X
- 1998
- R
- Columbia TriStar Home Video
- 2 h 4 m
- 1998
- R
- Columbia TriStar Home Video
- 2 h 4 m
Summary The real-life story of Dublin folk hero and criminal Martin Cahill, who pulled off two daring robberies in Ireland, but attracted unwanted attention from the police, the IRA, the UVF and members of his own team.
Directed By: John Boorman
Written By: Paul Williams, John Boorman
- 1998
- R
- Columbia TriStar Home Video
- 2 h 4 m
- 1998
- R
- Columbia TriStar Home Video
- 2 h 4 m
The General
User Score
Generally favorable
7.3
Where to Watch
Summary The real-life story of Dublin folk hero and criminal Martin Cahill, who pulled off two daring robberies in Ireland, but attracted unwanted attention from the police, the IRA, the UVF and members of his own team.
Directed By: John Boorman
Written By: Paul Williams, John Boorman
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Universal acclaim
Based on 21 Critic Reviews
81
86% Positive
18 Reviews
18 Reviews
14% Mixed
3 Reviews
3 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Universal acclaim
Based on 21 Critic Reviews
81
86% Positive
18 Reviews
18 Reviews
14% Mixed
3 Reviews
3 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
At 65, Boorman flawlessly handles his actors and expertly orchestrates action in one of the widest-looking black-and-white Panavision frames since 1967's In Cold Blood. [18 Dec 1998, p.13E]
Boorman enlivens The General with a number of scenes, like that one, that play against the con ventions of crime movies. He and Gleeson, both of whom were denied the Oscar nominations they deserve for this film, do exemplary work and give us one of the liveliest, smartest and most surprising films in a long time.
The General is a gravely beautiful film (in wide-screen black and white) by John Boorman about an Irish career criminal who was an antiauthoritarian folk hero, a warm family man to a menage a trois, and also a dangerous psychopath.
Boorman doesn't shy from showing Cahill as a complicated man who, in one famous incident, nearly crucified one of his own men for a minor infraction. But the portrait is a loving one, full of empathy for an oddly principled man who, in another line of work, could have made a difference and lived to enjoy it. [18 Dec 1998, p.72]
Boorman pays a price for his neutrality: The General isn't an emotional grabber. But on its own terms it's nearly perfect. The magic is there but below the surface.
The General, for all its panache, is ultimately an unsatisfying movie. The reason, I think, is that Boorman’s slightly puerile romanticization of Cahill keeps getting in the way of the reality he’s showing us.
Boorman’s movies are usually about the repercussions of violence (Point Blank, Deliverance, Excalibur, etc.) but he recreates Cahill as something of a victim of circumstance. Cahill should have been played by Lee Marvin, not by some fat teddy bear of a man like Brendan Gleeson. It’s too bad Marvin isn’t still around, to at least knock some sense into his old friend, Boorman.
User Reviews
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Production Company
Bord Scannán na hÉireann / The Irish Film Board,
J & M,
Merlin Films
Release Date Dec 18, 1998
Duration 2 h 4 m
Rating R
Tagline The extraordinary true story of the rise and fall of the gangster, Martin Cahill.
Awards
Irish Film and Television Awards
• 2 Wins & 4 Nominations
Boston Society of Film Critics Awards
• 2 Wins & 3 Nominations
Satellite Awards
• 3 Nominations
