Movie Review

Fifty Dead Men Walking (2009)

EW's GRADE
B

Details Limited Release: Aug 21, 2009; Rated: R; Genre: Drama; With: Ben Kingsley and Jim Sturgess

 IRISH CAR BOMB Jim Sturgess tries to look inconspicuous in Fifty Dead Men Walking Fifty Dead Men Walking
IRISH CAR BOMB Jim Sturgess tries to look inconspicuous in Fifty Dead Men Walking

Writer-director Kari Skogland's sharp-edged, doc-style drama Fifty Dead Men Walking is loosely based on the true story of Martin 
McGartland, who lived life on a 
tightrope in the late 1980s during the Troubles in Northern Ireland: 
McGartland served as a loyal IRA member—and passed intelligence on to the Brits. (A Dead Man is what the IRA called an informer, and for good 
reason.) Jim Sturgess (Across the Universe) makes a believable cocky lad who signs on for the con; an oddly bewigged Ben Kingsley is fussier and too actorly as his handler. B

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Originally posted Aug 25, 2009 Published in issue #1063 Sep 04, 2009 Order article reprints

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