The Outsider (1980 film)

The Outsider
Directed by	Tony Luraschi
Produced by	Cinematic Arts B.V.,[1] Philippe Modave (executive)[2]
Based on	The Heritage of Michael Flaherty by Colin Leinster[3]
Starring	Craig Wasson Sterling Hayden Patricia Quinn Niall O'Brien
Music by	Ken Thorne
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures[4] Cinema International Corporation (Great Britain)[5]
Release dates	1979[6][7] or June 2, 1980 (New York)
Running time	128 minutes[8]
Language	English

The Outsider is a 1980 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 Irish Republican Army in the 1970s.

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.^[5][10][11]

Response

Reviews

• New Yorker: ""the film caused a minor scandal in London recently, where government officials were outraged at a scene that showed a British officer participating in the torture of an Irish prisoner.""^[9]
• "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... 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]
• The Outsider (U.S.-COLOR) Thoughtful terrorism drama, starring the IRA. ... Lack of concession on the part of director-scripter Tony Luraschi to conventional thriller pacing makes the Paramount-financed production no easy moneyspinner.^[13]

Political reaction

The film was dropped from a 1979 London festival.^[1]

References

1. Mike Kaplan (1 May 1981). Variety international showbusiness reference. Garland Pub. p. 496. ISBN 978-0-8240-9341-9. Retrieved 20 October 2012.
2. Film Writers. Ifilm Pub. 2001. p. 60. Retrieved 21 October 2012.
3. Greenhill, Steven (July 1988). "Acceptable images of Northern Ireland's troubles". ThirdWay. 11 (7): 19.
4. Michael Singer (1 January 1993). Michael Singer's film directors: a complete guide. Lone Eagle. ISBN 978-0-943728-60-5. Retrieved 21 October 2012.
5. http://www.tcd.ie/irishfilm/print.php?search=mainname&q=songs&exactMatch=1&extraSearch=
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. L. Maltin (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. 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.

External links

• The Outsider at the Internet Movie Database