History Film / InTheNameOfTheFather

Now falsely convicted of murder, petty criminal Gerry Conlon (Day-Lewis) – along with his father Giuseppe (Postlethwaite), whom he disrespects – must survive in prison together and fight to show they're innocent with the whole British legal system against them.

* ChewingTheScenery: Creator/DanielDayLewis puts on a passionate performance as Gerry Conlon with many scenes where he shows extreme rage and sorrow, which is [[JustifiedTrope justified]], well done and appropriate to show Gerry's plight as a wrongly convicted man.

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It chronicles the ordeal of the [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guildford_Four_and_Maguire_Seven Guildford Four]], a group of three young Irishmen and their Englishwoman friend (along with one of the Irish defendants' relatives) who were WronglyAccused of bombing two British soldiers' pubs in Guildford, England in 1974 (that is, during UsefulNotes/TheTroubles).

It chronicles the ordeal of the [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guildford_Four_and_Maguire_Seven Guildford Four]], a group of three young Irishmen and their Englishwoman friend along with one of the Irish defendants' relatives who were WronglyAccused of bombing two soldiers' pubs in Guildford, England in 1974.

Wrongly convicted of murder, petty criminal Gerry Conlon and his father Giuseppe, whom he disrespects, must survive in prison together and fight to show they're innocent with the whole British legal system against them.

!! In the Tropes of the Father:

BasedOnATrueStory, this 1993 drama is directed by Jim Sheridan and stars Creator/DanielDayLewis, Creator/PetePostlethwaite and Creator/EmmaThompson.

* AffablyEvil: Benbay the prisoner. While he wears high security prison clothes meaning that he must have committed a serious crime is nice to Gerry while the rest of the prison despise Irish prisoners. Benbay is also friendly to the tougher criminals like Ronnie Smalls and Joe [=McAndrew=].

%%% * ClusterFBomb/ZCE
* DespairEventHorizon: After Gareth comes to see Giuseppe and help with his case, Gerry is upset by this. He tells her to not to give his father false hope. Later, once Giuseppe's dead he does accept her help. While he tries to record a tape about his father for Gareth though, Gerry flips out and wrecks his cell as losing Giuseppe simply overwhelms him. This is his last bout with despair though, as after this he grows dead set on exonerating them both.

* DueToTheDead: [[spoiler:All of the prisoners in the wing, who had come to adore him, protest after Giuseppe dies by burning toilet paper, knowing that being in prison had made his health condition grow fatal. This is the only thing they can do from inside.]]

* WronglyAccused: The Guildford Four. Basically wrong place, wrong time, wrong nationality. They were accused mostly for being Irishmen (and their Englishwoman friend) living close to where two bombings occurred, and fit what the police thought of as the profile for the terrorists (but were way off), with an informant fingering them.

* ChewingTheScenery: Creator/DanielDayLewis puts on a passionate performance as Gerry Conlon, which [[JustifiedTrope justified]], well done and appropriate to show Gerry's plight as a wrongly convicted man.

It chronicles the ordeal of the [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guildford_Four_and_Maguire_Seven Guildford Four]], a group of three young Irishmen and their Englishwoman friend WronglyAccused of bombing two soldiers' pubs in Guildford, England in 1974. At the height of UsefulNotes/TheTroubles, all four were involved with drugs and petty crime, a profile the British police (wrongly) believed fit the IRA. In fact Gerry Conlon (Day-Lewis) left England to get away from the IRA who had threatened him for committing theft. After the bombing, police acted on a tip, arresting the four (and later Conlon family members, including Gerry Conlon's father Giuseppe). Coerced into falsely confessing by the police, the Four were convicted by this along with junk science indicating nitroglycerin traces on their bodies at trial, with the Irishmen receiving life sentences and their English friend fifteen years. Six other Conlon family members were also convicted on lesser charges and received sentences ranging from six to fifteen years in prison, including Giuseppe.

