McElhone is terrific as Frankie's contact, Megan.
"The Devil's Own" was the last film by Alan J. Pakula before he was killed in a tragic road accident. Pakula does does a solid job, although I have to question his handling of Frankie in the beginning. I've read some user reviews that claim that the film portrays IRA terrorists in a positive light, and doesn't do justice to the conflict. While I wouldn't go that far, I find some scenes rather unsettling because of concerns similar to this. Some of the scenes where Frankie and his cohort, Sean (Paul Ronan) are working on delivering the missiles are taken lightly, and are rather playful. This doesn't necessarily "hurt" the film (it builds sympathy for the character), but I think it was unwise to handle them in this way.
For a mainstream thriller, "The Devil's Own" is not as formulaic as one might think (save for the ending). We're never quite sure how the film is going to end up. But it's not perfect. -
kenn_loc16 February 2021It's an IRISH story! Great show, acting & story. Just a tad slow an lacking action/story a bit..
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stjohn12534 November 2015Does the film draw and hold the viewer's attention?
Granted, many of the criticisms have merit, and the fact that Pitt panned "The Devil's Own" before its release gives even more weight to them. Does plot integrity exist? No, the teller of the tale seems to have easily diverted to a "Serpico"-like subplot to justify one-too-many leading men. The film forces the audience to either keep its eyes open to avoid plot holes (and thus become cynics), or to close them and pretend that those holes really aren't that big (thereby suspending disbelief). Maybe too many Irish clichés? Yes, the "wearin' o' the green" theme never abates. Does plausibility take a backseat to expediency? Yes, in both plot and action.
Still, it held together as a drama. You root for the good guys and hiss at the villains. Pitt's ability to affect the audience speaks to his acting ability. Harrison Ford comes across as, well, Harrison Ford, but then he's not the true protagonist. Still, his presence gives gravity to the moral dilemma of "to rat, or not to rat."
So, in answer to the original question, the answer is yes. -
glennwalsh441 March 2003This 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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BrandtSponseller16 January 2005As 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. -
slightlymad2210 August 2014A thriller about an IRA gunman (Brad Pitt) who draws an American family into the crossfire of terrorism. Frankie McGuire is one of the IRA's deadliest assassins. But when he is sent to the U.S. to buy weapons, Frankie is housed with the family of Tom O'Meara, a New York cop (Harrison Ford) who knows nothing about Frankie's real identity.
Ford last appeared in a movie two years before this one in 1995's Sabrina (one of Ford's few financial flops) a remake of the 1954 film with its trio of stars, Audrey Hepburn, Humphrey Bogart, and William Holden. Before that he'd been on a good run with The two Jack Ryan movies (Patriot Games and Clear and Preset Danger) and The Fugitive.
Whilst Brad Pitt was starting to become the Mega Star he is hitting home runs with roles in Interview With A Vampire, Legends Of The Fall, Seven, 12 Monkeys and Sleepers.
You can see what attracted the stars to the movie as the premise is a good one, however once Ford was cast, it was decided to rewrite the script to make his character more central and the script wasn't finished when they started shooting. Ego clashes, budget overruns and long delays saw Pitt tried to walk away from the project. He settled for denouncing the movie as "the most irresponsible bit of film making – if you can even call it that – that I've ever seen." Upon it's release. The movies ending was reshot two days before it's release too.
As expected Ford and Pitt are the best things in this movie, and the parts where this movie works is because of them. It's a shame this was the last movie of Alan Jay Pakula because I like his work as a Director. Be it Klute, All The Presidents Men or Starting Over and Sophie's Choice he showed himself to be a good director.
Worth checking out at least once -
JamesHitchcock18 September 2009"The Devil's Own" is one of Hollywood's periodical ventures into the murky world of Irish politics. Harrison Ford, who stars here, had five years earlier starred in another such film, "Patriot Games". There is, however, a difference between the two films. "Patriot Games" is an action thriller which simply uses the Northern Ireland situation to provide a motivation for the bad guys; they happen to be Irish Republican terrorists, but they could equally well have been Islamic militants, or Russian spies, or Mafia hit-men, and it would have made little difference to the film. "The Devil's Own", by contrast, aims for something more ambitious.
