Defense of the Realm (1986)

Defence of the Realm

All about whistle blowing and why everyone should for a better world.
I like Gabriel Byrne and Greta Scacchi so I'm a little prejudiced. I guess this movie shows me up as a frustrated journalist.
I guess I would have done exactly what Gabriel Byrne did and suffer a similar fate.
A British movie with no screaming sirens, roaring helicopters and screeching tires. A break from Bruce Willis.
Very believable but beware of the ending.The Holcroft Covenant May 9, 2008

fantastic cold war thriller

i love this movie. really captures the feeling of the early 80's when the cold war was in full swing. Gabriel Byrne, Denholm Elliot and Greta Scacchi are great. demonstrates the value of script and plotting vs explosions and car chases. pay attention because the plot is a little convoluted but all makes sense in the end. similar in feel to "All The President's Men" in that it is investigative journalism driven and plays on our fears of unseen forces and behind the scenes string pullers. highly recommended. March 2, 2008

Not a typical political thriller

This is a tough film to review because on one hand it doesn't take a linear approach to plot/storytelling, which means that the viewer has to fit a lot of the pieces together. But the thing is, there are different approaches to making a film in which the viewer has to fit pieces together.

For example, in "Fear X", with John Turturro, the method used in which the pieces have to be fit together is an intriguing one because, principally, we are given some extremely interesting characters who pull us into the story and make us WANT to put the pieces together. The difference between "Fear X" and "Defense of the Realm" is instructive. In the latter, the primary focus in NOT on the characters but instead on the plot machinations that beg the viewer to fill in the gaps. This plot-driven approach--with basically flat characters--does very little to really attract the viewer enough to want to put the pieces together.

Instead, we are taken from point A to point B, almost willy-nilly, with the filmmakers (writer and director) expecting us to do what has to be done to make sense of the film without providing characters we really care about. This makes the filmgoing experience a relatively dreary one. Briefly, reporter gets top story on political scandal, repercussions ensue, reporter digs up more information, the plot thickens (with emphasis on the word "thick"), revelations emerge, tragedy develops--and headlines, headlines, headlines.

Gabriel Byrne does a competent job in his first starring role as the reporter Nick Mullen, but the real heart of the film is Denholm Elliot who turns in a smashing performance. If only he had been given more time on screen! He's really the soul of "Defense of the Realm", the one who we DO care about, because he's a fully fleshed out character--in fact, the only one. He's a real pleasure to watch and perfectly conveys the tremendous anxiety that high-level political secrets carry with them.

Also on hand turning in competent performances are Greta Scacchi and Ian Bannen. But as is true of Nick Mullen, they are mostly undeveloped and only exist to move the plot along, such as it is.

With more substantial writing in which characters were more fully developed, this would have been a much more gripping film. As it is, with its plot-heavy emphasis, it's a burden. October 27, 2006

Thriller from Over the Sea

Defense of the Realm is a very interesting movie about the British government and the extent they will go to protect it. Nick Mullen (Gabriel Byrne) is an investigative reporter that has stumbled onto a scandal that could rock the government. When the story unravels to a bigger scandal, his life becomes in danger.

I always am skeptical of these types of film but something about this has a ring of authenticity. Gabriel Byrne always has an intensity about him. In this film he rises to a new height. Greta Scacchi is great as the politician's secretary that gets involved with Byrne.

This film will keep you guessing and on the edge of your seat.

DVD EXTRAS: None
December 20, 2005

I Missed Something - Thriller? Chiller? Niether

I am not sure that espionage stories and the thinking person genre fit together very well. This movie is at all times provocative, if only because it gives you so irritatingly little to go on. And the music always swells as if something is finally going to happen and things are going to really start rolling and everything is going to come together and there is going to be some wild getaway down the back alleys of London and you get...cut to next scene with indiscernible clue. This is the kind of movie where you look at the counter on the DVD player and it says one hour ten minutes and you are thinking to yourself - wow, they are going to really have to pack a lot into the next 30 minutes, and then you look again and it says one hour 30 minutes, and you say wow, this is going to be a cracking last ten minutes, and then it's over and you wish you had watched football instead of wasting your brain and time for so long. December 15, 2004

More reviews at Amazon.com ...