Amazon.com: Best known for Deliverance (1972), John Boorman produced what is arguably his greatest film with Point Blank (1967). In that ambiguous gangster flick, set in a pastel L.A. wasteland, Lee Marvin may or may not be a walking dead man, animated by the desire to avenge his fatal betrayal by the woman he loved and his best friend. Many of Boorman's films take the form of quests, fueled by some dream of utopia; on some level, Point Blank is the tragedy of a just man, appalled and ultimately defeated by the complexity of his world's corruption. The General begins with the death of Martin Cahill--celebrated Dublin gangster who stole millions during the 1980s--then literally reverses the approach and assault of his IRA assassin, flashing back in time, back through Cahill's colorful, criminal quest for his kind of ideal community. Boorman says his Cahill is a throwback to those Celtic chieftains of old who ruled by thievery and violence; as an anachronism, this charming, brutal bear of a man (perfectly incarnated by Brendan Gleeson) is undeniably reprehensible, but he stands in deliberate contrast to the institutionalized hypocrisy and corruption of church, state, and IRA alike. Brazenly hanging out in police HQ to establish an alibi; maneuvering gracefully through perfectly choreographed heists; dispensing affection to his wife, and her sister; nailing the hands of a suspected cheat to a pool table; handing out food to women whose husbands are out of work--Gleeson's bluff, often comic gangster is always bigger than life, an eruption of unsocialized energy through the layers-deep sediment of socially acceptable sin. (In real life as in the film, Cahill always hid his face under a sweatshirt hood, or behind his spread fingers--he looks like some mischievous, giant-child.) Shot by the great Seamus Deasey in color, then transferred to black-and-white stock, The General is visually voluptuous, the anatomy of a charismatic monster's soul expressed in lustrous light, silken shades of gray, and ebony shadows. --Kathleen Murphy
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Rating: - Story of the 1980's Irish criminal - folk hero Martin Cahill
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, ... Read More
Rating: - Fine, Little-Noticed Gangster Flick
"The General,"(1998), a fine, Dublin-set gangster flick based on the life of well-known Irish gangster Martin Cahill, was written by (film script, that is), produced by, and directed by British director John Boorman. It can only be described as latter-day film noir; it was theatrically released in black and white, is shot through with the darkest of humor, and does not end well for its gangster protaganist. It received a Boston Society Film Critics Award upon release.
The movie utilizes the flashback and frame mechanism, so we know its outcome from its beginning. Cahill (superbly played by Brendan Gleeson), goes through the gangster's usual career arc: tough kid from tough project; increasingly successful, big, talk of the town thefts; finally, too high a profile, which is his undoing: he is, increasingly, seen as an enemy by the then very powerful Irish Republican Army.
Rating: - Entertaining
This movie will make you laugh and get angry. The antics that Cahill pulls on the Gardai are hilarious. If you like Irish culture then you will get a kick out of this movie. It shows you a glimpse into a poor Irishman's life.
Rating: - Another misfire from Boorman
John Boorman's 1998 The General was hailed as a major comeback, though it's hard to see why on the evidence of the film itself. One of three films made that year about famed Dublin criminal Martin Cahill (alongside Ordinary Decent Criminal and Vicious Circles), it has an abundance of incident and style (the film was shot in color but released in b&w Scope in some territories) but makes absolutely no impact and just goes on forever. With a main character who threatens witnesses, car bombs doctors, causes a hundred people to lose their jobs, tries to buy off the sexually abused daughter of one of his gang to keep out of jail and nails one of his own to a snooker table yet still remains a popular local legend and an attractive enough personality for his wife to not only approve but actually suggest a ménage a trios with her sister, it needs a charismatic central performance to sell the character and the film. It doesn't ... Read More
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- Story of the 1980's Irish criminal - folk hero Martin Cahill
- Entertaining
- Another misfire from Boorman
