Fifty Dead Men Walking (**)
Directed by:Starring: Ben Kingsley, Jim Sturgess, Rose McGowan, Kevin Zegers
Seen: December 12th 2009
** Out of ****
The title of this movie is reference to the amount of lives saved by Martin McGartland (Sturgess) in the 80’s in Ireland. Fifty men are now walking around alive because of the information he provided the British police during his “tenure” with them (and the IRA). As a 22 year old man, Martin sells stolen goods to friends and family, because of his involvement in the community and his being friends with some influential members of the IRA at the time, Martin is approached by the British police whose offer of a car and cash-flow is enough for him to accept the job.
On the IRA side he becomes a full volunteer, and because of his performance, he rises in the ranks as well. As things progress, things become riskier with time as the circle of knowledge within the IRA gets smaller and smaller. It soon reaches a point where if the operation fails due to police interference the IRA would know Martin is the one that caused it through police contact. Grace Sterrin (McGowan) is a very high-placed intelligence officer in the IRA, and she works with Martin on some of the later operations, also trying to seduce him before realising the truth about what he does. On the British side Martin mainly makes contact with Fergus (Kingsley), who eventually becomes his only ally.
The story of FDMW is pretty interesting and incredulous, as this is a true story. You also know that Martin survives what initially transpires as the film starts with an IRA attempt on his life 11 years later in Canada. What is difficult however is getting up to speed with the Irish accent. I believe I missed around half of the story presented in the first 30 minutes of the movie, because of the accent coupled with bad enunciation of the words (in my experience). There are quite a few instances of voice-over and dialogue behind masks that is difficult to decipher because of not being able to see the person speaking on-screen.
Ben Kingsley is good as Fergus, and so is Jim Sturgess as Martin, together with just about everyone in the cast. I never doubted the authenticity of the movie, as the British film industry is mostly not as artificial as the US one, never missing any details of real life. I just find it difficult to relate to the characters, as even the main protagonist, Martin, is hard to love, because of his shifty nature. It takes the majority of the film for the viewer to truly get behind Martin, and at the end you are still not a 100% there, as that only happens after the finer details of what actually happened are presented in text on screen after the movie has finished.
Fifty Dead Men Walking might appeal to fans of the grittier, dirtier feeling of British movies in telling stories about real life, (almost) slum-living people in gloomiest of gloomy 1980’s Britain. I for one prefer something a little more optimistic, and if not optimistic, at least emotionally involving, not this sterile retelling of a story about counterintelligence in the IRA.
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