I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

I am unable to provide an accurate review of this film for one reason: NO SUBTITLES! How do you distribute this film on DVD and streaming without the one necessary tool needed to fully understand the dialogue. The accents are very thick and after 30 minutes, I decided to stop trying. If they are not going to provide subtitles, I'm not going to struggle through it. I need the subtitles because, at my age, I am slightly hard of hearing, so I always use close captioning / subtitles. Add the fact that it is difficult to pick up what the characters are saying and it's a waste of time. Too bad because it appears to be a good film!!

This was finally shown on television - and was recommended as 'horrifically violent' - which it is. The bottom line is that he British persuade a teenager to inform on his ( freedom-loving ) or murderous colleagues and he turns to his task with enthusiasmI found the tension unbearable - having only lived thro a London bombing season which is nothing like the 'real thing'. Our Hero gets thro a road block by ringing his sister and the other fellow should know that he had no sister. Such small slips can lead to much greater breaks, and the plot is littered with them - leading to the suspense - will the IRA click our Hero is in fact no hero ?Various scenes seem unlikely but people have to realise it is a film and not a slice of real life. The torture ( IRA debrief ) scenes are horrifically graphic and presumably the IRA never learnt that rip off enough finger nails and the rippee will end up confessing to anything. None of the other reviewers seem to have wondered if people can be recognised, and whether the subplots were true - specifically if smaller fish ( our hero ) were sacrificed to save the identity of much bigger fish. I thought Delours Price got a decent look in ....The chief interrogator ( torturer ) was in real life unmasked as a British agent and the latter part of the film is devoted to the dastardly plan of flushing our hero down the John to save the identity of the torturer. Real life Freddie Scappaticci: see his interesting wiki entry. That accounts for the British MI5 man saying to the torturer at the very end let us call him Scappaticci - for chrissakes you are meant to have killed him by now ....I thought the hospital scenes OK - one point in real time the Belfast ITU was sprayed ( inside ) with machine gun fire so perhaps they were a tad underplayedso all in all - very watchable in a horrified - "did they, did we really do that?" sort of way ....

This film hit the headlines when female lead Rose McGowan stated if she'd be born in Belfast she'd have " one hundred per cent have been in the IRA " . Hmm I wonder if she'd have been born in the protestant areas of the city she might have been in the UVF or UFF ? Maybe if she'd been born in the Middle East she'd have moved to America and taken up flying lessons ? Who knows ? What is certain is she might have appeared in the film but failed to understand it in anyway because this - unlike so many films financed by American money dealing with the recent troubles - is not a flag waver for the fascist Provisional IRA . In fact it comes close to being the best film about the troubles but ruins itself in the final third To elaborate the audience are given the background to how the troubles started so thankfully the producers aren't going to equate Irish good and Brits bad . Even better the audience are shown that the provisional IRA aren't the noble are courageous freedom fighters portrayed in the likes of THE DEVIL'S OWN . They rob , maim torture and kill members of their own community , a community they claim to to protect . Try and think of an Irish Joe Pesci in a Martin O' Scorsese picture where the gangsters don't stick to their own and you've got the idea. Apparently this idea is beyond Ms McGowan. In short this is a film dealing with complex and sensitive issues and for the most part deals with them very well . In short 50 DEAD MEN WALKING had me thinking it was going to surpass HARRY'S GAME as the best thriller set against the troubles but it sadly failed in the endThe problem lies in the storytelling . It's easy to overlook minor details such as Martin McGartland surviving a murder attempt in Canada when in fact the attempted assassination took part in Nothern England but what spoils the film is the need to bring OTT action sequences in it when the film doesn't need embellishment and was doing very well without it and for some reason the film contrives to bring more and more action to the story . Take for example the ridiculous shoot out in the pub which never happened in reality . This is followed by a riot where Martin is being held captive which didn't happen in reality followed by Martin's successful escape from the provos - just not as happened in real life . The only reason for changing this fact is to set up an " exciting it says here " car chase to the hospital with special branch policeman Fergus driving to the hospital with all guns blazing with the IRA in hot pursuit. Do I have to point out this sequence never happened in reality either ?Dear oh dear . Yet another almost good film dealing with Northern Ireland where the truth would have been a bit more interesting than fiction . IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER also suffered from the same flaws by playing hard and loose with the facts but IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER still remains a compelling drama where as 50 DEAD MEN WALKING is ruined to a degree by wanting to be an action thriller when it worked best as a taut drama

I don't care about the accuracy. It's closer than 90 percent of what we see out of Hollywood. Having said, kudos to Canadian director Kari Skogland on a terrifically entertaining film. Great performances by all actors. Ben Kingsley and Jim Sturgess were especially great. They obviously had good chemistry which played out on the screen. Jim Sturgess is a talented young actor. The soundtrack was exactly right, helping to create a sense that I had just had a glimpse into what their lives must've been like. I measure films based on how they made me feel. This one was a "Wow!"Look forward to seeing more from all!