In The Name Of The Father (2025)

During the Protestant Reformation, the phrase became a battleground. Reformers argued that doing anything "in the name of the Father" without faith was empty ritual. Meanwhile, the Catholic Church defended the sign of the cross as a sacramental—a physical declaration that one’s identity is sealed in the divine Father’s name.

When director Jim Sheridan released In the Name of the Father in 1993, he knew he was stepping on political landmines. Starring Daniel Day-Lewis as Gerry Conlon and Pete Postlethwaite as his father Giuseppe, the film is a cinematic howl of rage against the British legal system. In The Name Of The Father

Based on the autobiography Proved Innocent by Gerry Conlon, the film recounts the story of the Guildford Four—four people wrongly convicted of IRA bombings in 1974—and the Maguire Seven, their family members imprisoned for running a bomb factory that never existed. While the film takes dramatic liberties with the timeline and details, its core emotional truth and its depiction of systemic failure remain startlingly relevant today. During the Protestant Reformation, the phrase became a