50 Dead Men is a movie set in the 80’s about “The Troubles” in NI and a catholic lad that becomes an informer / tout. Essentially the lead protaganist is able to travel freely throughout both protestant and republican areas and as a result able to access information that most of the population could not.
I’m not going to explain the reference to the title but the movie is based on a “true story” and aside from one moment I felt that it could very well have been true in the way it was depicted.
The movie is brilliant and Ben Kingsley and the lad that plays the lead role are amazing. I think that it is one of the best spy / thriller type movies that I’ve seen in a long time. I actually left the cinema having not “enjoyed” the movie as much as I thought, but I thought it was executed it brilliantly.
This movie is not a “fun” movie but a gripping tale of a man trying to save lives and avoid being caught by the IRA.
There are perhaps two scenes which are simply brutal and depict the level of violence for which the IRA became reknowned during the 38 years of the British Occupation.
I thought on a personal level that it was interesting in that I consider myself a Republican, all my family are from the south and my mother moved to the UK in the 50’s but whilst I supported the cause there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that the IRA were violent in the extreme and that the axiom one mans terrorist is anothers freedom fighter was never truer.
I really could not reccomend the movie enough, especially given that its been a run of good and bad movies over the last three weeks (The Class was brilliant, Monsters and Aliens was good and Duplicity was a crime against celluloid)