Films Which Included 'the Troubles' as a Theme

Acceptable Levels
1983, Director: John Davies
This study of a British TV crew interviewing a Belfast family in the war-strewn Catholic district focuses upon the death of a child hit by a stray plastic bullet fired by a British soldier. The chief reporter becomes politically involved in the incident, whilst her producer is apprehensive and, once back in London, makes sure that the most indicting footage is destroyed.
Starring Kay Adshead, Andy Rashleigh, Patrick Higgins and Tracey Lynch

Angel
1984, Director: Neil Jordan
Bleak drama of a saxophone player who witnesses his manager's murder.
Starring Stephen Rea, Alan Devlin, Veronica Quilligan and Peter Caffrey

Blown Away
1994, Director: Stephen Hopkins
An Irish terrorist escapes from jail in Northern Ireland and goes to Boston seeking revenge on an ex-comrade who had also been a terrorist bomber but left the organisation, and now works in Boston as a bomb disposal expert.
Starring Jeff Bridges and Tommy Lee Jones

Boxer, The
1997, Director: Jim Sheridan
The third collaboration between Jim Sheridan and Daniel Day Lewis; Day-Lewis plays the boxer, Danny, an IRA member who emerges from 14 years in prison to a Belfast still devastated by sectarian conflict.
Starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Emily Watson, Brian Cox, Ken Stott and Gerard McSorley

Cal
1984, Director: Pat O'Connor
Based on Bernard MacLaverty's novel about a Catholic living in a Protestant neighbourhood in Northern Ireland. John Lynch in the title role is superb; also starring Helen Mirren, and Donal McCann, with a score by Mark Knopfler (of Dire Straits).

Crying Game, The
1994, Director: Neil Jordan
Stephen Rea, Forest Whitaker, Miranda Richardson in a "tautly realised political thriller."

Devil's Own, The
1997, Director: Alan J. Pakula
IRA man Frankie McGuire is sent to New York with a false name, Rory Devaney, and a mad mission to buy Stinger missiles. He is placed with the family of cop Tom O'Meara. Surrounded by a wife and three daughters, O'Meara takes to Devaney, who in turn sees in O'Meara the benevolent father he lost to the violence at home when he was a child of 8. The problems arise when Tom begins to suspect something about Rory's identity.
Starring Brad Pitt and Harrison Ford

Further Gesture, A
1996, Director: Robert Dornhelm
(written by Ronan Bennet)
Starring Stephen Rea

Giro City
1982, Director: Karl Francis
Jackson and Finch play a filmmaker and a reporter, who set out to investigate the Irish Republican Army.
Starring ; Glenda Jackson, Jon Finch, Kenneth Colley, James Donnelly (II), Karen Archer
(Channel 4)

Harry's Game
1982, Director: Lawrence Gordon Clark
Harry is an undercover agent for the British army sent to Northern Ireland to infiltrate the IRA and find (and terminate) the assassin of a British Cabinet Minister. Harry is alone, the army hasn't been told he is being put in place, his wife is fed up with him and his job, and his one new friend, an Irish woman who falls for him will be consumed by his relentless search for the assassin.
Starring: Gil Brailey, Ray Lonnen, Derek Thompson (Billy) Christopher Whitehouse and Benjamin Whitrow

Hennessy
1975, Director: Don Sharp
Set in the Seventies, Hennessy is a Irishman who believes in peace, but who has had connections to the IRA. Hennessy's family is killed by a bomb, and he plots revenge, setting out to assassinate Queen Elizabeth of England.
Starring Rod Steiger, Lee Remick, Richard Johnson (I) and Trevor Howard

Hidden Agenda
1990, Director: Ken Loach
Based on an amalgam of real scandals, the film is a fictionalised account of official corruption in Northern Ireland.

High Boot Benny
1993, Director: Joe Comerford
Tells the story of a delinquent boy, Benny, who had to leave Northern Ireland and escapes across the border. He attends school in the Republic, and here finds the murdered body of the caretaker who had been a police informer. Benny is then later suspected of informing by the IRA.
Starring Marc O'shea, Frances Tomelty and Alan Devlin

Hostage
1984; Director: Cathy Greenhalgh
Against the backdrop of the bombing campaign in Britain and the Northern Ireland Hunger Strike, a young woman joins a terrorist operation which takes three people hostage. Over the days of their captivity, she questions her own involvement and history of Ireland which has brought her to this point.
Starring Veronica Quilligan, Alan Devlin, Seamus Healy.

