The Informant
The Informant
R | 15 March 1997 (USA)
The Informant Trailers

A former Irish Republican Army fighter, Gingy McAnally (Anthony Brophy), is reluctant about being called back into service after serving time in prison. He executes the grisly task but ends up captured by a sympathetic British police lieutenant named Ferris (Cary Elwes). The intimidating Chief Inspector of the Belfast Police (Timothy Dalton) convinces Gingy that his best hope is to become an informant and turn in other IRA operatives. As Gingy's marriage unravels under the stress, he is forced to come to terms with the fact that in this war both sides lose. Three men, three political circles, each fighting for their lives, each with their own agenda in the battle for Northern Ireland.

Reviews
Stometer

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

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Smartorhypo

Highly Overrated But Still Good

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Frances Chung

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

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Dana

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

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a-lawson-1

pretty rubbish. Timothy Dalton's Irish accent is laughable. The portrayal of the English soldier as some sort of hero is utter crap and after reading other peoples comments on this film its pretty clear that they are motivated by their political beliefs rather than how bad the quality of acting really is. In terms of the conflict in n.i, no one has their hands clean. By portraying the I.R.A as thugs and then the British soldiers and R.U.C special branch as the good guys takes away any impartiality and leaves you with the same unionist crap about how the British were impartial upholders of the law in Ireland and the nationalists were all terrorists.

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Micky B

This movie is by far the best of its kind. It is the most accurate description of the troubles in Northern Ireland i have seen. Unlike "Michael Collins" and other such movie's, The Informant did not idolise the I.R.A yet showed them for their true selves. Criminals, terrorists... But the movie didn't only focus on violence. It focus'd on a family, trying to get away from it all, trying to turn over a new leaf and start over. but to do so, the man of the family must "Inform" the R.U.C of names of the I.R.A members. In doing so he brings trouble on his family. Shame to his name, being a former I.R.A member, the lead of this movie really played his character to full potential.I would have to rate this movie 9 out of 10.

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gottfrid

This is arguably the best film there is about the troubles in Northern Ireland. Unlike films like Michael Collins, or In The Name of The Father, in this movie the IRA members are not shown as the romantic quasi-heroes they are thought to have been ages ago, they are shown as what they really are now: terrorists, capable of destroying the lives of not only their enemies, but also of many irish families who try to follow the normal course of their lives. The informant of the title is an ex-IRA assassin who makes a deal with the police, and gives the name of his employers. He and his family are then considered traitors of the "irish" cause, even though his wife, being more influenced by anti-brit propaganda, was against the so-called betrayal from the start. But she fails to escape the turmoil that follows: the poor girl is even raped by an IRA ganglord, as some kind of punishment for their betrayal, in a scene that certainly does away with the romanticism that can be expected from such a theme. This is certainly a view of the subject never shown in recent films about the Northern Ireland troubles. At the end of the day, unlike other similar films, there is no "moderate" faction of the IRA to solve things up, no Daniel Day-Lewis type guy to save the day, but only the feeling that things go on unsolved...

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DOstr1

Engrossing, suspenseful, honest drama: the best film on "the troubles" ever made.Put this up against the other IRA movies of recent years, and they pale by comparison.A visceral experience of the tortured Irish landscape; characters of great depth and complexity.An even-handed look at both sides of the coin, Protestant and Catholic. What goes on there is, after all, a tragedy for everyone. This is a movie all should see.

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