Thirty years later, Sheridan has released “In the Name of the Father,” which makes it clear he knows precisely where England is. “Father” is a corrosive indictment of the British judicial system. It is the brutal–and true–story of the “Guildford Four,” a group of apolitical layabouts whom British authorities allegedly tortured and convicted for IRA bombings they knew nothing about. In particular, it’s the story of a scruffy Belfast petty thief named Gerry Conlon, who was imprisoned along with his fragile, devout father, Giuseppe. Giuseppe died in jail, and Gerry served 15 years before the convictions were overturned in 1989.
“Father” opened last month in Ireland and is shaping up to be the most successful film in the country’s history, save “Jurassic Park.” In the United States, the film is selling out in a limited release. On Feb. 11, “Father” opens in England, where it’s certain to get a controversial reception–not only because terrorism remains a constant threat, but because peace negotiations seem to be moving ahead. British tabloids have already labeled the film anti-English and bashed its stars Daniel Day-Lewis and Emma Thompson, both native-born Brits. One columnist warned the movie will be “the biggest cash bonanza the IRA has seen in years.”
Sheridan is not surprised British journalists have broadsided his film: “There’s a war on, right? You fight the war in the newspapers as much as you can.” Still, he rejects the notion that his film is pro-IRA. He insists he was drawn to Gerry Conlon’s story not by the tough political terrain, but by the example of Giuseppe Conlon, who tried to save his son from prison and was arrested himself. Says Sheridan, “I thought, ‘God, this is like Orpheus in the underworld, but with a father going after a son’.”
Sheridan, 44, was the son of a railroad worker he never particularly got along with. His was a classic Roman Catholic upbringing. The director maps it out with a teapot, a sugar bowl and a creamer: “Here’s the church, where I’m an altar boy. Here’s the school. Here’s the house I live in.” When Sheridan was a teen, his brother died of a brain tumor. The director went on to found Dublin’s Project Arts Centre, home to actors Liam Neeson, Stephen Rea and Gabriel Byrne. In 1989 he made his first film, “My Left Foot.” For Sheridan, that was the story of a good mother; soon he felt the need for a companion piece. “My father and I fought a lot,” he says, “but once I asked him about my brother who died and I realized how much he had suffered. I began to understand a little bit. I thought, ‘Somehow, I’ll do the story of a good father’.”
Two weeks ago Sheridan’s father died suddenly. Shortly before that, the director had discussed Giuseppe’s deathbed scene. which didn’t make the final cut: “Giuseppe says to Gerry, ‘Go out the door with your head high’.” Gerry Conlon did just that, and Jim Sheridan has done the same.
