Jim Sheridan

Born in the capital of Ireland, on February 6, 1949, Jim Sheridan is the son of a theater director, a profession that has fascinated him all his life, because from a very early age he wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps. His childhood was marked by the tragic death of Frankie, his brother, due to a brain tumor. “In Ireland, the family is fundamental. When my brother Frankie died, my father brought the family together to discuss and assimilate the loss,” explains the filmmaker in an interview with Alberto Fijo. “In a sense, my films are a means of restoring that environment of immediate family intimacy that a lot of people are looking for, because in today’s world it’s been lost.”

After marrying Fran, with whom he had three daughters, Sheridan took the whole family and set out on the American adventure, trying to make his way on the Broadway stage. “I had to go to the United States because I didn’t like that in most European countries the states paid intellectuals to be radical leftists. I don’t trust radical intellectuals who are paid by the state,” recalls Sheridan.

He took a six-week course at the New York University Film School, but then luck was not on his side, so he was forced to survive with great economic hardships, for a few years that would later inspire one of his films.

Back in his native country at the end of the 1980s, Sheridan wrote and directed one of the best-performing debuts on record, My Left Foot , a biography of his compatriot, the painter Christy Brown, a cerebral palsy of humble origin who could only fend for himself. of his left foot to write and paint. Based on Brown’s autobiography, her positive message of self-improvement and tenacity caught on against the odds around the world. In addition, an immense Daniel Day-Lewis –since then a fetish actor of the director–, who played the painter, and Brenda Fricker (the mother), as a secondary, obtained a well-deserved Oscar.

Although he received numerous offers to shoot in Hollywood, Sheridan stayed on in Ireland to shoot The Meadow , with another impeccable acting job, this time from Richard Harris , as a farmer taking on unscrupulous speculators.

Sheridan also wrote the screenplay for Escape to the South , about Irish children and a magical white horse, directed by Mike Newell .

But Sheridan’s most rounded film is undoubtedly In the Name of the Father , also based on a true story, the drama of Gerry Conlon , one of the Guilford Four, who were unjustly imprisoned confused with IRA terrorists who had put a bomb in a pub, which caused several victims. The strong point is the relationship of the protagonist -again Day-Lewis- with his father -the then little-known Pete Postlethwaite -. She earned 7 Oscar nominations, though none ultimately materialized.

Sheridan returned to dealing with terrorism in Northern Ireland, as a screenwriter for In the Name of the Son , with Terry George making his directorial debut (who co-wrote with him on In the Name of the Father ). Helen Mirren rocked her role as the mother of a young imprisoned terrorist. Sheridan’s next directorial work, The Boxer , from 1997, recovers Day-Lewis, as a boxer imprisoned for a crime he did not commit who, when he is released from prison, tries to rebuild his life in a Northern Ireland where the elements that would give rise to the peace process.

His ordeal as an immigrant in the US gave rise to the emotional In America , one of his best films, co-written with two of his daughters, Naomi Sheridan and Kirsten Sheridan , who lived through those days. Follow the journey of an Irish couple with two girls who seek life in a New York neighborhood. As in real life, the protagonists manage to overcome difficult moments thanks to the family unit.

But America is not entirely good at Sheridan, who insisted on directing the American film Get Rich or Die Tryin’ , which for the first time in his filmography, is not based on his own script, but on a script by Terence Winter , which starts from the memories of the leading actor, the rapper 50 Cents. Despite the undeniable quality of the film, it was a resounding flop at the box office.

Also in Hollywood, with someone else’s script, Sheridan films Brothers (Brothers) unnecessary and bland remake in English of the brilliant film by Susanne Bier . Despite everything, the Irishman continues in the mecca of cinema, where he has made his debut in terror with another film from someone else’s script, Behind the Walls , which has been a bad experience. As the producers have not let him edit the tape according to his criteria, the director has come to try to have his name removed from the credits.