The Devil's Own

In 1972 Northern Ireland, eight-year-old Frankie McGuire witnesses his father gunned down for portraying republican sympathies. Twenty years later in Belfast, Frankie and three fellow IRA members are ambushed by the British Army and Special Reconnaissance Unit agents. Two of the IRA gunmen are killed, but Frankie and his comrade Sean Phelan escape after managing to kill three soldiers, a civilian and four rival loyalists. Pursued by a British Army helicopter, Frankie's commander Martin MacDuff decides that the IRA needs Stinger missiles to fight back. Under the alias "Rory Devaney", Frankie arrives in New York City to buy missiles. American Judge Peter Fitzsimmons, a longtime IRA supporter, arranges for him to stay with Irish-American NYPD Sergeant Tom O'Meara, his wife Sheila, and their three daughters on Staten Island. Believing that "Rory" is an immigrant construction worker, Tom and his family welcome Frankie into their home. Sean reunites with Frankie, acquiring an old fishing boat to smuggle the missiles home. Frankie cuts a deal with black market arms dealer and Irish mobster Billy Burke to receive the missiles in several weeks time. Fitzsimmons has the money for the deal delivered to Frankie by Megan Doherty, another IRA operative posing as his family's nanny, and Frankie hides the duffel bag of cash in the O'Meara's basement. Megan later warns Frankie that MacDuff has been killed by British authorities and they must postpone the deal, much to Burke's displeasure. After lying to protect his partner, Eddie Diaz, for fatally shooting an unarmed thief in the back, a guilt-stricken Tom decides to retire from the force. He comes clean to Sheila and they return home, only to be confronted by masked intruders. Frankie arrives and he and Tom fight off the intruders as Sheila calls the police, but they are held at gunpoint until sirens approach and the assailants flee. Frankie confronts Burke for sending his men to steal the money, shooting one of the attackers in the knee, but Burke reveals that he is holding Sean hostage and demands payment for the missiles. Realizing that the intruders were searching Frankie's room in the basement, Tom discovers the duffel bag of cash. Confronted by Tom, Frankie reveals his true identity, but Tom has called Eddie and they arrest him. Stuck in traffic en route to the police station, Frankie overpowers Tom and takes his gun, mortally wounding Eddie when he draws his own gun, but is forced to flee without the money. With Eddie dead, Tom is questioned by the FBI and their British counterparts and realizes that they intend to kill Frankie, who meets Burke at an abandoned warehouse. Demanding the money, Burke presents Frankie with the missiles as well as Sean's severed head, and Frankie hands over a duffel bag rigged with a bomb. The resulting explosion allows Frankie to kill Burke and his men, and he drives off with the missiles. Frankie goes to Megan at the Fitzsimmons' residence, determined to complete his mission and deliver the missiles to Ireland. Downstairs, Tom interrupts a cocktail party and confronts the judge, before recognizing Megan from a photo in Frankie's bag, but Frankie escapes. Tom convinces Megan that only he can save Frankie from being killed by the authorities, and she directs him to the boat. At the dock, Tom sneaks aboard as Frankie sets sail with the missiles, leading to a shootout. Tom is wounded and disarmed, and Frankie prepares to kill him but realizes he too has been shot. Tom embraces a dying Frankie, recognizing that they both were fighting for causes they believe in, before steering the boat back to shore. ==Cast==

