Review of Prayer For The Dying, A

Introduction

Martin Fallon (Mickey Rourke) is a terrorist with the IRA along with his best friend Liam (Liam Neeson). On a job one day, a trap set for British soldiers is triggered by a busload of innocent Irish school children. Fallon is aghast at the death of innocents and flees Ireland for London, vowing not to kill again.

Fallon reaches out to one of his mainland contacts for a new identity, passport, etc, not knowing that he works for gangland boss Jack Meehan (Alan Bates). Meehan runs an undertakers service as a cover for his crime work, ably assisted by psychotic brother Billy (Christopher Fulford). Meehan wants Fallon to take out one of his rivals, at which point he will not only get his passport but money too.

After initially walking away, Fallon takes the job and kills the mark. Unfortunately, Fallon`s crime is witnessed by Father Da Costa (Bob Hoskins), a Catholic priest who used to be in the SAS and lives with blind niece Anna (Sammi Davis). Fortunately for Da Costa, Fallon is unwilling to kill the priest. Unfortunately, Meehan has sent someone to witness the job being completed and doesn`t appreciate any witnesses being left behind. Fortunately, Da Costa is caught in a moral quandary when Fallon sneaks in confessional and confesses all to the outraged priest. Unfortunately, Meehan still doesn`t care and wants Da Costa and now Fallon dead.

Meanwhile, Liam has been sent to London to bring Fallon back to Belfast and hooks up with Siobhan Donovan (Alison Doody), an Irish girl who is more than happy to see anyone who she sees as betraying the cause get shot. Also hot on Fallon`s tail are the police and Special Branch…

Video

Visible print damage on the film, particularly at the start of the film.

Audio

Soundtrack by Bill Conti that ranges from a Gaelic feel, to subdued to bombastic when we hit the fairground late in the film. Oh, and some nice organ music too…

Features

All or nothing? Which do you think?

Conclusion

Can those marked by the cycle of endless violence redeem themselves, regardless of the reasons for killing? Well, this film won`t give you the answer to that question as it wallows in endless clichés that pull it down from an interesting, if flawed, idea to a by the numbers thriller. Whilst I have strong views on the terrorist past of Northern Ireland, I would at least have appreciated an attempt to explain the motivations behind Fallon`s terrorist past. As it is, the only acknowledgement is that he has killed `dozens` in the past and doesn`t want to kill again.

Hoskins loses his cockernee accent for this film and goes from the bad side (as seen in The Long Good Friday) to the priesthood to play the man who walked away from his past. As an ex-SAS man turned priest, Hoskins is supposed to be the antithesis of Fallon`s character; a man with a violent past who has successfully left it behind and chosen to help others through his service to God. It`s not a bad role and Hoskins estuary accent is far better than Rourke`s risible Irish accent.

The main villain is Jack Meehan, played by Alan Bates as a camp heavily made up Jürgen Prochnow lookalike. Meehan is a psychotic gangster with a warped social conscience and a talent as makeup artist for the dead. He has sympathy for a old granny who can`t afford to bury her husband but none for the employee forced to steal from him due to personal problems. He is ably assisted by his sinister and even more psychotic brother, Billy (Christopher Fulford) and a pre-Buffy Anthony Head as a thug called Rupert. All the villain performances are a bit OTT, from the evil glances and menacing presence to the posturing when in mortal danger.

Neeson is wasted in this film in a role that probably only lasts around 10 minutes in all. It would have been better if he and Rourke had traded roles to be honest, because Rourke doesn`t convince me as a hitman who has turned his back on violence. Neeson on the other hand does a fine job of portraying a man in the moral quandary of having to shoot his best friend and walking away to the consequences that follow (and this is with his short screen time).

The three main characters in this film are all miscast. Hoskins doesn`t do a bad job, but he would have been better suited to the role of Meehan. Bates is too over the top on this role and he feels more like a cartoon villain than a genuine nasty piece of work. Neeson would in my opinion have struck the right chord with the main role, but was presumably not a big enough name for the starring role.

Despite it`s lofty ideals, what this boils down to is a cliché driven affair about a man who cannot escape the violence of his past and forced to take violent action to redeem himself. Any attempt at exploring serious issues is quashed in a flimsy attempt at a weak thriller where all plot turns are telegraphed or so clichéd you know what is going to happen miles before it does.