In the Name of the Father
1993, Director: Jim Sheridan
Gerry Conlon,an unemployed young Belfast man without apparent direction in life, finds his world turned upside down when he is falsely accused of the 1974 Guildford pub bombing. Immediately branded an IRA conspirator, Conlon is coerced into a confession, along with his father.
Starring Daniel Day Lewis and Peter Postlewaite.

Jackal, The
1997, Director: Michael Caton-Jones
This film is loosely based on the 1970's book and movie that were based on actual events. Bruce Willis is The Jackal, an infamous terrorist/spy that is hired to assassinate the President. Richard Gere plays an imprisoned IRA terrorist who is the only man who can identify The Jackal and Sydeny Poitier is the CIA agent in charge of the operation.
Starring Bruce Willis, Richard Gere and Sydney Poitier

Long Good Friday, The
1980, Director: John Mackenzie
Thriller set in London, in which a prosperous English gangster comes under attack by the IRA who are out to seek revenge for his friend, Colin, who has stolen money from the them and been indirectly responsible for three of their top men being killed in a police raid.
Starring Bob Hoskins and Helen Mirren

Love Lies Bleeding
1993
(Written by Ronan Bennet)

Nothing Personal
1995; Thaddeus O'Sullivan
A raw depiction of the Belfast 'troubles' as savage tribal warfare. Set shortly after the 1975 cease fire, the film focuses on the tribulations of Kenny, Protestant leader of a group of Shankill Road Loyalists, and his one-time friend Liam, a Catholic.
Starring: John Lynch, James Frain, Ian Hart

Patriot Games
1992, Director: Phillip Noyce
In this adaptation of Tom Clancy's best-seller, Harrison Ford plays Jack Ryan, an ex-C.I.A. analyst who single-handedly foils an I.R.A. kidnap attempt while on vacation in London. Ryan kills one of the terrorists, which antagonises the young man's elder brother, and Ryan gets drawn back into the CIA when the same splinter faction of the IRA targets him and his family.

Prayer for the Dying, A
1987, Director: Mike Hodges
Martin Fallon (Mickey Rourke) and two fellow IRA terrorists accidentally blow up a school bus instead of a British military vehicle. Fallon's friends escape, but he, devastated by the incident, turns his back on the Cause and escapes to London, where he hopes to find safe passage to the US. Instead, the IRA and the British police tail him, forcing him to depend on ruthless gangster Jack Meehan (Alan Bates), for a passport.
Starring Mickey Rourke, Bob Hoskins and Alan Bates.

Resurrection Man, The
1998, Director: Marc Evans
Violent drama set in Belfast during the 1970's about a member of the Loyalist terror group, the Shankill Butchers.
Starring Stuart Townsend, James Nesbitt, Geraldine O'Rawe and John Hannah.

Sense of Loss, A
1978, Director: Marcel Ophuls
A "searing but balanced documentary about the never-ending conflict in Northern Ireland," by the director of The Sorrow and the Pity.

Some Mother's Son
1996, Director: Terry George
A political drama about a fictionalised 1981 Maze hunger striker (though the historical hunger strikers also appear).
Starring John Lynch (Cal) and Helen Mirren.

This Is the Sea
1996, Director: Mary McGuckian
The film is set in Northern Ireland shortly after 1994 cease-fire. Hazel is a Protestant and Malachy a Catholic. Romance between them is a threatened by prejudices, and by Rohan (leader in militant underground and friend of Malachy's brother), who wants Malachy to be recruited and fight for the cause, and by Hazel's brother Jef, who spies on her meetings.
Starring Samantha Morton and Ross McDade

Violent Enemy, The
1968; Director: Don Sharp and Wilfred Eades
Ireland is the backdrop for this IRA tale about a plan to blow up a British power station. An escaped Republican prisoner learns of the plan and uses his resources to stop the destruction.
Starring Tom Bell, Susan Hampshire and Ed Begley