Customer Reviews

Michael Collins [VHS]

5 star:		(68)
4 star:		(34)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

Digging back into their roots, director Neil Jordan and actor Liam Neeson have respectively delivered their most memorable and deep-cutting works to date. Michael Collins has nagging flaws, but in the sweep of the passionate filmmaking and performances, all else is moot. You will be carried forth by the conviction of the story.

Neeson was simply born to play this role. An actor of tremendous power, Neeson is here given a role that's multi-dimensional enough for him to show his formidable chops. The Michael Collins character is alternately a boyish, dashing ladykiller and a tactician with a steel will, and just watching Neeson tackle the character's inner and outer demons is worth the price of the movie. He indeed projects the power and charisma of a great leader in his "our refusal" speech. There's more -- Aidan Quinn gives his best performance as friend-turned-enemy Harry Boland; Alan Rickman utilizes his deadpan comic timing and hidden deviance to perfection as Eamon de Valera; Stephen Rea is great as usual as English traitor Ned Broy. The one weak link is of course Julia Roberts, as Harry and Mick's love interest Kitty, with her bad Irish accent and vacant presence. She's paralyzed by the scope of the historical drama and comes off stiff as a result, injecting the character with neither warmth nor power, and none of her signature girlish exuberance. However, this was one case where the filmmaker's sacrifice of a character was to the benefit of the film. In directing the film, Jordan sliced down Kitty's importance and makes her mostly a footnote; the result is that we are now free to interpret Mick and Harry's split as a philosophical and political one, rather than the ol' romantic triangle. And for the better.

The cinematography is terrific, and the script ranks among my favourite of the '90s. Jordan is deeply tapped into the behaviour and concerns of these characters, and he fills every minute with humour, danger, urgency, and personality. The writing translates onto the screen beautifully, giving the audience an insight into not only the sociological scape of the film, but also the psychological. And the pacing and editing never let up -- from the perfectly chosen "in medias res" opening to the brilliant "Bloody Sunday" assassination montage.

A great neglected classic.

What a shame that whenever this film is mentioned nowadays, it's almost always referred to as a Julia Roberts flop. It's actually scarcely a Julia Roberts film at all. Her role is quite minor-and it's commendable that she took it on, really, since she was already a star. I gather she was looking for serious roles in meaty films in an effort to beef up her acting credentials.

And this certainly was a meaty film. It is, in fact, a much, much better film than I had ever imagined from the reviews of the time. I only regret never having seen it on the big screen, because its epic sweep and beautiful cinematography would have been all the more impressive.

Americans, including Irish-Americans like myself, have only the vaguest notions of Irish history. We learn the basics in school, and probably, most educated Americans have an idea of approximately when and how the Irish Republic was established. We may also know that six counties in the North remained under British rule and are still part of the UK (at least, I hope we do--after 30 years of reports on the "troubles").

"Michael Collins" goes some distance toward filling in those informational gaps. I am aware that many critics have challenged writer/director Neil Jordan's interpretation of Irish history (in particular his making Eamon De Valera, the President of the Irish Republic, something of a villain). To that, one can only respond that historical dramas are by definition an interpretation of history. I see that a few of the reviewers below have mentioned that this film inspired them to seek out more information about Irish history. Those of us that do will eventually get a more balanced view, perhaps. It was not Neil Jordan's job to provide us with that perspective. His job as an artist was to tell as engaging a story as he could. On that score, he has succeeded very well indeed.

In an episode of the 1980's cop drama "Miami Vice," Liam Neeson put in an appearance as an IRA terrorist-or at least I think he did if memory serves me correctly. Perhaps his depiction of an Irish tough on television laid the foundation for his work in Neil Jordan's 1996 bio pic "Michael Collins." The 1990s saw several films about the "Troubles," the word often used to describe the unremitting conflict in Northern Ireland, arrive in theaters. Maybe the hopes of a lasting peace in the troubled region during the last decade, as the IRA agreed to lay down their arms on several occasions, inspired Hollywood. I don't know. Whatever the case, armchair fans of Ireland had plenty to look at in the Cineplex for a few years. While I haven't seen most of these films, I have seen "Michael Collins" several times over the last eight years, and it is difficult to imagine any of these other pictures surpassing this one in any way, shape, or form. Jordan's picture is an inspired piece of work, a beautiful yet politically complex look at how the IRA came to function as an urban guerilla operation in their efforts to secure a unified Ireland free of British oversight and influence.

