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Fifty Dead Men Walking

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United Kingdom, Canada · 2008
Rated R · 1h 57m
Director Kari Skogland
Starring Ben Kingsley, Jim Sturgess, Kevin Zegers, Natalie Press
Genre Action, Thriller

Based on Martin McGartland’s real life autobiography about his time as a spy undercover in the IRA for the British police. Taking place from 1987-1991 during The Troubles in Ireland, Martin works his way up the ranks of the IRA, keeping his true identity hidden amidst years of civil violence.

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What are critics saying?

40

Village Voice by

The unfitting flashiness and clunky segues between thriller and melodrama kill any real sense of tension, making this a poor man's "Donnie Brasco"--that is, if its self-congratulation and failure to contextualize the values on both sides of the ethno-political struggle didn't already make it the poor man's "Hunger."

60

Empire by Dan Jolin

Think Donnie Brasco, with the IRA instead of the Mafia. Jim Sturgess dominates with a star-making turn, although some stylistic slip-ups let him down a little.

20

Time Out by David Fear

Kari Skogland’s flashy yet dead-on-arrival drama turns Belfast’s backstreet battlefields into music-video backgrounds.

88

Chicago Sun-Times by Roger Ebert

Setting entirely aside the accuracy of the film, the IRA still has him marked for death, and indeed there was an attempt on his life in Canada 10 years after he fled. He’s still out there somewhere.

75

The A.V. Club by Tasha Robinson

What makes Fifty Dead Men work is the story’s sheer moral complexity, which dares viewers to sympathize with anyone onscreen for more than a few minutes at a time.

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