Film Reviews

Posted: Sun., Dec. 31, 1978, 11:00pm PT

The Outsider

Paramount/Cinematic Arts. Director Tony Luraschi; Screenplay Tony Luraschi; Camera Ricardo Aronovitch; Editor Catherine Kelber; Music Ken Thorne; Art Director Franco Fumagalli
Craig Wasson Sterling Hayden Patricia Quinn Niall O'Brien T.P. McKenna Ray McAnally
The Outsider represents the first attempt to get behind the incessant headlines and into the minds and motives at work on one of the longest-fought terrorist campaigns of the times - through an intelligent fictional story with an Irish setting.

A measure of the effectiveness of Craig Wasson's performance, as a young Irish-American inflamed to join the IRA by his grandfather's (Sterling Hayden) tales of fighting the Brits in the religion-charged cause of Irish nationalism, is that by the time he finally leaves Ireland as a disillusioned fugitive he looks - without artifice - 10 years older. What he's escaped is a neatly-plotted double trap by both the IRA and British army.

The strength of Tony Luraschi's features debut lies in its restraint.

(Color) Extract of a review from 1979. Running time: 128 MIN.

Contact Variety Staff at news@variety.com

SharePrint VarietyVariety RSS feedsBookmark

Get Variety:

Variety AppsVariety DigitalNewsletters

Variety Luxury Real Estate