# General, The (1998)

### reviewed by
Greg King

    THE GENERAL (M).
    (Columbia Tristar)
    Director: John Boorman
    Stars: Brendan Gleeson, Jon Voight, Adrian Dunbar, Sean McGinley, Maria
    Doyle Kennedy, Angeline
    Ball, Eamon Owens, Eanna McLiam, Ciaran Fitzgerald, Paul Hickey, Tom
    Murphy
    Running time: 124 minutes.

In recent years, director John Boorman's career has not achieved the dizzy heights of either Point Blank or Deliverance. However, his latest film is a well researched if slightly quirky biopic of colourful Irish thief Martin Cahill, and heralds something of a return to form for Boorman. His assured and stylish direction earned him the top prize at last year's Cannes Film Festival.

According to the production notes, the real Cahill once broke into Boorman's home and stole, among other items, the gold record he had been awarded for Duelling Banjo's, the theme from Deliverance. Despite this, Boorman obviously has a lot of sympathy for Cahill. He paints him as something of a loveable larrikin, a kind of modern day Irish Robin Hood, despite some of the more vicious acts he commits along the way (crucifying one of his gang members on a billiard table, for example). The General is something of a labour of love for Boorman, who has obviously spent plenty of time researching the life and times of this colourful gangster.

This fascinating and unusually entertaining biopic traces Cahill's life, from his early beginnings as a teenage thief in the back streets of Hollyfield, a slum outside Dublin, through to his assassination by the IRA in 1994. Cahill earned the sobriquet of the general for the way he commanded the loyalty of his small band of thieves, and for the way in which he continually thumbed his nose at the authorities. Even though the police had him under blanket surveillance, Cahill was often able to give them the slip and carry out his cheeky crimes. Cahill also had a cosy but unconventional domestic arrangement in which he lived with his wife and her sister, and even fathered children by both women. Cahill had little time for the divisive and violent politics of Ireland. He was basically a crook who robbed from the rich, but it was an art robbery that ultimately proved his undoing.

Brendan Gleeson (from the recent I Went Down, etc) apparently bears a resemblance to the real Cahill, and he gives a wonderfully boisterous and enjoyable performance, and makes the most of his biggest and best role yet. He beautifully catches the inherent contradictions in Cahill's character, lending an outrageous air of irreverence to this off beat and at times acerbic portrait. Jon Voight also has many fine moments here as the weary police inspector Kenny, increasingly frustrated at his impotence in bringing Cahill to justice.

Seamus Deasy's cool black and white cinematography gives the film something of a documentary feel, and also captures the look and feel of those gritty British crime dramas of the '60's.

    ***
    greg king
    http://www.netau.com.au/gregking

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