Will Boorman's film play into the Oscar scenario later this year? I don't know.. I haven't a clue, but I've been a hearing that sort of talk... When does this get American Distribution? Anyone know? Here's Red's review all the way from that Green Island on the far side of the Atlantic...
Name's Red and I ain't from round your parts. I hail all the way from the Emerald Isle, land of Guinness, rolling hills, wild red-haired lasses and snaggle-toothed village idiots (or so the movies would have us believe). I don't usually have much to contribute to your pages due to the fact that advance screenings in Ireland are virtually non-existant and any that do occur are several months after the US release.
However, one movie seems to have slipped through the net as your website doesn't seem to have a review. I refer to John Boorman's movie 'The General' about the life of Dublin gangster Martin Cahill, for which he scooped best director in Cannes. I don't know if it's been released in the US yet but due to its Irish theme it was seemingly released here before anywhere else.
I'm usually too bone lazy to even contemplate actually sending e-mail (plus i'm doing this during office hours and cautiously looking out for my boss lurking nearby)) but I felt my review would be of interest as none other than Kevin Spacey has been spotted in our fair land scouting for locations to make a movie about the aforementioned General. This move has brought John Boorman's previously ignored movie into the limelight and begs the question 'Why the hell would somebody make the same film twice (a la Robin Hood (X2), Christopher Columbus (X2), bloody great asteroid hits Earth (X2))?
Ah, but Kevin assures us that he does not intend the facts to get in the way of a good story and, apart from a couple of real-life heists (so gloriously film-worthy that only a complete moron (or John Badham) would omit them) the movie will be fiction.
So, where does this leave 'The General'? Well I'm under no illusion that Kevin's movie will look flash, will more likely than not contain several 'Oirish' cliches (check out scenes of consumption of Guinness in dimly lit bars), and makes stacks of money. On the other hand It may well turn out to be a quality movie but either way it will almost certainly overshadow John Boorman's movie.
All of which is a great pity because 'The General' is a movie of rare quality, combining perfect direction, acting and scriptwriting.
The true-life story, to fill in the unaware, is about Martin Cahill, a notorious gangster who terrorised Dublin in the early 1990s. He rose from a poverty stricken family background through petty crime to become an eccentric crime-lord, prone to paranoia, obsessive secrecy and outbursts of extreme violence. Despite his actions he became a sort of anti-hero to the lower classes as he struck against the rich people in and around Dublin. Combined with this he was a genuinely likeable character, a gentle pigeon fancier and kind to his family (although in a bizarre real-life twist he bedded his sister-in-law-with his wifes consent!) His constant upstaging of the police force and his refusal to cooperate with paramilitary organisations (not advisable)delighted many who turned a blind eye to his more cruel misdemeanors and treated him as a sort of folk hero.
Throw in the outstandingly audacious robberies and his eventual demise at the hands of an IRA assassin and you seem to have all the ingredients for a good movie
And that is exactly what John Boorman has done making this his best movie since 'Deliverance'. Making a brave decision, the movie is shot in grainy black and white which adds an air of authenticity but ultimately contributed to its poor commercial success here. The direction is neither showy nor partcularly inventive, but the slow, lingering pace which Boorman allows to develop helps the characters flesh out beautifully and makes us care what happens to them. And in the title role Boorman has extracted an utterly outstanding performance from Brendan Gleeson (last seen as Mel Gibson's mate Hamish in Braveheart). Gleeson takes a difficult, ambiguous character and makes us empathise with him and support him in one instant and then revile him a moment later as his cruel streak is shown. He looks and acts exactly like Cahill especially in the courtroom scenes in which he delights in throwing the court in chaos (a la Larry Flynt). Perhaps the audience is invited to like him a little too much as he was definitely no saint, but then I suppose that depends on the individual viewer.The supporting characters are uniformly excellent including Adrian Dunbar (from my home county, Fermanagh)as Cahill's stressed out best friend and not least Jon Voight as the policeman chasing Cahill. I mean what the hell is this guy doing making shite like Anaconda? He plays Cahill's nemesis superbly, just an ordinary man who takes no real pleasure in tracking Cahill or his eventual death. And he has a REAL Irish accent as opposed to the Tom Cruise variety (Yer a corker, Shannon - Ugh!) I mean, what the hell is a corker, why is Shannon one and who the hell told Thomas that Irish people said that? Any self-respecting Irish person saying that would be dealt with harshly and no mistake! But I digress.... The point is that Voight's quiet, understated performance perfectly complements Gleeson's portrayal of an ambiguous soul.
All in all what we have is an excellent movie, unjustly ignored on its theatrical release here and refreshingly free of any judgemental comments on 'The Troubles' in Northern Ireland. Make sure it does not fall foul of a similar fate in the US
Until we meet again
Slante.
