The Devil's Own

In director Alan J. Pakula’s last film (he was killed in a road accident the year after this came out in 1997), Brad Pitt and Harrison Ford face off after Pitt’s cover comes undone when thugs invade their home in search of Pitt’s cash. Despite the significant body count, The Devil’s Own is almost more of a psychological battle; either way a great drama.

Pitt is Frankie McGuire, a young but hard leader in the Provisional Irish Republican Army, determined to get back at those who shot his own father while they were sitting down to an otherwise normal family dinner when he was but eight. Twenty years on he’s doing a very good job of it and has a few dozen names X’ed out to his credit. Temporarily escaping the intense heat he flies to America to arrange for the purchase and transport of Stinger surface to air missiles from Billy Burke (Treat Williams), a bar owner with a less legitimate income stream as well.

A New York judge and active IRA supporter arranges for Pitt to stay with a local Irish family, headed by police sergeant Tom O’Meara (Ford), who are told McGuire is in the States to work construction and make a little dosh. In truth he and a confederate are prepping an old fishing boat to take the missiles home in a few months, and in the meanwhile their guest becomes almost a member of the O’Meara family when problems in the old country throw the necessary wrench into the plans.

Ford and Pitt are both more than competent actors, and ably supported by Margaret Colin, Natascha McElhone, Ruben Blades and a very young Julia Stiles as Ford and Colin’s eldest child. The script, by Kevin Jarre, Vincent Patrick and David Aaron Cohen, is pithy and angular.

But I really felt the main credit goes to Pakula for getting authentic emotions from the cast (especially Williams, who all too often seems to act is if he’d never heard the expression less is more), strong pacing with the action and interactions well balanced and doing a good job off lulling us into forgetting that McGuire is, without doubt, a hard, cold killer.

Pakula first made his mark in Hollywood as a producer in the early ’60s with such hits as To Kill a Mockingbird, Love with a Proper Stranger, Up the Down Staircase and Sterile Cuckoo, which was also his directorial debut. He went on to make such impressive films as Klute, All the President’s Men, Sophie’s Choice, The Pelican Brief and the under appreciated Consenting Adults. He was nominated for three Oscars: for writing Sophie’s Choice, for directing All the President’s Men and for producing To Kill a Mockingbird, and actors in his films won three out of eight nominations (Jane Fonda, Jason Robards and Meryl Streep).

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