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The General
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by Sony Pictures
Sales Rank: 37405
Price: $22.49
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The true story of master thief martin cahill the irish robin hood who stole over $60 million until the ira decided to put him out of business once and for all. Studio: Sony Pictures Home Ent Release Date: 06/24/2008 Starring: Brendan Gleeson Jon Voight Run time: 124 minutes Rating: R Director: John Boorman
Viewer Reviews
This film tells the story from the 1980's of the celebrated Irish thief and sometimes folk hero, Martin Cahill.
An interesting film. I am not as well educated on the turmoil of Irish politics in that era as I would like to be. It appears to me that Cahill is presented as the enemy of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) in that he was a competitor in crime -- and he was simulyaneously an enemy of the ruling government, simply in that he was a career criminal with some notorious heists to his credit and a bent for thumbing his nose at the authorities. He had meager beginnings, but clawed his way up. He lived very comfortably. He was also living in an open bigamous relationship with his wife and her sister. I think he is rather inappropriately potrayed as a kind of Robin Hood. His story has parallels as well to Al Capone, however. Cahill is merely a theiving thug, with no activity in prostitution, drugs, protection rackets, etc. He is vocal against illicit drugs, but is shown to have engaged in jury tampering (a most egregious crime in my opinion). In the end -- he was just a criminal with high aspirations, and not a hero by any measure.
As I said, this is an interesting film and an interesting story. Brendan Gleeson is absolutely believable as the hulking Cahill. Superb performance. John Voight is as believable as the understated Irish cop that hounds Cahill, accent and all.
Strange film technique, ranging from full color to black and white, to a muted in-between. I had trouble deciding if it was a production defect or a technical ploy by the director. Maybe a second viewing would reveal something. I had a little difficulty hearing much of the dialogue through the authentic but thick Irish accents. Fimed on location in Dublin.
An "off the beaten track" movie that I think was worth my time.
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