Film

The Outsider

Other titles called The Outsider: the 1967 film, the 2015 film, the 2018 film, the 2020 series (HBO).

A Vietnam vet returns to 1970s Belfast seeking connection to his Irish roots, only to become entangled in IRA politics and violence. Tony Luraschi's film captures the disillusionment of idealism meeting messy reality, with Sterling Hayden as a weathered grandfather caught between generations. Deliberately paced, politically engaged, with little interest in easy answers or comfortable catharsis.

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you like slow, conversational political dramas where the moral knot matters more than the action, and you don't mind watching a stranger in a familiar country slowly feel out of place.

Skip it if you need a brisk thriller with plenty of action; this is unhurried, dialogue-heavy and happy to let its tensions simmer, so the middle may drag.

What it asks of you: Settle in for a long, unhurried stretch of two hours, where the mood stays grave and the attention you give is paid back in slow accumulation rather than fireworks.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

In the Name of the Father1993

Daniel Day-Lewis plays a man imprisoned for an IRA bombing he didn't commit. Like The Outsider, it examines how political violence destroys innocents and tests family bonds across Irish and British fault lines, with genuine moral complexity.

But The courtroom drama elements can feel conventional, and the emotional beats occasionally veer toward melodrama rather than the quiet dread Luraschi prefers.

In the Name of the Father poster

Michael Collins1996

Neil Jordan's sweeping account of Irish independence shows how one man's revolutionary idealism hardens into authoritarianism. It shares The Outsider's interest in how outsiders and returnees reshape (and are reshaped by) violent movements.

But It's a bigger, brasher film with movie-star charisma; some find it oversimplifies the political fractures it depicts.

Michael Collins poster

Hunger2008

Steve McQueen's debut follows a prison hunger strike during the Troubles with unflinching formal precision. Like The Outsider, it refuses sentimentality and treats political conviction as a lived, bodily reality with devastating personal costs.

But It's deliberately austere and difficult. The final sequences are physically graphic in ways that don't soften or explain themselves.

Hunger poster

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Outsider

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The Guard2011

Both explore what it means to be Irish and American-Irish simultaneously, and both suggest that belonging to a place is more complicated than political allegiance.

Brendan Gleeson plays a small-town Irish cop who befriends an FBI agent investigating drug trafficking. It's a comedy, but its real subject is Irish identity, outsider perspectives, and how rural communities resist easy political narratives. It inverts The Outsider's tone while asking similar questions about belonging.

But Its humor is rooted in Irish vernacular and sensibility; if that particular register doesn't land for you, it can feel arch or precious.

The Guard poster
More like this (7)

Four Days in July1984

Mike Leigh's screenplay follows two families—one Catholic, one Protestant—on the eve of the 1982 Falklands War. It has The Outsider's gift for capturing how political identity bleeds into domestic life and how ordinary people are trapped by circumstances.

But It moves slowly and prioritizes conversation over incident; if you want plot momentum, you'll find it frustrating.

Four Days in July poster

The Gentle Gunman1952

Two Irish brothers, one IRA member and one pacifist, navigate loyalty and conscience in post-war London. It's an earlier film wrestling with the same question: what do you owe to blood, nation, and conscience when they conflict?

But It's a product of its era in terms of pacing and emotional register; the moral debate can feel schematic by modern standards.

The Gentle Gunman poster

Odd Man Out1947

Carol Reed's masterpiece tracks a wounded IRA fugitive through Belfast's streets and safe houses. It has The Outsider's interest in how political violence isolates individuals and renders them strangers in their own communities.

But It's visually baroque in a way that can read as emotionally distancing; some viewers find the style overwhelming the stakes.

Odd Man Out poster

The Long Good Friday1980

Bob Hoskins is a London crime boss whose Easter weekend empire crumbles when IRA violence enters his world. It shares The Outsider's dark view of how political and criminal violence upend assumptions and destroy the powerful.

But It's a thriller, so it has pace and action The Outsider lacks; if you prefer contemplation to tension, this may feel too schematic.

The Long Good Friday poster

Broken Embraces2009

Rufus Norris's debut follows a south London community fractured by a violent crime. Like The Outsider, it examines how outsiders and returning figures destabilize communities and how violence is never containable or local.

But The social realism can feel hectoring, and the moral categories are sometimes clearer than in life; some find it didactic.

Broken Embraces poster

Cal1984

A young Catholic man and a Protestant woman fall in love during the Troubles, but Cal carries a secret: he drove a getaway car for an IRA killing. It shares The Outsider's interest in how political violence makes ordinary intimacy impossible.

But The love story can feel slight alongside the political weight it's meant to carry; the film sometimes tips toward melodrama.

Cal poster

Come and See1985

Both use a protagonist's entry into a violent political movement as a window onto how ideology justifies atrocity and how individuals are consumed by historical forces they can't control or understand.

Elem Klimov's Belarusian masterpiece follows a teenage boy conscripted into WWII and watches war strip away his humanity. Like The Outsider, it's a film about idealism meeting violence, outsiders entering killing machines, and the impossibility of remaining unchanged. It's in Russian with subtitles, but it's unforgettable.

But It's one of the most violent and disturbing films ever made. Not for squeamishness or fatigue; it's also very long and demands complete attention.

Come and See poster

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