The two main characters are Frankie McGuire, a member of the Provisional IRA on a mission to New York to purchase weapons, and his landlord Tom O'Meara, an Irish-American police officer. For about two thirds of the film Tom does not know that his lodger is an IRA man; indeed, he does not even know the young man's real name as Frankie is using the alias Rory Devaney. Tom is only enlightened towards the end of the film when he discovers in "Rory's" bedroom a bag containing millions of dollars. (Are the IRA so amateurish that they would entrust the money for their arms deals to a man who then leaves it under the bed in someone else's house?)
His discovery of the truth puts Tom in a difficult position. On the on e hand he disapproves of violence so cannot allow Frankie to go ahead with his plan to buy missiles for the IRA. On the other hand, he does not want any harm to come to the young man, so tries to protect him from the FBI and MI5 agents who are on his tail. (It is quite possible that the British security forces might set up hit squads to hunt down IRA men, but it seems highly unlikely that such squads would be permitted to operate on American soil with the full knowledge and cooperation of the US authorities).
There is also a sub-plot involving Tom's attempts to cover up for his partner Eddie, who has shot dead a criminal who was running from him. Tom tells his superiors that the man was armed, although he had already thrown away his gun before being shot.
I felt, however, that this sub-plot was never properly integrated into the main film. I was not surprised to discover that the film went through several rewrites after the original script was discarded, as it had the feel of a film written by a committee. Each member of the committee, moreover, appears to have had his or her own agenda. One member wanted to make an action thriller, a second wanted to make a political commentary on the Northern Ireland situation and a third wanted to make a character-driven psychological drama exploring Tom's ethical dilemma in having to choose between the demands of friendship and his obligation as a police officer to uphold the law. Eventually the chairman, who had the casting vote, ruled that the film would be a mixture of all three approaches.
There is, of course, nothing wrong with a film which attempts to work on several different levels. The trouble with "The Devil's Own" is that it doesn't really work on any of them. As an action thriller it is too slow moving, with most of the action crammed into the opening and the ending. As political commentary it is too obviously slanted towards a pro-IRA position with a misguided attempt to make Frankie a sympathetic figure. (That is perhaps only to be expected from Hollywood, particularly in its pre-9/11 period. Americans who approve of this should ask themselves how they would react to a British film which tried to glamorise Timothy McVeigh or the Unabomber). As a psychological drama it is dull and the Eddie subplot is never successfully integrated with the main action.
The film was turning out so badly that one of its main stars, Brad Pitt, wanted to leave the set and was only restrained from doing so by the threat of an injunction. Rather surprisingly, therefore, Pitt's performance is one of the better things about this movie. (His Irish accent, too, is quite convincing). He is certainly better than his co-star Harrison Ford who actually described this film as one of his favourites. Although Tom O'Meara is a role of the sort in which Ford normally excels- a decent, solid family man confronted with a crisis- his performance here is a dull, stodgy one, and not one of his best.
Overall, the film is a disappointment, despite its two major-league stars and its major-league director. This was the last film to be made by Alan J. Pakula before his tragic death a year later in a road accident. Pakula was responsible for some excellent films, notably "Sophie's Choice", so it is a shame that his career did not end on a higher note. 4/10 -
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. -
Beer19941 February 2021I created an account just for this review, due to the low ratings others have given. I mean, it is not the best movie I've seen, but it is not that bad it should be given 1's, 2's, or 3's, etc. It is not an action movie nor a thriller, but there is still some of both in this movie. Yes, 'aye' is a bit overused, but you will get used to it very quickly. I think Brad and Harrison did a fine job here.
In the end I found it enjoyable to watch on a relaxing evening with a glass of whisky. Just 'a movie' to watch without a lot of triggers and explosions or overthinking scenes. I think people should give it a chance and ignore other reviews. -
Rumples15 February 1999No question there was a pretty impressive cast, but there really seemed to be something missing from this movie.
