The Outsider (1979 film)

The Outsider is a 1979 film thriller set largely in Belfast during The Troubles; it was the first film directed by Italian-American Tony Luraschi. The film is based on the book The Heritage of Michael Flaherty by Colin Leinster, and details the fictional experience of an idealistic Irish-American who travels to Ireland and joins the IRA in the 1970s.

The Outsider
Directed byTony Luraschi
Based onThe Heritage of Michael Flaherty
by Colin Leinster[1]
Produced byCinematic Arts B.V.,[2] Philippe Modave (executive)[3]
StarringCraig Wasson
Sterling Hayden
Patricia Quinn
Niall O'Brien
Music byKen Thorne
Production
company
Distributed byCinema International Corporation (UK)[4][5]
Release date
  • 29 November 1979 (1979-11-29) (London)
[5][6][7]
Running time
128 minutes[8]
LanguageEnglish

Production

Luraschi, who had worked as an assistant director with Stanley Kramer and Roger Vadim, had never been to Ireland until 1976.[9] The company was unable to film in Northern Ireland, so instead made arrangement with a local residents' association to film the exterior scenes in the Dublin suburb of Ringsend.[4][10][11]

Release

Despite the distributor's hope, the film was rejected by the 1979 London Film Festival.[2][5] It opened at The Gate 2 cinema in Bloomsbury, London on 29 November 1979 during the festival.[5]

Reception

The film caused a minor scandal where government officials were outraged at a scene that showed a British officer participating in the torture of a partially blind Irish Catholic prisoner.[9][5]

New York magazine praised the direction "his skill at realistically conveying the terrible waste of the civil strife in Northern Ireland and the chilling day-to-day acceptance of violence as a way of life there. Unfortunately, the red-herring contrivances of his plot trivialize his powerful material."[9]

Stepan O'Fetchit said "At the other extreme, modern-dress movies like Tony Luraschi's The Outsider... purport to present a real, contemporary Ireland while effectively reducing it to a traffic snarl-up of faceless ideologues wielding guns, balaclavas, and gritty one-liners."[12]

Variety called it a "thoughtful terrorism drama" but felt that the "lack of concession on the part of director-scripter Tony Luraschi to conventional thriller pacing makes the Paramount-financed production no easy moneyspinner."[13]

References
  1. Greenhill, Steven (July 1988). "Acceptable images of Northern Ireland's troubles". ThirdWay. 11 (7): 19.
  2. Mike Kaplan (1 May 1981). Variety international showbusiness reference. Garland Pub. p. 496. ISBN 978-0-8240-9341-9. Retrieved 20 October 2012.
  3. Film Writers. Ifilm Pub. 2001. p. 60. ISBN 9781580650359. Retrieved 21 October 2012.
  4. "Irish Film & TV Research Online – Trinity College Dublin". Tcd.ie. Retrieved 20 February 2017.
  5. Vaines, Colin (3 November 1979). "'Outsider' opening snubbed by LFF". Screen International. p. 24.
  6. John Pym (1 January 1989). Time Out film guide. Penguin Books. p. 899. ISBN 978-0-14-029414-9. Retrieved 21 October 2012. – or The Outsider, The (1979, Neth, 128 min) d/sc
  7. Jürgen Elvert (1994). Nordirland in Geschichte und Gegenwart. Franz Steiner Verlag. pp. 479–. ISBN 978-3-515-06102-5. Retrieved 21 October 2012. – Tony Luraschis Film (GB 1979, nach dem Roman von Colin Leinster)
  8. Maltin, Leonard (2008). Guida Ai Film 2009. Dalai editore. pp. 1341–. ISBN 978-88-6018-163-3. Retrieved 21 October 2012.
  9. New York Media, LLC (28 April 1980). "New York Magazine". Newyorkmetro.com. New York Media, LLC. pp. 62–64. ISSN 0028-7369. Retrieved 21 October 2012.
  10. Arthur Flynn (2005). The story of Irish film. Currach Press. ISBN 978-1-85607-914-3. Retrieved 21 October 2012.
  11. Arthur Flynn (1996). Irish film 100 years. Kestrel Books. p. 138. ISBN 978-1-900505-40-6. Retrieved 21 October 2012.
  12. James MacKillop (1999). Contemporary Irish Cinema: From The Quiet Man to Dancing at Lughnasa. Syracuse University Press. p. 2. ISBN 978-0-8156-0568-3. Retrieved 21 October 2012.
  13. Bowker (1983). Variety's Film Reviews: 1978–1980. Bowker. ISBN 978-0-8352-2795-7. Retrieved 21 October 2012.
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