The Devil's Own

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Devil's Own

The Devil's Own film poster
Directed by Alan J. Pakula
Produced by Donald Laventhall
Written by Kevin Jarre
David Aaron Cohen
Vincent Patrick
Starring Harrison Ford
Brad Pitt
Music by James Horner
Distributed by Columbia Pictures
Release date(s) March 26, 1997
Running time 111 min
Country USA
Language English
Budget $90,000,000
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile
"The Devil's Own" is also a nickname for the Connaught Rangers and of the Inns of Court Regiment

The Devil's Own is a 1997 movie starring Harrison Ford, Brad Pitt, Rubén Blades, Natascha McElhone, and Treat Williams.

Contents

A police officer helps a visitor from Northern Ireland, only to discover that he has a potentially deadly secret. Belfast-native Frankie McGuire (Brad Pitt) saw his father gunned down by loyalist (British) paramilitaries at the age of eight, and when he grew up he joined the Irish Republican Army (IRA), determined that one day he would avenge his father's death. A deadly and dangerous "volunteer," Frankie is responsible for the death of 13 British soldiers and 11 members of the RUC, as well as many loyalist para's. After a bloody battle where Frankie's IRA unit kill a number of British Troops in broad daylight , Frankie flies to the United States with a lot of money, intending to purchase a bunch of stinger missiles from an underground arms dealer in America, Billy Burke (Treat Williams). Upon arrival in New York City, Frankie is met by a judge who is sympathetic to the IRA's cause and who arranges a place for him to stay. Using the name Rory Devaney, Frankie moves into the home of Tom O'Meara (Harrison Ford), an honest cop for 23 years. But, Tom is already in the midst of a personal crisis; his friend and partner Edwin Diaz (Ruben Blades) recently shot a man that he knew was unarmed in the line of duty, and while Edwin wants Tom to help him cover up the matter, Tom's conscience will not allow it. When Tom begins to realize that "Rory" is not simply a man running from the violence of his homeland, he is torn between his sympathy for Frankie's tragic childhood and his desire to see justice served and prevent needless death in his ancestor's home of Ireland.

Flimed in Greenport NY (Long Island)

  • The movie attracted notorious press attention during principle photography. Many stories had reported that there wasn't enough room for both its stars Harrison Ford and Brad Pitt, and attributed that, in addition to troubles on the production and escalating the budget. At the U.S. Box Office, the movie was a flop, earning only half of its $90 million budget.
  • The title is explained at Ford's daughter's confirmation, where the congregatation renounces Satan and all his works while Pitt remains silent.
  • Some critics have made comparisons between this film and The Godfather series.[citation needed]
  • A recurring theme in the film is the jealousy felt by Pitt's character, the Irish native, towards Ford's character, an Irish-American, and his peaceful life in New York City. Whenever Ford brings up turmoil in Ireland, Pitt responds with something along the lines of: "Don't look for happy endings, Tom. It's not an American story, it's an Irish one."
  • It has been argued that the film is biased towards the IRA's cause (to reunify the British occupied Northern Ireland with the Republic of Ireland through force of arms) and does not adequately condemn the freedom-fighter acts performed by Pitt's character. The British characters are portrayed as either ruthless assassins or pathetically ineffective soldiers. In one scene two IRA soldiers wipe out numerous British army soldiers, who run headfirst into the line of fire, displaying an inexplicable lack of urban warfare training.
  • Brad Pitt wanted to leave the production, but was threatened by a lawsuit. In the February 2, 1997, issue of Newsweek, Pitt called the film a "disaster", and said that "it was the most irresponsible bit of filmmaking - if you can even call it that - that I've ever seen. I couldn't believe it." Pitt subsequently wrote a letter to Newsweek claiming his remarks had been taken out of context. Still, rumors of fighting on the set (especially over which star would be the focus of the film) plagued the production. The original script was discarded and there were at least seven subsequent rewrites. Pitt said the final version was "a mess". "The script that I had loved was gone," he said. "I guess people just had different visions and you can't argue with that. But then I wanted out and the studio head said, 'All right, we'll let you out, but it'll be $63 million for starters.'"[1]
  • Alan J. Pakula's final directed film.
  • Screenwriter Robert Mark Kamen was one of the original writers but was never credited.

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
Advanced Search
Included Web Search Engines


Safe Search

close

Top Matching Results

Occasionally Search.com will highlight specialized results that are based on the context of your query. Examples of specialized results include specific links to news, images, or video.

Top Matching Results may highlight information from other Search.com pages, content from the CNET Network of sites, or third party content. The listings are based purely on relevance. Search.com does not receive payment for listings in this section but our partners that provide this data may get paid for listing these products.

Sponsored Links

This section contains paid listings which have been purchased by companies that want to have their sites appear for specific search terms and related content. These listings are administered, sorted and maintained by a third party and are not endorsed by Search.com.

Search Results

Search.com sends your search query to several search engines at one time and integrates the results into one list which has been sorted by relevance using Search.com's proprietary algorithm. You can customize the list of search engines included in your metasearch from the preferences.

The search engines that are used in your metasearch may allow companies to pay to have their Web sites included within the results. To view the Paid Inclusion policy for a specific search engine, please visit their Web site. Search.com does not accept payment or share revenue with any search engine partner for listings in this section.