I'm not surprised Brad wanted to walk on this film, it shows surprisingly good judgement. Basically, when you get down to it, this is a fairly simple tale of conspiring circumstances which just seems to go astray. It starts out somewhat promisingly but, by the end, is nothing more than maudlin.
My vote, 6/10. Don't bother with this movie unless you have to or you're obsessed with Brad Pitt. -
hotelfocus30 December 2014Forget the 'truth' of the Irish problem.
Just enjoy the movie on an 'as is' basis.
Brad Pitt rarely puts in a 'performance'. Happily neither he nor Harrisson Ford are playing a 'star' in this cops and terrorists caper.
Stay at the level of the director's pitch of the movie. Enjoy the plot, the nuances of the characters, the interplay of the characters.
And at an enjoyable level without any 'highbrow' attitude.
The dialogues are straight, to the point and stick to the story line.
This movie is great to 'pass the time' and still commendable for 'decent performances from good actors'. -
tnorden27 August 2019Brad Pitt's accent hits the nail on the head for this film. Wonderfully written story behind top notch acting. The casted roles were perfectly put together. If you enjoy a good thriller then this one is for you! Never a dull moment as we race through New York City! A police officer harbors an IRA (Irish Republican Army) runaway without notice of his actual whereabouts...
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jeroenberndsen118 May 2003At the time i wrote this, The devil's own stood a 5.7 average. which totally baffled me. Brad Pitt delivers a great perfomance as frankie MgGuire (I love his accent and Ford does not get behind. Some great scenes with the irish folk music and the overall score is good.
Their may be some over sentimental moments, but they did not bother me for a second. then why such a low average? I'm clueless...
I would say this is a movie almost anyone will enjoy! I give it an 8. -
sol121812 July 2009(Some Spoilers) Having just taken out about dozen British troops in a blotched ambush of his IRA comrades on the run IRA man Frankie McGuire, Brad Pitt, gets in contact with his American connection, in getting the hard pressed IRA much needed arms, Martin MacDuff, David O'Hara, who's now in hiding in the Northern Irish countryside.
MacDuff is negotiating a deal with US arms smuggler Irish Billy Burke, Treat Williams, for shoulder held stinger missiles to use against the hated British who's helicopters are causing havoc among the IRA men in the field. It's now up to McGuire and his fellow IRA man and good friend Sean Phelan, Paul Ronan, to travel to New York City and pick up the missiles in exchange for a cool million dollars in US currency. Using the name of Rory Devaney Frankie is set up with a place to stay by fanatical IRA supporter as well as New York State Judge Peter Fitzsimmon, George Hearn, at the O'Meara house on Long Island. As it soon turns out, to Frankie's shock & surprise, the man of the O'Marea house is non other then the highly decorated New York City cop Sgt. Tom O'Meara, Harrison Ford!
This very strange arrangement, by Judge Fitzsimmons, soon starts to develop cracks with the honest as the days long, and non-violent, Tom O'Marea starts to suspect that his new tenant, living in his basement, isn't exactly kosher in is looking for honest work, as a construction worker, in the big Apple. Frankie soon gets in deep trouble with his American arms dealer Billy Burke when his Irish connection back in the North of Ireland McDuff ends up getting killed in a raid on his safe-house by British troops and police.
In him wanting to back out of the deal Burke has not only Frankie's landlord Tom O'Marea house raided and him and his wife Sheila, Margaret Colin, roughed up but also has Frankie's good friend Sean kidnapped by Burke's goons who after brutally working Sean over end up murdering him. It takes a while for Tom to finally realize who his tenant really is, by finding the bag of arms money he hid in his basement, but by then he's just as deep into this deadly IRA and arms dealing business as Frankie is.
To make things even more interesting, as well as complicated, as they already are we also have Tom's cop partner Eddie Diaz, Ruben Blades, get involved in a shooting of a runaway car thief who was not only unarmed but had his back turned, while on the run, as he was gunned down in an alley. This has Eddie's extremely deeply upset partner Tom have to decide-in a King Solomon-like decision-to either turn evidence against his partner who can end up not only being canned from the NYPD but charged with 1st degree homicide at the very least! Or in the case if Tom decides to just keep his mouth shut he'll, an honest and law abiding citizen, have to live with it, in purposely covering up a crime, for the rest of his life.
