ReaderKenka Let's be realistic.

Huievest Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

Murphy Howard I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Lela 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.

Corpus_Vile It's 1973. Irish American rich kid Michael Flaherty (Craig Wasson) is a disillusioned Vietnam veteran, captivated by the romantic patriotic tales of his Irish Civil War veteran grandfather (Sterling Hayden). Determined to aid The Cause, he joins the IRA to fight the British. However, once he arrives, he finds that all is not what it seems, an all encompassing shade of grey permeates everything and that both the IRA and the British army consider him an expendable asset if need be and cynicism and utter pragmatism abounds.The Outsider is a film I've personally been looking for for the past 25 years or so, partly for being captivated by the novel as a kid and partly because my brother appeared in it in a scene where kids play soldiers, as one of the kids. Now that I've finally seen it, I found it an unassuming tour de force. There is no glory here. No heroism. No idealism. Just workmanlike docudrama style reality as both the IRA's army council and British military brass make coldly rational and logical decisions which will further their respective causes. When children are killed in the crossfire during a gun battle, by British army bullets, the IRA's army council discuss the tragedy in terms of how much more support the deaths will gain them among Irish Americans, while a British Colonel (veteran British actor Geoffry Palmer) admonishes his subordinate that "We can't have 12-year-old children being killed Nigel, it will swell up the ranks of the IRA", while his subordinate protests against SAS involvement on the grounds that "They'll make a mess of things, they always do", which will gain further recruitment for the IRA.As for the IRA themselves, there's Emmet, the pleasant and utterly ruthless executioner, The Farmer (veteran Irish actor Niall Toibin), a coldly implacable and completely ruthless brigade commander who retorts to complaints by a visiting army council member regarding civilian casualties to "tell GHQ to get me more guns instead of dynamite and my aim will be much more selective". and Tony, a smiling baby faced psychopath who the Farmer disdains because "It would make you sick the love he has for the trigger", but who also has no problem using to commit assassinations, precisely because of his bloodlust if it furthers The Cause. No morality. No ethos. Just get the job done in a pragmatically efficient way as possible due to the end justifying the means, in a low intensity war fought just as much via PR and through the media as it is in the back alleys of Belfast or fields of Monaghan.Irish actor Ray MacAnally terrifies in a left field scene as a murky British intelligence torturer, whose torture of a civilian is utterly workmanlike and casual as a means to an end. The Farmer coldly tries to figure out who a suspected informer may be with no illusions to the viewer as to what will await the informer's fate. There are no heroes and no villains, no Good Guys or Bad Guys but merely opponents who will use pawns as they see fit to win the war.The film is not without its minor flaws, such as one or two dodgy/missplaced accents but overall, as has been said by other reviewers, The Outsider is a true lost gem of a film with no easy answers but many astute observations. 9/10, highly recommended.

TeflonDub Other reviewers have covered it well, just letting those who were trying to hunt it down on DVD know that it's available now on Netflix Instant. Well worth the time to watch. It portrays both sides in an equally dismal light. As such, one of the more compelling stories with the troubles as its backdrop. Some of the great Irish actors appear in it, such as Niall Tobín, Ray McAnally and Joe Lynch. The Richard Gere-type American lead is all rage and not a lot of nuance, but can be forgiven. The cynical and dehumanizing way the Anerican pawn is manipulated makes for compelling viewing. It also contains some very daring lines about the role of the church, and accurately foretells its fate in the absence of a common enemy. Some earlier reviewers worried about the level of violence. It would be impossible to set a movie in Belfast in 1973 without losing all credibility, a mistake this movie avoids. I didn't find any scene gratuitous, and the integrity of the movie is the better for it. I would agree with others who have described this as a lost gem.

Dana Wang The young Vietnam War veteran Michael Flaherty, from Detroit, (Craig Wasson) joins the IRA because his Irish grandfather fought for the cause and he has told Michael so many stories of his, and Michael wants to be just like him. After working briefly at the border, Michael's wish is granted- he is sent to Belfast, Northern Ireland, where all you can see is ruins and riots. All the while, Michael is not aware that he has been considered as an outsider and that he has been manipulated. To the IRA, he is nothing but a pawn for their 'public relations'. When Michael realises the brutal truth, he is utterly disillusioned. He only becomes further disillusioned when he has returned to America and his ill grandfather confesses to him yet another harsh truth...I have been to Belfast, though not in the 1970s, but from what I've read and what I've seen, I can say this film vividly depicts the city of Belfast in the early 1970s, the peak of the Troubles. And not all of them fought for the cause. Some of them were indeed downright terrorists (again, I must reiterate, not ALL of them). The movie also portrays the cunning nature of the British Troops. The ending is a very clever one. I think I should track down the novel.

cleinster But it ended a lot earlier than the novel. In the book, Emmett chases Flaherty back to the U.S. and the pair of them end up at the Shepherd's Mass, a Feast of the Assumption event that takes place every year in the mountains of northern Wyoming. Back to the movie: I've tried to find it in video stores and nobody even has it listed. Where can I get a copy?