The film starts on a dramatic tone as Irish rebels battle British troops in the Easter Uprising of 1916. This rebellion fails despite the fact that most of England's resources are tied up in the war raging on the continent. Most of the upstarts-including Michael Collins (Neeson), Harry Boland (Aidan Quinn), and Eamon de Valera (Alan Rickman)-march off to lengthy prison sentences. The perceived ringleaders aren't as lucky: the British line up most of these chaps against the wall and gun them down. Eamon de Valera is one of the few higher ups to survive in large part because he was born in America. With their leadership decimated, Collins and his associates await their release dates so they can continue the fight with the British. It doesn't take long for the rebels to reconstitute a command structure once they get out, but the failed revolt has left its mark on many of the participants. Two schools of strategy emerge concerning future operations for freedom. De Valera and others seek to once again arise and duke it out with the English just as they did in 1916. Collins knows this option will lead to another loss and further prison sentences. He supports taking the war underground by resorting to guerilla warfare in the streets and alleys of Ireland. By striking and then hiding, Collins believes the Irish movement has a much better chance of forcing the British to the bargaining table.

Collins gets his chance to launch a bloody campaign against the British when the Irish leadership heads off to jail again. With the assistance of Harry Boland, he persuades groups of young toughs to raid armories for weapons. He also manages to acquire the secret loyalty of an Irish cop working for the British, Ned Broy (Stephen Rea), to allow him access to the mountains of police files on Irish resistance groups. With an inside view of what the English will do before they even do it, Collins's campaigns of violence become amazingly effective. His boys wipe out a special detachment of Brits sent in to quell unrest. They assassinate police officers and officials. Collins is generally safe from the authorities due to a host of reasons, the least of which include his support from the people and the fact that the cops have no clue what he looks like. How the British didn't know Michael Collins on sight considering he spent time in jail is something I can't explain, but nonetheless his terror missions serve their purpose. The British seek a resolution to the conflict, and Eamon de Valera charges Collins with the task of acting as the Irish emissary. This decision is an adroit political move on de Valera's part, and one that has lasting and violent consequences for the future of Ireland.

I liked everything about "Michael Collins" even though the movie suffers under the onerous burden of two key problems. First, the entire subplot involving Harry Boland, Collins, and an Irish lass named Kitty Kiernan (Julia Roberts) tends to grate. I'm sure the studio insisted on putting a romance theme in the movie in order to sell more tickets and to temper the strident political message, but doing so detracts from the power of the film. Second, historical accuracy occasionally flies out the window in lieu of dramatic license. Witness the sporting event where the British drive an armored car onto the field and promptly gun down the athletes and fire into the crowd. The documentary on the film appended to the DVD discusses this depiction in some depth, and even Jordan admits the event didn't happen exactly the way he portrayed it. But what's good works wonders. Neeson is magnificent as the revolutionary both brutal in his outrages and horrified at the results. Rickman plays de Valera with a sinister silkiness. These two actors are so good at what they do that Rea and Quinn often fade into the background. The locations and set pieces look authentic.

Unfortunately, the extras don't live up to the film. You get a trailer and the aforementioned documentary (which does run for nearly an hour, at least) and that's it. I would have taken the DVD release of this film as an excuse to add a bunch of information about the Irish struggle for independence. C'est la vie, I guess. Whatever the case, the movie is definitely worth the price of the DVD. "Michael Collins" is a film I watch whenever I get the chance, and I will continue to do so well into the future.

It's tough to rate and accurately review a movie that means a great deal intellectually and emotionally. It was October of 1996 when I watched this film at the theater and I walked out forever changed. Prior to viewing the film, I had no idea about the life of Collins and I did not realize how young Irish independence truly is. Both the tragic elements of Collins's death and Liam Neeson's stirring performance led me to learn more about the life and times of Collins by voraciously reading anything I could find on the topic. It can be a rare thing for a historical film to pack a punch that seems relevant to modernity, but _Michael Collins_ does just that.
The plot, essentially, is this: A young man named Michael Collins (Liam Neeson) and his close friend Harry Boland (Aidan Quinn) are working for the cause of Irish independence. At the beginning of the film, they are taking part in the Easter Rising. A vivid and riveting portrayal of the executions faced by the Rising's leaders is juxtaposed with Eamon DeValera (Alan Rickman) writing a letter to Collins explaining ostensibly why he would not be killed (he was of American birth). Michael travels around the country and works tirelessly with Harry for the cause. He is thrown in jail, he is beaten during a campaign speech and he meets an intriguing woman, Kitty Kiernan (Julia Roberts). Collins falls for her but Harry does too. Initially, she is dating Boland but in time, her heart goes to Collins. During this romance, Collins is both running from death and ordering it for his opponents. He taps the resource of Ned Broy (Stephen Rea) a veritable double-agent working as a G-man. Collins is chosen to negotiate on the Irish side of treaty talks, though this event is covered rapidly in the film. He returns home and is engaged to Kitty only to find that he and Harry are on the opposite sides of whether the Anglo-Irish Treaty should be ratified. There is plenty of drama and some comic relief here and there. I won't go into the details of the ending, though I am sure most people reading this review already know or can guess how the story concludes.
If you are interested in Irish history or "war films" in general, _Michael Collins_ is a film for you. If you view it and find yourself as drawn into the actual biography of Collins as I did, I highly suggest you pick up a good book on the subject. Though the film makes for an excellent introduction, it can in no way compare to the wealth of real, tangible information out there.

