Blast from the Past: Revisiting Pakula’s Last Movie
The Devil’s Own, Alan J. Pakula’s final film (he was killed in car accident the following year) was a messy political thriller, starring Harrison Ford and Brad Pitt.
Grade: C+ (** out of *****)
Rubén Blades, Natascha McElhone, Julia Stiles, Margaret Colin, and Treat Williams played supporting roles.
It was the final film photographed by Gordon Willis, who retired soon after.
The film was written by Vincent Patrick, David Aaron Cohen, and Kevin Jarre (and others, uncredited).
The plot revolves around a member of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (Pitt) who comes to the US to obtain black market anti-aircraft missiles in order to shoot down British helicopters in Northern Ireland.
The plan is complicated by an Irish-American policeman (Ford), whom the IRA member has come to regard as family.
In 1972, Frankie McGuire, a boy of 8, witnesses a masked man shoot his father dead for Irish republican sympathies. Twenty years later in Belfast, Frankie and three other IRA members engage in a shootout with the British Army and undercover agents from the Special Reconnaissance Unit. One gunman is killed and another, Desmond, is mortally wounded; Frankie and his close friend Sean Phelan flee. Frankie’s commander Martin MacDuff, seeing a British Army helicopter circling above, decides that the IRA needs Stinger missiles to fight back.
Frankie soon travels to New York City with alias of “Rory Devaney” to buy these missiles. American Judge Peter Fitzsimmons, a longtime supporter of the IRA, provides him with a temporary job as a construction worker and arranges for him to stay with NYPD Sergeant Tom O’Meara, his wife Sheila, and their three daughters on Staten Island. Thinking that “Rory” is an Irish immigrant who needs a place to live while he finds work, the O’Meara family warmly welcome Frankie into their household and he soon becomes a trusted member of the family.
Meanwhile, Sean also arrives in New York City and meets up with Frankie. Sean acquires an old fishing boat for him and Frankie to smuggle the missiles. Frankie meets with black market arms dealer and Irish mobster Billy Burke, and they cut a deal to exchange the missiles for payment.
Judge Fitzsimmons obtains the money from his usual connections and has Megan Doherty, another IRA operative posing as his nanny, deliver it to Frankie.
After Eddie’s death, Tom meets with the FBI and their British counterparts, who ask him questions about Frankie. Tom realizes that the government agents intend to arrest and kill Frankie.
Spoiler Alert: Last Scene (Compromised)
Jumping onto the boat, Tom has a final standoff with Frankie. The two men shoot at each other through the glass of the bridge. Tom falls down, wounded. Realizing that he too has been shot, Frankie drops the gun and collapses. They embrace each other, recognizing they were fighting for causes. However, Frankie dies, and the wounded Tom steers the boat back to shore.
Brad Pitt visited Belfast in preparation for the role and suffered bruises after he was attacked due to mistakenly held as a protestant.
For Tom O’Meara, both Gene Hackman and Sean Connery had been considered, but at Pitt’s suggestion, Harrison Ford was approached for the role.
Ford thought that the script had to be rewritten to create a fuller role and more complicated relationship between the characters played by the two men.
Principal photography started in February 1996, with the script “still in flux,” ego clashes, budget overruns and long delays.
Pitt threatened to quit early in the shoot, complaining that the script was incomplete and incoherent. He later denounced the movie as “the most irresponsible bit of filmmaking I’ve seen.'”
They had a script that wasn’t acceptable to either actor, Contrary to the rumors, Kamen insisted that both actors were agreeable to each other, “It wasn’t the tension between them; it was the tension each had with their own parts.”
The plot did not follow conventional Hollywood logic, as Ford and Pitt were both playing “good guys,” behaving according to their own distinct moral codes.
Ford’s character as the upright American cop who deplores violence, and Pitt’s as an I.R.A. gunman for whom violence is reasonable solution to his people centuries of troubles.”
Pakula said he was inspired by Red River, a Howard Hawks 1948 western in which John Wayne’s character is defied by his young protégé, played by Montgomery Clift.
The Devil’s Own received mixed reviews from critics. Roger Ebert complained about ignorance of the history of Northern Ireland” and that “the issues involved between the two sides are never mentioned.”
In the end, the film only grossed $140 million, exceeding its $90 million budget, of which $43 million was from America.
Cast
Harrison Ford as Sergeant Tom O’Meara
Brad Pitt as Francis “Frankie” McGuire/Rory Devaney
Shane Dunne as Young Frankie
Margaret Colin as Sheila O’Meara
Rubén Blades as Edwin Diaz
Treat Williams as Billy Burke
George Hearn as Judge Peter Fitzsimmons
Mitchell Ryan as Deputy Chief Jim Kelly
Natascha McElhone as Megan Doherty
Paul Ronan as Sean Phelan
David O’Hara as Martin MacDuff
Simon Jones as Harry Sloan
Julia Stiles as Bridget O’Meara