Even though the movie is under two hours in length it feels, in having to suffer through it, more like twenty. I have to say that the robot-like and stone-faced Harrison Ford gives one of his most emotional and moving performances, he even throws up a number of times, in the movie "The Devil's Own" of his entire film career. Brad Pitt's Irish accent is so alien to anyone who speaks and understands English that you have to have sub-titles-in English of curse- to understand exactly what he's saying in the movie!
P.S "The Devil's Own" turned out to be director Alan J. Pakula last film. Pukula was killed in a freak accident on the Long Island Expressway on November 19, 1998 a year after "The Devil's Own" was released. -
With two such stars as Harrison Ford and Brad Pitt attached to the project, and a political hitch to the storyline involving the Ireland terrorism subplot, The Devil's Own seemed poised to be the year's most powerful and thought provoking, as well as probably very entertaining and income churning action film. Strangely enough, despite all of these advantages aiding the movie, and it still turned out to be just a step above what one could generously call terrible.
The Devil's Own sports every possible modern storytelling cliché, the worst being the families shown at home in domestic life, which might as well have been cut out of a magazine they are so clean cut and utterly devoid of any sort of believability or imagination. (the scene with Brad Pitt's character's family as a child is painfully awful, the most unbelievable portrait of an on screen family I have seen to date) It goes without saying that the horribly americanized perception of Ireland and Irish customs is downright insulting, as is often the case, but it seems so much more defined and offensive here.
Director Alan J. Pakula seems to be trying to make three different movies in one, and have absolutely no idea as to how to tie them together or maintain any sort of continuity or plot flow. The Ireland subplot is likely meant to provide motivation for Brad Pitt's IRA terrorist character, but seems completely at odds with the story of Harrison Ford's painfully stereotypical "troubled, world weary cop" character back in the States. The concept of the terrorist just by chance happening to go and stay at the house of the police officer who is hunting him down is just plain unbelievable, and doesn't come off as at all clever and ironic as the screenwriters intended it to be. Instead, it is groan worthy, as are most of the incredibly contrived "plot twists" and goings on in the story.
Even on the acting front, the shoddy storytelling comes across. Despite the two major action stars being lined up, both give completely unremarkable and even downright bad performances, and there is the constant storytelling conflict as to which of them is the main character, as if the writers themselves could not decide as to which character was meant to be the protagonist. The rumour that Pitt had serious conflicts of interest with the director and script and in fact tried to dissociate himself with the film shines clear, as he seems to put next to no effort into his performance (his Irish accent is cringe worthy, one of the worst attempted accents in film history to date, which is ironic considering his hilarious performance as an Irish Gypsy in "Snatch" 3 years later) as if he just wanted to film his scenes and leave. One can't blame him, as it seems he was the only one in the whole film who seemed to understand how badly the film was turning out to be.
But Ford, the other bankable action star seems to at least be putting some effort into a believable character, but his policeman character seems so dull and uninspired that we as an audience find it completely impossible to empathize with him in any way. The supporting characters seem to be extras rented off the street for all the acting experience they seem to have at all, and most supporting characters seem barely necessary for the progression of the horribly weak storyline at all. (one still wonders at the end what was the point of including Natascha McElhone's character - a potential love interest for Brad Pitt left half written perhaps?) It's just another front on which the movie demonstrates how little substance there is to it at all, and how weak and clichéd it really is.
Overall, it seems fair to say that you should not consider The Devil's Own exactly recommended - not to those who would rather enjoy themselves watching a movie anyway. For those who have a preference for weak, extremely poorly and disjointedly written scripts with completely archetypal characters, lazy and absent minded directing and even some good old fashioned bad acting, you have found your movie. But there are so many other suspense thrillers out there, superior in almost every aspect, so when looking for an enjoyable movie to rent, it would not seem at all presumptuous to pass on The Devil's Own, leaving it to fall back into the domain of poor movie hell in which it belongs.
