Fifty Dead Men Walking As Close to Truth as Earth to Pluto

A A A Comments (2) By Aaron Hillis Tuesday, Aug 18 2009

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Fifty Dead Men Walking
Directed by Kari Skogland
Phase 4 Cinema
Opens August 21, Quad Cinema and Empire 25

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Canadian writer-director Kari Skogland's slick, soapy procedural—an unreliable adaptation of former IRA informant Martin McGartland's bestselling memoir—again proves how easy it is to shamelessly bilk audiences of their empathy with an "inspired by true events" credit. McGartland himself, still in hiding, publicly claimed that the film is "as near to the truth as Earth is to Pluto." From off the violent streets of Northern Ireland during the late-'80s peak of the Troubles, cocky Belfast hoodlum Martin (Jim Sturgess) is recruited to infiltrate the IRA by British Special Branch officer Fergus (Sir Ben Kingsley). Unable to tell even his trigger-happy mate (Kevin Zegers) or pregnant girlfriend (Natalie Press) of his thorny situation, Martin gets pulled dangerously under the spell of both his new extremist family and his avuncular handler. The private jousting sessions between Sturgess and Kingsley are easily the most compelling moments, though it's the younger actor's convincing desperation that pretty much carries the film. The unfitting flashiness and clunky segues between thriller and melodrama kill any real sense of tension, making this a poor man's Donnie Brasco—that is, if its self-congratulation and failure to contextualize the values on both sides of the ethno-political struggle didn't already make it the poor man's Hunger.

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Freedy 03/05/2011 2:57:00 PM

Fifty Dead Men Walking the book - the true story in Martin McGartland's own words; http://www.amazon.com/Fifty-Dead-Men-Walking-ebook/dp/B004FN1U9I/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1299336624&sr=1-1 Martin McGartland said that the movie Fifty Dead Men Walking is fundamentally a lie that misrepresents his career and his motivation. He also said it was IRA spin and that the film was 99% pure fiction. The filmmakers mislead every person who paid their hard earned cash to go see it. Too true ; The film Fifty Dead Men Walking is as near to the truth as earth is to pluto' Martin McGartland also told the London times that; t; After McGartland watched the film, he demanded, and got, several last-minute changes. For instance, a voiceover by Sir Ben Kingsley, who plays McGartland’s RUC Special Branch handler, sets the historical context and describes McGartland as “his own man”. A number of scenes were cut or voiced over, and disclaimers were inserted at the beginning and end to say that key events and personalities had been changed. McGartland asks: “They are saying it was based on a true story, but what is the definition of ‘based on a true story’? Is it 50% true, 70% true, 10%?” He contends that the movie is fundamentally a lie that misrepresents his career and his motivation. He believes that if Kari Skogland, the director, had stuck closer to the account he gave in his book and in a BBC documentary, then she would have had a better film. He was enraged when Skogland, Rose McGowan (who plays an IRA member) and Sturgess talked in interviews about how they were “chaperoned” around Belfast by former IRA prisoners and taken drinking by them at republican clubs. In one interview, McGowan tells how she sat drinking a bottle of cider with an IRA man who tells her he would like to shoot McGartland. “Why would you want to mix with these people and take their estimation of the situation at face value? Why would you be impressed with this sort of talk? Why did they not talk to me, or my family, or retired police officers, to find out the way things were?” he asks. : http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/film/article5982263.ece I read Martin's book and could not agree more; the film is shocking, very poor when compared to this guys true story as written in the book. I read that the IRA had full comttol of the filmmakers and the film. Imaybe the reason behind it, the filmmakers sold their souls to the terrorists. Read the book for yourself; http://www.amazon.com/Fifty-Dead-Men-Walking-ebook/dp/B004FN1U9I/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1299336624&sr=1-1 I also found Martin McGartland website; www.martinmcgartland.co.uk
LB 09/30/2009 6:55:00 AM

And if the comment does not suit, the code does not match.
LB 09/30/2009 6:54:00 AM

I am starting to think that you deliberately miss what the films are about possibly because you resent the fact that somebody got the chance to make them. In which case, switch jobs.