A 1993 movie, directed by Jim Sheridan. Starring Daniel Day-Lewis, John Lynch, Emma Thompson, Pete Postlethwaite and others.
The movie - a nice mixture of court drama and prison movie - is based on the Guildford Four case of 1974. Gerry Conlon (Day-Lewis) left Belfast with his friend Paul Hill (Lynch) and, well, keep on living somewhat reckless life. Meanwhile, UK passes some anti-terrorist laws. Someone blows up a pub in Guildford. Suddently, the authorities are very interested of Conlon and the rest of the folks; They get captured and - very brutally, to understate a bit - forced to confess the bombing. The court doesn't believe them and sends them to jail. Now, a lawyer (Emma Thompson) starts investigating the case - finding some evidence that puts the things that happened in a bit of a different light.
...
There were some differences between the movie and the reality, actually. Mostly because the director wanted to bring in some "building understanding between father and son"-thing, a plotline that probably did not take place in reality as Gerry and his father Giuseppe (Postlethwaite) were in different prisons. The fact doesn't ruin the movie - this sideline does not change the rest of the historical content that much, just deepens the motives shown.
I saw the movie first time when it came out, and thought it was pretty good at that time. But let's get to this year: I had not seen the movie for some time, but when I heard the USA was to have "secret trials" for terrorists, I just knew there was something in the past they should take into account. Then I found this movie on DVD.
There it was: A story of a people who were accused of terrorism, with the authorities going way beyond their limits. I wish the history won't repeat itself.
Other than the "again a current movie" aspect, I think the movie was very nice; No much action, but a lot more suspense and twists of plot. Very much worth seeing!
(Oh yeah, my personal comment: it was the last DVD I bought with markkas =)