Historical films are notoriously inaccurate. ("Braveheart", for example, is a terrific movie but all over the place historically.) Drama, after all, is oftentimes inconsistent with the tides of history. Which was why I was so impressed to read a magazine article some time ago touting the film's attention to detail and accuracy. I made a special note of wanting to see "Michael Collins". Am I ever glad I did. This is a wonderful, wonderful movie.

"Michael Collins" is the story of a member of the Irish Republican Army who succeeded in leading Ireland to independence, but at great cost. A participant in the famous "Easter Rising" of 1916, Collins was arrested and became a leader in the Irish independence movement. Collins was an extraordinary leader who devised guerilla warfare tactics to fight the English army that would later be used by the Viet Cong, and daringly rescued Eamon DeValeria, the man who would become the leader of Ireland and whom many believe was responsible for Collins death. Collins also negotiated the treaty which ended 700 years of English rule in Ireland, and as Commander of the Irish Provisional Army was forced to fight against guerillas opposed to the treaty (which left the northern six counties a part of England and delayed full independence). The irony was that Collins was forced to hunt down and kill the very men he trained. Many in Ireland look on Collins as a hero, others as a traitor. His death is, like the Kennedy assassination, a great controversy- nobody has the faintest idea who killed him. As historical figures go, few are as controversial or as romanticized as Collins. The film covers the 1916-1922 era of Collins life, from the Easter Rising until his death.

Writer & Director Neil Jordan clearly has passion for the project and it shows. Collins is a real hero to Jordan and the director goes to great lengths to be as accurate as possible and to show us Collins in action.

Perhaps Jordan's best move was in casting Liam Neeson in the part. Neeson is a very talented actor who delivers a terrific performance in the title role. Neeson's Collins is firey, angry, passionate, hates war, longs for peace. It is hard to imagine anyone else in the part.

The rest of the cast is good- Alan Rickman is impressive as Eamon DeValeria, a difficult role to play given how much DeValeria and Collins are at odds with one another in the end. Aidan Quinn, Julia Roberts, and Stephen Rea are all also good in their supporting roles as Collins best friend, the woman the two men compete for, and the English agent who provides Collins with critical intelligence.

In terms of location and cinematography, it is hard to do better than this. Jordan has painstakingly recreated Ireland & Dublin of 1916-1922, and it looks stunningly beautiful and stunningly realistic. One actually feels like you are seeing the real Ireland of the early part of the century instead of a recreation.

"Michael Collins" is a wonderful film that history lovers and people fascinated with Ireland will adore. Highly recommended.

This film brings home to us that the loser of this war was (and is) Ireland herself. "Michael Collins" is art, and it does all that art can do.

I'd like to address something a thoughtful viewer wrote here: "I am always skeptical of love interests in historical/biographical films of this sort." OK, I buy that. But Kitty Kiernan, Mr. Collins's actual fiancee, becomes in this movie the symbol of Ireland herself/itself. The Irish people traditionally have seen their beloved land as mother, sister, "Dark Rosaleen"... and Miss Roberts's role never panders to viewer's prurient interest. She is the Ireland that both warring "brothers" love, and fight for, and the Ireland that loses them to each other... that's a tragedy of war, this war and others...

The end of the film brings home to us that the loser of this war is Ireland herself. Film cannot *be* life; in that sense it can never be totally accurate. Film can only convey to us what we the audience can recognize. The flags, the accents, the love interests--they are not history but devices to convey history on a flat screen in two hours.

