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The General [1998]
starring: Brendan Gleeson, Adrian Dunbar, Sean McGinley, Maria Doyle Kennedy, Angeline Ball
directed by: John Boorman

List Price: £12.99

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Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours Audience Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
Binding: DVD
EAN: 7321900168403
Format: Black & White, Colour, PAL
Label: Warner Home Video
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Warner Home Video
Region Code: 2
Release Date: August 14, 2006
Running Time: 119 minutes
Studio: Warner Home Video
Theatrical Release Date: 1998
Sales Rank: 5003

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Editorial Review:

Amazon.co.uk Review:
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, fuelled 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 institutionalised hypocrisy and corruption of church, state, and IRA alike. Brazenly hanging out in police HQ to establish an alibi; manoeuvring 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 colour, 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

Customer Reviews

Average Rating: out of 5 stars

Rating:

- A charismatic Brendan Gleeson in an excellent John Boorman film
Martin Cahill was a real person. He didn't drink or smoke, had a loving if unconventional family life with his wife, her sister and their kids, didn't womanize. He also was clever, funny, charismatic, ruthless, and, up until the end, a successful Dublin criminal. He didn't see his crimes as vice, just as an occupation. In addition to hundreds of burglaries and thefts beginning when he was scarcely a teen, he was smart enough to pull off two immense robberies, the first involving a large number of gold bars and jewels, the other of extremely valuable paintings. He wound up on the bad side of the cops, of the IRA, of the Unionists and even of one of his gang members.

John Boorman has written and directed a fascinating life of Martin ... Read More:

Rating:

- Not anywhere near as dull as it looks
I recently read a review in a magazine that described this film as a plodding standard issue biopic. If there is one thing this movie is not, then it's being ploddingly standard issue. Instead it's a nimble, virtuoso piece of writing, directing and acting. It represents a career peak for Boorman (Deliverance, Hope and Glory) and the lead actor Brendan Gleeson (M:I 2 being the type of stuff he's appeared in since).

The subject matter and the black and white photography makes it appear dull, serious and weighed down with its own importance. It's not. Imagine Michael "The Rock" Bay directing a Northern Ireland IRA drama and you'll get a sense of how much fun this is.

This is one of the best made movies I have ever seen. ... Read More:

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 ... Read More:

DVD : The General [1998]