"50 Dead Man Walking" is an account on the life of Martin McGartland, a young thief recruited by the British police to the difficult mission of infiltrate on IRA (in the 1980's) and help the British to discover informations over possible attacks. Jim Sturgess plays the divided young lad who works his way up on many different sides, as a member of the IRA, as a family man, as a devoted friend of his Irish mates and as a informant for the mysterious Fergus (Ben Kingsley). During all this he realizes the incredible potential of saving people lives (his informations are very valuable for the British) but he also notices the excruciating burden of betraying his friends and family confidence. Will this guy survive to tell his story? Can he trust Fergus? What about his duties on IRA?
The story was real, it really happened (some things were created for unnecessary dramatic purposes e.g. the scene where Martin escapes by jumping of a window, that happened but the height was exaggerated here). It is well told, dramatically interesting and very thrilling. The way director Kari Skogland worked was very efficient, and a story about someone being infiltrated on the IRA wasn't much portrayed in films before and that was very interesting to see despite some clichéd things that takes you back to similar movies like "Donnie Brasco" and "The Departed".
Jim Sturgess gets right again with an incredible performance as the troubled main character. If you had the opportunity to watch any of his other films you will notice that he knows how to work with many different accents very easily (he speaks Irish brilliantly). I must say that it was difficult to accept Sir Ben Kingsley in the role of Martin's chief during his first minutes on screen and I thought that Bob Hoskins would be a more interesting choice to play this guy but when the movie evolves you start to like his performance. The movie also features Rose McGowan (as Martin's wife) and Kevin Zegers (Martin's sinister best friend).
Wrongfully translated here as "The Spy", "50 Dead Man Walking" is a great movie about personal ethics versus majority ethics; trust or the lack of it; and the many aspects of a terrible endless war and their almost uncredited heroes and their good (and bad) actions. 9/10
The story was real, it really happened (some things were created for unnecessary dramatic purposes e.g. the scene where Martin escapes by jumping of a window, that happened but the height was exaggerated here). It is well told, dramatically interesting and very thrilling. The way director Kari Skogland worked was very efficient, and a story about someone being infiltrated on the IRA wasn't much portrayed in films before and that was very interesting to see despite some clichéd things that takes you back to similar movies like "Donnie Brasco" and "The Departed".
Jim Sturgess gets right again with an incredible performance as the troubled main character. If you had the opportunity to watch any of his other films you will notice that he knows how to work with many different accents very easily (he speaks Irish brilliantly). I must say that it was difficult to accept Sir Ben Kingsley in the role of Martin's chief during his first minutes on screen and I thought that Bob Hoskins would be a more interesting choice to play this guy but when the movie evolves you start to like his performance. The movie also features Rose McGowan (as Martin's wife) and Kevin Zegers (Martin's sinister best friend).
Wrongfully translated here as "The Spy", "50 Dead Man Walking" is a great movie about personal ethics versus majority ethics; trust or the lack of it; and the many aspects of a terrible endless war and their almost uncredited heroes and their good (and bad) actions. 9/10