The Devil's Own (1997)

Director:

Alan J. Pakula

Writers (WGA):

Kevin Jarre (story)
David Aaron Cohen (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

26 March 1997 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Thriller

Tagline:

One man trapped by destiny, and another bound by duty. They're about to discover what they're willing to fight, and to die for.

Plot:

A police officer uncovers the real identity of his houseguest, an IRA terrorist in hiding.

Plot Keywords:

Friendship | Irish | Murder | Terrorism | Northern Ireland

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Harrison Ford	...	Tom O'Meara
Brad Pitt	...	Rory Devaney / Francis Austin McGuire
Margaret Colin	...	Sheila O'Meara
Rubén Blades	...	Edwin Diaz
Treat Williams	...	Billy Burke
George Hearn	...	Peter Fitzsimmons
Mitch Ryan	...	Chief Jim Kelly (as Mitchell Ryan)
Natascha McElhone	...	Megan Doherty
Paul Ronan	...	Sean Phelan
Simon Jones	...	Harry Sloan
Julia Stiles	...	Bridget O'Meara
Ashley Carin	...	Morgan O'Meara
Kelly Singer	...	Annie O'Meara
David O'Hara	...	Martin MacDuf
David Wilmot	...	Dessie

MPAA:

Rated R for strong brutal violence, and for language.

Runtime:

107 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

SDDS | Dolby Digital

Certification:

USA:R (certificate #34333) | Iceland:14 | Iceland:16 (video rating) | Philippines:PG-13 | Argentina:16 | Australia:M | Belgium:KT | Finland:K-16 | Germany:12 | Netherlands:16 | Norway:15 | Portugal:M/16 | South Korea:15 | Spain:18 | Sweden:15 | UK:15 | Singapore:PG

Filming Locations:

Baruch College, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

Screenwriter Robert Mark Kamen was one of the original writers but was never credited.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: When Tom enters the morgue, Eddies eyes twitch, though he supposed to be dead.

Quotes:

Tom O'Meara: What's the money for? I was thinkin' guns. I was thinkin' IRA.
Rory: I need that money Tom!
Tom O'Meara: Why? So other eight-year-olds can watch their fathers gunned down in front of 'em? If this money leaves here, more people will die. Can you tell me that won't happen?

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Holiday (2006)

Soundtrack:

(Somebody) Loan Me A Dime

It's not an American stoory, it's an Oirish oon!

A large part of Brad Pitt's genius as a movie star is his ability to pick scripts. "The Devil's Own" certainly indicates a lapse in judgment, but to a Hollywood tough guy, an IRA role is irresistible. You get a leather jacket, a ski mask, a machine gun and a cool accent. The Ulster accent is, as every movie star knows, very easy to master: just randomly scramble your vowel sounds, say "fook's seek" frequently--and you're Oirish!

But far more laughable than the accents are the action scenes, which are so badly choreographed and edited, it's hard to believe the film is a Hollywood product. First there is Sean and Frankie's shootout with "half the fookin' army," which they win. Then they escape because the British forget to watch the back door. Also, there is the mysterious appearance of a vast forest in the middle of downtown Belfast, into which IRA terrorists can easily escape when cornered. Next there is the shootout with Billy Burke, in which Frankie somehow manages to fire three rounds from a double-barrelled shotgun (taking out a sniper who, oddly enough, falls forward from the impact of a shot in the chest), retrieves his pistol and fires the same shot twice--hitting Billy Burke, who for some reason counted to ten before lunging for his own gun.

The biggest mistake was in casting Harrison Ford, a lead man who commands $20,000,000 per film, and putting him in a supporting role, which of course had to be rewritten and elevated to a co-lead. The result: instead of a film about an IRA terrorist who comes to the States to buy munitions (which is a good precept), we get a film about a New York cop who's got an IRA terrorist living in his basement. Anyone who initially proposed such a story to the studio would have been turned down, and that would have been fortunate for all involved.

In fairness to Pitt, he did try to walk away from the project, and in order to save face, ridiculed the movie before it hit the theaters, which suggests that he had more sense than anyone else on the set.