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The Best Film --Bar None-- About Northern Ireland


The Informant is the film version of "Field of Blood" by Gerald Seymour. It is quite simply a wonderfully suspenseful story about what happens when a veteran IRA man facing a triple life sentence for the murder of a judge and two detectives in Belfast decides to become a "supergrass" (Cockney rhyming slang for "snake in the grass," in other words an informant, or "tout").

There is no Hollywood idiocy or romanticizing either the British or the IRA in this movie. It shows the viewer in gripping detail exactly what it is like for a terrorist/freedom fighter to turn against his own and the brutal pressures that both the authorities and the terrorists can bring to play upon such a man.

The best part about this movie is that it draws on true stories. In the early 1980s, the British used --initially with enormous success-- the tactic of having a "converted terrorist" testify against his colleagues.

I cannot recommend it highly enough.

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[deleted]

Check out another Seymour novel-turned-movie, Harry's Game (Belfast Assassin in the US).

I think that that movie had less bias.

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"Check out another Seymour novel-turned-movie, Harry's Game (Belfast Assassin in the US)."

I have to agree with you. I just saw "The Informant" tonight and "Harry's Game" last week (for the 3rd time) and overall, HG was the better of the two. In particular, I thought Sean Caffrey was better in the role of Howard Rennie, the uber-tough Ulster Scot. Nothing against Timothy Dalton, mind you; he was good but I would still like to have seen Caffrey reprise his role.

Personally I was disappointed that Tony Rohr was not cast again as the Belfast Brigade chief. Granted, unlike with Rennie, it's not clear that the Chief is supposed to be the same man as I don't think he's ever given a name in HG in either the book or the movie. Still, Seymour never said it wasn't the same guy and Rohr was absolutely great in HG. In contrast, the actor who played the Chief in TI was quite forgettable; I don't even know what his name is....

"I think that that movie had less bias."

Yeah, there was a definite anti-IRA bias in Nicholas Meyer's screenplay of TI whereas HG and the novels were more balanced. One thing Meyer did get right was to strengthen the role of Rennie at the expense of the roles of the four junior detectives. For my money, he should have cut them down even more and reduced the four (from the book) to just two; after all, they're minor roles and a movie only has so much time to establish character.

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Having lived in Armagh and Newry as a Catholic,I agree with necart7 of six years hence...it is/was quite accurate and if you want to spend the time...a fine motion picture...seems as though it were 100 years away.

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Sorry, I have to disagree. The Crying Game is still the best movie about the troubles.

Politics aside, Hollywood aside, romanticizing aside, the stone cold reality is that The Crying Game is--bar none--the best film about the troubles.

Now The Informant might be more realistic, but that doesn't make it the better film. Story, acting, & directing are what make films & few movies have all three. The Crying Game has all three, The Informant has a good story & James Bond.

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genearationofswine wrote:

Politics aside, Hollywood aside, romanticizing aside, the stone cold reality is that The Crying Game is--bar none--the best film about the troubles.


The troubles that best characterized the friction between Northern Ireland and England was the seduction of Irish heterosexuals by English transsexuals? Most illuminating.

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