Gerry and Giuseppe are imprisoned together in one of the hardest British prisons, having to fight at first to survive inside. They meet one of the real bombers, Joe [=McAndrew=], after he is locked up with them. Joe confirms their innocence, but the police do not want to hear it. Gerry briefly falls under [=McAndrew=]'s spell, to Giuseppe's alarm, but his presence secures their status in the prison and he leads a protest which drives out the guards. The riot squad soon retakes the wing, however, and [=McAndrew=] swears revenge. Following this, an English lawyer, Gareth Pierce (Thompson), inspects things with an investigative commission after the riot, and tells Giuseppe she will look into his case. Gerry angrily tells her to not give him false hope. Still, in time all of the real murderers they are with recognize them to be innocent, and even the chief warder Barker seems to have doubts after getting to know the gentle, beautific Giuseppe. Gerry's affinity with [=McAndrew=] ends when he leads his fellow prisoners in a brutal attack on Barker for retaking the wing, and he is transferred to another prison in solitary confinement. After Giuseppe's premature death due to ill health exacerbated by prison, Gerry embarks on a quest to prove himself innocent with the help of Gareth, leading to a stirring and magnificent conclusion.

* AcquittedTooLate: [[spoiler: Giuseppe]].

* ArtisticLicenseHistory: In reality, Gerry Conlon and his father Giuseppe were in separate prisons. Gerry never saw his father again. The real bombers were also never incarcerated with any of the Four, although they did confess at their own trial, exonerating them. Just as in the film, this was dismissed by the British authorities until evidence the police had lied about their confessions was revealed. There was also no alibi witness. Rather, the police falsified their interrogation notes to cover up the coercion they used to obtain the confessions. This was discovered by another police detective, not the Four's lawyer, when he was looking over the case file. However, the Griess test really did result in many false positives (such as the chemicals in ''playing cards'' being wrongly identified as nitroglycerin by a technician, for instance).

* BasedOnATrueStory: Sadly true, although fictionalized in the film.

* ChewingTheScenery: Day-Lewis, [[JustifiedTrope justified]], well done and appropriate.

* {{Jerkass}}: The detectives who brutally interrogate the Guildford Four.
** The hippy Deptford Jim also applies. He has a go at Gerry and Paul, blaming them for the bombings. Jim later willingly talks to the police, implicating Paul Hill and the Conlons out of spite (possibly more than that; see GreenEyedMonster above), thus putting the disastrous events of the film into motion (in reality the source who caused their arrest is unknown).

* WellDoneSonGuy: Giuseppe is this to Gerry.
* WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue: One is given at the end of the film.
* WronglyAccused: The Guildford Four. Basically wrong place, wrong time, wrong nationality.

* AffablyEvil: Benbay the prisoner. While he wears high security prison clothes meaning that he must have committed a serious crime is nice to Gerry while the rest of the prison despise Irish prisoners. Benbay is also friendly to the tougher criminals like Ronnie Smalls and Joe McAndrew.
* ArtisticLicenseHistory: In reality, Gerry Conlon and his father Giuseppe were in separate prisons. [[{{TearJerker}} Gerry never saw his father again]]. The real bombers were also never incarcerated with any of the Four, although they did confess at their own trial, exonerating them. Just as in the film, this was dismissed by the British authorities until evidence the police had lied about their confessions was revealed. There was also no alibi witness. Rather, the police falsified their interrogation notes to cover up the coercion they used to obtain the confessions. This was discovered by another police detective, not the Four's lawyer, when he was looking over the case file. However, the Griess test really did result in many false positives (such as the chemicals in ''playing cards'' being wrongly identified as nitroglycerin by a technician, for instance).

* ClusterFBomb

* PlayingGertrude: Pete Postlethwaite is eleven years older than on-screen son Daniel Day Lewis.

* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: At least one of the detectives feels bad about torturing Gerry Conlon when the actual suspect confesses to the Guildford pub bombings during his interrogation. Needles to say, Inspector Dixon is unmoved, but the Belfast detective clearly shows guilt.

* GoodCannotComprehendEvil: Guiseppe big time. This actually earns him respect among the other prisoners and guards as they realize that he clearly is not a violent man and would've never done what he has been convicted of.

* GreyAndGrayMorality: The British government is obviously the main antagonist, but the IRA aren't shown to be upstanding guys either-Gerry first leaves Belfast to escape their wrath for his thefts. The real bomber in particular is a bloodthirsty thug who committed many more bombings and murders before he was finally captured.

!! This Film Contains Examples Of: