--- title: "In the Name of the Father: the reviews" canonical: "https://film.one/film/in-the-name-of-the-father/reviews" title_page: "https://film.one/film/in-the-name-of-the-father" critics_score: 79 critics_reviews: 8 licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # In the Name of the Father (1993): what the critics said Critics' score 79 from 8 reviews: 8 positive, 0 mixed, 0 negative. The reviews are unanimous in their approval, and the spread is narrow: every critic lands in the same broad band of good to strong. Most agree that the film’s anger about the Guildford Four’s wrongful conviction is its engine, and that Jim Sheridan handles the material fairly without preaching. The praise clusters on the two central performances. Daniel Day-Lewis and Pete Postlethwaite are singled out again and again, and most critics say the father-son relationship, rather than the courtroom, is where the film does its best work. The reservations are mild and mostly about shape. RogerEbert.com finds the middle prison stretch loses urgency and could be tighter. The New Yorker thinks the film is weaker as straight docudrama, blurring details in the trial scenes, and Time Out also notes that facts have been adjusted for emotional effect. The Independent finds it solid rather than uncomfortable. Nobody dissents on the whole; the most reserved review still calls the prison scenes precise and purposeful. ## Empire — Kim Newman Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). This is a considerable achievement that tackles controversial material in a fair-minded but righteously wrathful manner while making the story gripping. Letter-perfect performances from Daniel Day-Lewis and Pete Postlethwaite drive home the point about miscarriage of justice, with the father-son relationship at its heart. [Read the review](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/name-father-review/) ## Los Angeles Times — Kenneth Turan Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 29 December 1993. The critic calls the film a model of enraged, polemical cinema that powerfully dramatizes a real miscarriage of justice while adding emotional depth through the father-son story. Day-Lewis delivers an extraordinarily convincing performance that makes viewers feel they are living the years of imprisonment alongside the character. [Read the review](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-12-29-ca-6336-story.html) ## The New York Times — Janet Maslin Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 29 December 1993. The critic calls the film tough and riveting, praising director Jim Sheridan's plain yet resonant storytelling that indicts the bitterness between English and IRA partisans. It succeeds as both a personal tragedy and a plea for reason. [Read the review](https://www.nytimes.com/1993/12/29/movies/review-film-name-father-sins-son-are-visited-his-father.html) ## Variety — Variety Staff Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 31 December 1992. The review highlights the film's strong sense of time and place, outstanding characterizations, and cinematic energy that advances on Sheridan's prior work. It singles out the intense performances of Daniel Day-Lewis and Pete Postlethwaite for particular praise. [Read the review](https://variety.com/1992/film/reviews/in-the-name-of-the-father-1200431309/) ## RogerEbert.com — Roger Ebert Fi1m's normalised score 75/100 (inferred from the text). 14 January 1994. The critic finds the film an angry, detailed account of the Guildford Four miscarriage of justice that excels in showing how prison changes the protagonist and deepens his bond with his father. Day-Lewis’s transformative performance anchors the story, though the middle prison sections lose some urgency and could be tighter. [Read the review](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/in-the-name-of-the-father-1994) ## The Independent — Adam Mars-Jones Fi1m's normalised score 75/100 (inferred from the text). 11 February 1994. The film is solid and well-crafted with moments of great power, though not as urgent or uncomfortable as it might have been earlier. It excels in depicting the father-son relationship and the personal growth of Gerry Conlon without idealising him, highlighted by strong performances from Daniel Day-Lewis and Pete Postlethwaite. [Read the review](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/the-big-picture-seeking-the-self-inside-not-guilty-adam-marsjones-reviews-in-the-name-of-the-father-the-gerry-conlon-story-1393380.html) ## Time Out — TJ Fi1m's normalised score 75/100 (inferred from the text). 18 May 2016. Sheridan's film passionately tells the story of the Guildford Four's wrongful conviction and long fight for justice, with some factual adjustments to heighten the emotional impact. It engages and enrages without pushing a narrow ideological agenda. [Read the review](https://www.timeout.com/movies/in-the-name-of-the-father) ## The New Yorker — Terrence Rafferty Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 17 January 1994. The review highlights the film’s strength in exploring the father-son relationship and the emotional toll of oppression in prison scenes, where it becomes precise and purposeful. It is less effective as straight docudrama, with some factual liberties and a tendency to blur details in the trial sequences. [Read the review](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1994/01/24/1994-01-24-088-tny-cards-000149203) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Our review: https://film.one/film/in-the-name-of-the-father.md