Based on Gerry Conlon's autobiography, PROVED INNOCENT, Jim Sheridan's IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER tells the tumultuous and wrenching tale of a man wrongfully imprisoned in 1974 for the bombing of a London pub. Daniel Day-Lewis stars as Conlon, a young Irish petty thief living in London who gets picked up after he and a friend, Paul Hill (John Lynch), rob a hooker's apartment. The British police, desperate to produce results in their search for the culprits in the pub bombing, force a false confession out of Conlon after subjecting him to days of sadistic torture and threats. The Guildford Four--Conlon, Hill, Paddy Armstrong (Mark Sheppard), and Carole Richardson (Beatie Edney)--are found guilty of the bombing, and members of Conlon's family, including his sickly father, Guiseppe, are imprisoned as co-conspirators. Conlon's desire to bring the truth to light builds as his harrowing incarceration in a maximum security prison stretches on.
The relationship between Conlon and his father, played with silent strength by Pete Postlethwaite, provides a stirring pulse at the core of this portrait of politically motivated injustice. Emma Thompson also turns in a fine performance as the lawyer who stubbornly battles for Conlon's exoneration. And Day-Lewis, who won the Academy Award for Best Actor in MY LEFT FOOT, an earlier collaboration with director Sheridan, adds to his impressive body of work with a mind-boggling performance erupting with rage, pride, heart, and courage.
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Falsely accused. Wrongly imprisoned. He fought for justice to clear his father's name.
In the Name of the Father tells the true saga of Gerry Conlon. A petty thief in strife-torn '70s Belfast, Gerry's main interests are getting drunk and partying, much to the dismay of his quite, frail father Giuseppe.
When Gerry angers the IRA, his father sends him to England, where his antics land him in the wrong place at the wrong time. Innocent, but forced to confess to a savage terrorist bombing, he is sentenced to life imprisonment as one of the "Guildford Four." An innocent Guiseppe is also arrested and jailed, and while behind bars, Gerry slowly learns that his father's seeming weakness masks an unmatched inner strength and wisdom.
Working with a fiercely dedicated lawyer, Gerry determines to prove his innocence, clear his father's name and expose the truth behind one of the most shameful legal events in recent history.
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