-3/10 -
kosmasp19 August 2020I liked Brad Pitt before watching this (and yes I had never seen this before, which amazed me a bit myself), but the amount of work he obviously put into this, with the accent and all that - incredible. Harrison Ford plays the good strong american guy, who you know is the savior and all that stuff. Some may find this a bit too much and may feel other flaws appearing here.
Overall it is an engaging story and Brad Pitt gives the character some layers that he needs. It would be tough otherwise to remotely feel anything for him. But will he be able to escape his past or his future? He has a clear objective, but it becomes also clear that it ain't that easy to follow through with it. And then there is police work in general and other stories that intertwine. Overall they work and add to the tension of the movie and the characters arc - some may feel different of course, feel this is a bit convoluted. That'll be in the eyes of the beholder ... -
A lot of commentators have criticised this film for not being an accurate portrayal of the situation and/or intricacies of the situation in Northern Ireland. I'm no expert and it goes without saying that this is probably the case; but that's not the point of this film and I don't think the director was really trying to say too much about it.
The film is about the two main characters played by Pitt and Ford, both introduced in black and white and both of whose lifetime ideals and principles are challenged and blurred by their experiences through the film.
We have Pitt, the hardened terrorist whose own father was murdered in front of him when he was a child, who's known nothing but hatred and a distrust of authority through his life and who's suddenly immersed into an alien environment of stability, family and a cop who he sees is both a pretty normal, hardworking and good guy. In this different environment he realises that there's more to life then what he's known and Ford becomes to him something of a father figure.
At the same time, Ford a principled, honest as the day is long cop finds himself having to compromise his own integrity in the name of friendship and loyalty to a colleague as he realises life isn't quite so black and white as he's always lived it and struggles to deal with his own indiscretion.
Consequently as he finds out more about Pitt he struggles to juggle his professional and personal judgement as he finds a degree of sympathy towards Pitt trying to understand his background and the inevitability of his circumstances. Naturally the two come to a head and in this regard the film is pretty good despite any shortcomings with regards to the accuracy of the Northern Ireland situation.
Some of the film certainly appears a little far fetched in places and I'd suspect that it's not so easy to purchase a batch of Stinger missiles from the local small time mobster while the fate of Pitt's sidekick seemed little more than pointless. Sure this might not be award winning stuff, but I don't know why Pitt disowned this film and hope it wasn't done out of political correctness or being overly-sensitive to criticism (I'll settle for death threats).
Enjoyable and entertaining thriller/action film that doesn't over do the action. -
Considering that the era of sectarian violence in Northern Ireland has largely come to an end, and the IRA is rarely heard from anymore (the fight over Northern Ireland's status having been successfully moved by the peace process into the political realm) this movie has a somewhat dated feel even though it's not even 15 years old yet, dealing as it does with a young IRA operative (Brad Pitt) who comes to America to buy weapons for use back home. On his arrival, a sympathetic Irish-American judge arranges to have him stay with a local Irish-American police officer (Harrison Ford), who isn't aware of of the IRA connections. Eventually, the arrangement comes to endanger the lives of the officer's entire family.
I'll grant that the two lead performances were pretty good. Pitt as Francis (or Rory, as he called himself in America) and Ford as O'Meara both seemed to capture their characters quite well. The first hour or so of the movie was rather slow-paced, but it picked up once O'Meara put everything together and figured out what Rory was all about. I was somewhat put off by what I thought was an implicit pro-IRA sentiment in this. At the movie's opening, Francis is sitting at the kitchen table at the age of 8 while his father says grace before a meal, only to have presumably unionist gunmen break into their home and shoot him in cold blood. It seemed to me that this was almost a way of justifying Francis/Rory's later actions, and it's even said at one point that "if I had seen my dad shot dead in front of me ..." Sorry, one can't justify those acts. "I'll do this because you did that," which means that a cycle just gets started that's hard to climb out of. Both IRA and unionist gunmen should have been ashamed to call themselves Catholic and Protestant, their actions having nothing to do with the teachings of Jesus, whom both Catholics and Protestants claim to follow.
Pro-IRA sentiment aside, I still thought this was a rather weak movie, saved somewhat by Pitt and Ford.