Shocked and surprised that such a realistic movie set mostly in Belfast managed to pass me by. I must agree with the majority of (American) reviewers, who have deemed this film as a piece of gritty realism, if not one of true grit. I have lived in Belfast all my life and grew up during the period in which the film is set, and I can attest to the portrayal of working class Belfast as the most honest and vivid I have ever seen. The imagery is unmistakable, and I only wonder how on earth such footage could have been shot in 1980's Belfast! My only qualm is that I felt the plot line to be verging a little on the thin side, but that may be because I find it a little too incredible that the IRA at the time would have run the risk of sacrificing a US citizen to bolster PR. Aside from that, the depiction of the brutality and the Ethos of Conflict that engulfed Belfast at that time is unsurpassed.
Review of The Outsider
