I always find it interesting when the Hollywood liberal types (even if they are Canadian and or English, as with Canadian Director Kari Skogland and British producers) show their true, authoritarian, reactionary, and hypocritical colors. After the Toronto Film Festival showing of Kari Skogland’s film Fifty Dead Men Walking, star Rose McGowan, who plays an IRA leader in the film, responded to reporters questions and said, “I imagine, had I grown up in Belfast, I would 100 percent have been in the IRA...My heart just broke for the cause. Violence is not to be played out daily and provide an answer to problems, but I understand it."
The film tells the story of Irish double agent Martin McGartland who, as a 16yr old, infiltrated the IRA at the behest of Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), a royalist police unit, with ties to royalist paramilitary groups operating in Northern Ireland that matched IRA brutalities tit for tat. The reactions to McGowans’s comments have been none to sympathetic. An official statement released by the film’s producers said that, “Ms. McGowan's views were private ones, and as such they greatly saddened the film's producers...[Her views] are not shared nor endorsed by anybody associated with the production or creative elements of the film.” Skogland responded, “Rose's personal opinions of Northern Ireland do not reflect the perspective of the film in any way. Our goal was to present an even, nonjudgmental point of view so the audience could follow the path of an informer with empathy no matter what the politics."

The film has experienced several bumps in the road. Early on the film’s inspiration, Martin McGartland threatened to sue the producers over the making of the film. McGartland settled out of court for $35, 000, and has gone on to say that he loves the film now, but not because of the money received. Skogland suggests another reason. As she told Reuters “I think he's been through an awful lot and he had tremendous anxiety…His tune really changed right after press and industry saw it [the film]...Perhaps they weighed in and said, you know, you are portrayed as a hero.”

So, in Skogland’s and the producer’s worldview it is perfectly acceptable to portray someone working with a terrorist police unit as a hero, but saddening when someone expresses sympathy, understanding, or support for non-governmental sanctioned terror. ~CF