''The General'' is an Irish crime film written and directed by John Boorman about

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...

crime boss

Martin Cahill Martin "The General" Cahill (23 May 1949 – 18 August 1994) was an Irish crime boss from Dublin. He masterminded a series of burglaries and armed robberies, and was shot and killed while out on bail for kidnapping charges. The Provisional Iris ...

, who undertook several daring heists in the early 1980s and attracted the attention of the Garda Síochána,

IRA Ira or IRA may refer to: *Ira (name), a Hebrew, Sanskrit, Russian or Finnish language personal name *Ira (surname), a rare Estonian and some other language family name *Iran, UNDP code IRA Law *Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, US, on status of ...

and

Ulster Volunteer Force The Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) is an Ulster loyalist paramilitary group. Formed in 1965, it first emerged in 1966. Its first leader was Gusty Spence, a former British Army soldier from Northern Ireland. The group undertook an armed campaign ...

. The film was shot in 1997 and released in 1998.

Brendan Gleeson Brendan Gleeson (born 29 March 1955) is an Irish actor and film director. He is the recipient of three IFTA Awards, two British Independent Film Awards, and a Primetime Emmy Award and has been nominated twice for a BAFTA Award and four times fo ...

plays Cahill,

Adrian Dunbar Adrian Dunbar (born 1 August 1958) is a Northern Irish actor, director and singer, known for his television and his theatre work. Dunbar co-wrote and starred in the 1991 film '' Hear My Song'', nominated for Best Original Screenplay at the BA ...

plays his friend Noel Curley, and

Jon Voight Jonathan Vincent Voight (; born December 29, 1938) is an American actor. He came to prominence in the late 1960s with his Academy Award–nominated performance as Joe Buck, a would-be gigolo, in ''Midnight Cowboy'' (1969). During the 1970s, h ...

plays Inspector Ned Kenny.

Plot

The story of Dubliner

, who pulled off two daring robberies but came into conflict with members of his gang and attracted attention from the police and the

, and whose dealings with the UVF ultimately led to his downfall.

Cast

as Martin Cahill *

as Noel Curley * Sean McGinley as Gary *

Maria Doyle Kennedy Maria Josephine Doyle Kennedy (born 25 September 1964) is an Irish singer and actress. With a singing and acting career that has spanned more than 30 years, she has established herself as one of Ireland's most prolific artists and entertainers. ...

as Frances *

Angeline Ball Angeline Ball (born 28 June 1969) is an Irish actress and singer who resides in London, England. She is known for her roles as Imelda Quirke in Alan Parker's '' The Commitments'' (1991) and as Tina in John Boorman's '' The General'' (1998). Sh ...

as Tina *

as Inspector Ned Kenny * Eanna MacLiam as Jimmy * Tom Murphy as Willie Byrne * Paul Hickey as Anthony * Tommy O'Neill as Paddy * John O'Toole as Shea * Ciarán Fitzgerald as Tommy *

Ned Dennehy Ned Dennehy (born 8 December 1965) is an Irish actor who has appeared in multiple films and television programmes. He is best known for his role as Mider in ''The Mystic Knights of Tir Na Nog''. He also appeared in ''Blitz'', ''Harry Potter and t ...

as Gay *

Vinny Murphy Vincent 'Vinnie' Murphy is a former Gaelic footballer and media personality who played at senior level for the Dublin county team. Playing career Murphy came on as a substitute in Dublin's 1995 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship victory ...

as Harry (as Vinnie Murphy) * Roxanna Williams as Orla

Production

The film is based on the book of the same name by Irish journalist Paul Williams, who is "Special Correspondent" for the '' Irish Independent''. Director Boorman was himself one of Cahill's burglary victims. This event is dramatised in a scene in which Cahill breaks into a home, stealing a gold record and pilfering a watch from the wrist of a sleeping woman. The gold record, which Cahill later breaks in disgust after discovering it is not made of gold, was awarded for the score of ''

Deliverance ''Deliverance'' is a 1972 American survival thriller film produced and directed by John Boorman, and starring Jon Voight, Burt Reynolds, Ned Beatty, and Ronny Cox, with the latter two making their feature film debuts. The screenplay was adapt ...

'', Boorman's best-known film. Filming was at various locations around Dublin, including

South Lotts South Lotts is a small area to the south of the river Liffey in inner-city Dublin 4, one km east of Dublin City Centre, Ireland. It was created following the embankment of the River Liffey in 1711 between the city and Ringsend, thereby r ...

and Ranelagh. Although shot in colour, the theatrical release of the film was presented in black-and-white for artistic reasons, while an alternate version of the desaturated original colour print was subsequently made available for television broadcast and home video. Asked why he chose to depict Cahill's life in black-and-white, Boorman later explained:

I love black-and-white, and since I was making the film independently — I borrowed the money from the bank — there was no one to tell me I couldn't. If I had made '' he General' for a studio, they wouldn't let me do that. The other reason, the main reason, was because it was about recent events and people who were still alive. I wanted to give it a little distance. Black-and-white gives you that sort of parallel world. Also, it's very close to the condition of dreaming, to the unconscious. I wanted it to have this mythic level because I felt this character was an archetype. All throughout history, you find this rebel, this violent, funny, brilliant kind of character. I wanted to make that kind of connection, and black-and-white film helps. Up until the middle to late '60s, it was a choice to film in black-and-white or color. But then television became so vital to a film's finance, and television won't show black-and-white. So that killed it off, really.

Reception

''The General'' holds an approval rating of 82% based on 49 reviews on website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

. The film grossed £1.6 million in the UK and Ireland, the second highest-grossing Irish film of the year, behind '' The Butcher Boy''. In the United States and Canada it grossed $1.2 million for a worldwide estimated total of $3.8 million. The film garnered multiple awards for Gleeson's performance and Boorman's directing, with some critics speculating the former would earn an Academy Award nomination. Boorman won the award for

Best Director Best Director is the name of an award which is presented by various film, television and theatre organizations, festivals, and people's awards. It may refer to: Film awards * AACTA Award for Best Direction * Academy Award for Best Director * BA ...

at the

1998 Cannes Film Festival The 51st Cannes Film Festival was held from 13 to 24 May 1998. American director, producer, screenwriter, and film historian Martin Scorsese was the Jury President. The Palme d'Or went to the Greek film '' Mia aioniotita kai mia mera'' by Theo An ...

. Though Gleeson was not nominated for an Oscar, his performance was awarded by the

Boston Society of Film Critics The Boston Society of Film Critics (BSFC) is an organization of film reviewers from Boston, Massachusetts in the United States. History The BSFC was formed in 1981 to make “Boston’s unique critical perspective heard on a national and internati ...

, the

London Film Critics' Circle The London Film Critics' Circle is the name by which the Film Section of The Critics' Circle is known internationally. The word London was added because it was thought the term Critics' Circle Film Awards did not convey the full context of the ...

, and the

Irish Film and Television Academy The Irish Film & Television Academy (IFTA) is an all-Ireland organisation focused on film and television. It has about 1000 members, and is based in Dublin, with branches in London and Los Angeles. The IFTA now holds separate ceremonies for the ...

Awards and nominations

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:General, The 1998 films 1998 crime drama films 1990s heist films Irish crime drama films Irish heist films British crime drama films British heist films English-language Irish films Biographical films about criminals Films about The Troubles (Northern Ireland) Films about the Irish Republican Army Films about organised crime in Ireland Films based on biographies Films set in Dublin (city) Films directed by John Boorman Sony Pictures Classics films 1998 independent films 1990s English-language films 1990s British films