Development The film's origins date back to the early 1980s as a pitch by Lawrence Gordon and Robert F. Colesberry.; as Gordon recalled "Jarre had disappeared for a couple of years and came back with a wonderful screenplay", which was an action-packed tale about a heroic operative of the Irish Republican Army. In 1991, Gordon took the script to Brad Pitt after seeing him in Thelma and Louise and A River Runs Through It, Pitt, who was not yet well known at the time, read the script and enthusiastically signed on to the project, but was left at a standstill due to Pitt's lack of acting credits at the time, as well as the politically controversial subject matter on which the story was based. though that meant the script had to be rewritten to create a fuller role for Ford and a more complicated relationship between the characters played by the two men. as did Bryan Singer, and Milcho Manchevski. It was Pitt and Ford's suggestion to bring Alan J. Pakula in as director., Pitt visited Belfast in preparation for the role and suffered bruises after he was attacked on the city's Falls Road after being mistaken for a Protestant. Pitt "threatened to quit early in the shoot, complaining that the script was incomplete and incoherent" and later "denounced the movie as 'the most irresponsible bit of film making – if you can even call it that – that I've ever seen.'" To ease Pitt's frustrations, the producers hired screenwriter Terry George one week before principal photography was to start. George's primary purpose was to concentrate on helping further develop Pitt's character Frankie McGuire, and what the actor thought was a superficial outlook on the IRA situation. In March 1996, Pakula hired screenwriter Robert Mark Kamen to provide rewrites during production. According to Pakula, one problem was that the film's plot did not fall along conventionally simple Hollywood lines, as Ford and Pitt were both playing "good guys" according to each of their own distinct moral codes. The New York Times characterized Ford's character as "the upright American cop who deplores violence" and Pitt's as "an I.R.A. gunman for whom violence is a reasonable solution to his people's 300 years of troubles." and Greenport, New York on Long Island. Among the metropolitan location highlights were The Cloisters Museum at Fort Tryon Park, Brookdale campus of Hunter College, Isham Park, St. Barnabas Episcopal Church in Irvington, the Staten Island Ferry, Wollman Rink, The Old Town Bar, the shipyard in Red Hook, Piper's Kilt bar in The Bronx, the 1889 Bar & Grill, and the Waverly Coffee Shop, with sound stages utilized at Kaufman Astoria Studios in Queens, and in Hell's Kitchen, Park Slope, and Chelsea Piers, For security reasons, the Northern Ireland scenes were instead shot in the Republic of Ireland. The opening scenes were filmed at Port Oriel, Clogherhead, County Louth, Republic of Ireland. The Belfast shootout scenes were filmed in Inchicore, Dublin in July 1996. Other location shoots in Ireland were in the Wicklow Mountains. Two months before it opened, the film was still unfinished: Pakula, unhappy with the final scene ("a showdown on a boat with a cargo of Stinger missiles"), called the actors and crew back for additional filming. The scene was "rewritten and reshot over two days at a studio in California." ==Reception==

''The Devil's Own'' received mixed reviews from critics. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, it has a approval rating based on reviews, with an average score of 5.2/10. On Metacritic, it has a score of 53 out of 100, based on reviews from 26 critics, indicating “mixed or average reviews.” Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B−" on an A+ to F scale. On Amazon (Prime Video), audiences view the movie even more highly, with 1,172 reviewers giving it on average of 4.5 stars. Roger Ebert gave the film 2½ stars out of 4, saying it showed "ignorance of the history of Northern Ireland" and that "the issues involved between the two sides are never mentioned." The review criticized the contrived plot, stating "The moral reasoning in the film is so confusing that only by completely sidestepping it can the plot work at all." Pitt and Ford were praised, with Ebert complimenting the pair, describing them as "enormously appealing and gifted actors, and to the degree that the movie works, it's because of them." James Berardinelli gave the film 2½ stars out of 4, saying: Janet Maslin called it an "unexpectedly solid thriller" with a "first-rate, madly photogenic performance" by Pitt; she notes that it is "directed by Alan J. Pakula in a thoughtful urban style that recalls the vintage New York stories of Sidney Lumet" and "handsomely photographed by Gordon Willis". Richard Schickel called it "quite a good movie – a character-driven (as opposed to whammy-driven) suspense drama – dark, fatalistic and, within its melodramatically stretched terms, emotionally plausible"; he said Pakula "develops his story patiently, without letting its tensions unravel." Entertainment Weekly gave it a "B+," calling it a "quiet, absorbing, shades-of-gray drama, a kind of thriller meditation on the schism in Northern Ireland." A reviewer for Salon.com called it "a disjointed, sluggish picture" with a problematic script that "bears the marks of tinkering": "swatches of the story appear to be missing, relationships aren't clearly defined, and characters aren't identified." Variety said: The film grossed $43 million in North America but it performed better overseas, earning $98 million which brings in the worldwide total of $140 million. Brad Pitt's Belfast brogue was criticized by several reviewers. In 2024, the website Irish Central listed it as one of "The Worst Irish Accents in Hollywood Movies". Cast and crew response In retrospect, Brad Pitt said: "I really like ''Devil's Own''. It was a good schooling for me. Still, I think the movie could have been better. Literally, the script got thrown out." Harrison Ford is also very fond of the movie: "We had a real hard time making it, but Alan [Pakula] made, I think, a really good movie out of it." British Royal family controversy The film was involved in adverse publicity when, two months before her death, Diana, Princess of Wales took 15-year-old Prince William, and 12-year-old Prince Harry, to see the movie. The movie was restricted to movie-goers aged 15 or older, and the Princess persuaded the cinema to let Prince Harry stay despite him being three years underage. She was criticized for flouting the law, for using her influence to persuade the cinema's employees to flout the law, and because of the movie's subject matter (which was said to glamorize the IRA – highly sensitive given that her sons' great-uncle Earl Mountbatten was assassinated by the IRA). She later apologized, saying she had been unaware of the film's content. ==Novelization==

A paperback novel of the film, written by Christopher Newman, was published by Dell Publishing, and released in 1998. ==References==