The General is another relevant Irish movie, like Intermission (2003), or The Guard (2011), to mention only two others. As you have already guessed, it’s not about the 1928 Buster Keaton & Clyde Bruckman production, a movie with the same title. It was released in 1998 as well, like Great Expectations and a whole more wonderful productions from the same year.
It is funny even though I won’t include it in my “Comedy” category. It’s more like a very specific Irish crime movie with sparks of dark humor. Crime is featured and perpetuated in this biopic directed by the Oscar nominated John Boorman. Here, it depicts in black and white, the life of one of the most daring Dublin mobster, the ingenious “Martin Cahill”, from the times when he was a pilfering kid in Grenville Street, until he dies, executed by IRA, or so this movie claims.
The General – Awards
The General – Brendan Gleeson
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Boorman won Best Director at Cannes in the same year, 1998, after the movie was also nominated for Palme D’Or. Brendan Gleeson, who is maybe the best choice in depicting the original Martin Cahill won only a BSFC (Boston Society of Film Critics) Award and an IFTA (Irish Film and Television Awards) award for Best Role for a Male Actor at the time.
A very funny fact is that director John Boorman’s house was burgled once by Martin Cahill, the fact being alluded in here with Cahill stealing a Golden Globe from somewhere. It seems that it was the Golden Globe Boorman won for the soundtrack of his acclaimed Deliverance.
The General – Brendan Gleeson, Maria Doyle Kennedy, Angeline Ball
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The General – Cast
The movie stars Brendan Gleeson as “Martin Cahill”, the “General”, Adrian Dunbar as “Noel Curley”, Cahill’s closest associate, Sean McGinley as “Gary”, another associate in crime, Maria Doyle Kennedy as “Frances”, Cahill’s wife, Angeline Ball as “Tina”, Cahill wife’s sister, Jon Voight as “Inspector Ned Kenny”, Cahill’s archenemy.
The General is written by John Boorman himself and it is based on the novel by the Irish crime journalist, Paul Williams. You can see that it was not an exact match, I’m sure that the story is more complex and less comic. Here, in this movie, Cahill was nothing less than brilliant, even if he acted sometimes like a retard.
Above, you have a video with the real General, Martin Cahill, whose antics support my previous affirmation.
The General – Poster
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The General – Trailer
Here you have the trailer:
I hope you’ll greatly enjoy it if you already watched it, and if you did, I hope you liked my review.
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