Neil Jordan's Michael Collins is a fast paced intelligent work about a early twentieth century Irish poltical activist and military leader. The film has romance, pace, action, wit and humour. Neil Jordan is probably one of the best script writers in terms of quantity and quality of product now working in world cinema. It's his intelligence and unique way of seeing a situation I find is refreshing. Dressing up a future President of Ireland of Ireland disguised as a whore is witty and fair comment on the corruption in politics in Ireland at the moment. Taking up the story of Michael Collins after a failed rebellion in Dubllin, Ireland, against British Imperial rule at the time, 1916, Jordan quickly introduces the characters of the film. Harry Boland, a Dub amusingly played by Aidan Quinn (Fans of Quinn can see him also in the fine This is my Father which he made with his brothers) Eamonn De Valera, a political intellectual leader of the republican movement well caricatured by Alan Rickman, and Kitty Kiernan, played by Julia Roberts in a performance which will steal your heart. A fine supporting cast led by english actor Ian Hart gives this film top quality drama. The performance of Liam Neeson in the role of Collins is one of the best of his career so far with the flair of his Oscar Schindler character and the strength of Collins Cork origins mixed with poignant reflective moments, this is terrific natural playing.

Basically the story is of Collins out-witting the British administration and winning a negotiated settlement. A lot of Collins' characteristics are picked up in the movie. His cycling around Dublin under the very noses of the security forces, his playing with De Valera's children and wrestling with whoever was about as a bit of a joke. Unlike the revolutionary leaders who are said to have copied Collins, like Mao Tse Tung and Ho Chi Minh etc., Collins was more likely to say "are you on for a pint ?" than any guff about the good of the movement. His tactical talent and strategic skills are shown but his skill at managing the large amounts of intelligence information isn't as well appreciated in the film. His realization that a republic was better forged under steady transition, and more logically needed to be worked out as to its practical meaning, was a foundation stone of the current Irish state. Further his belief that a democratic decision, a popular vote, was the crux of any situation and to be defended despite any loyalties to the contrary. This latter point is made dramatically in the film as Collins and Boland find themselves on opposite sides having been pals. (For more information on Collins try Tim Pat Coogan's "Michael Collins", a better read is "De Valera" by the same author.)

This movie was the best I've ever seen concerning The Troubles in Ireland. I would have enjoyed more of the film covering the Easter Revolution, but it did a wonderful job of mixing entertainment with history. Although nearly all of the film was fairly well grounded on fact, I was disappointed in Julia Roberts uninspiring performance. However Liam Nelson more than compinsated with his masterful job and played Michael Collins exactley the way I would of imagined him to be. This was an all-around wonderful movie capable of educating the uninformed and inspiring the knowledgeable.

As Michael Collins is going to be one of the three individuals in the Irish independence movement from the Easter Rising to the formation of the Irish Free state that I'll be examining in my senior seminar paper next semester, I refreshed myself in rewatching this movie. Director Neil Jordan (The Crying Game) paints a vivid portrait of the history of the final and crucial Irish Revolution against the British Empire and the man who made it possible, Michael Collins, "The Big Fella," (1890-1922). If one was to make the comparison of the Pen, Voice and the Sword made on the three main people who united Italy (Mazzini, Cavour, and Garibaldi), Collins was Ireland's Garibaldi, but also its Christ.

The movie begins with 29 April 1916, the last day of the Easter Rising, where the undermanned Irish surrendered to superior British artillery. Collins and his friend Harry Boland are captured and fortunately avoid the fate of others like Sean MacDiarmida, and socialist intellectual James Connolly, the latter who is badly wounded and is executed strapped to a chair. Eamon de Valera, future president of Ireland many times over, has his sentence commuted, partially because of his New York birth.

Collins learns from the mistakes of the Rising and with the help of Harry and Joe O'Reilly, sets about creating a band of assassins who use intelligence, wear the uniform as the ordinary man on the street, and the element of surprise to gun down members of the Royal Irish Constabulary and G-Men. Both groups are considered collaborators with the British, traitors to Irish independence. Before long, British elite police auxiliaries, the notoriously brutal Black and Tans are sent in, and they too become targets for the IRA.

There is a standout scene reminiscent of the final scene in the Godfather, where Collins' gunmen take out members of the Cairo Gang, British intelligence specialists who operated in the Middle East and were sent to deal with the IRA, quickly followed by the infamous massacre at a football game, where 14 people, including footballer Sam Hogan, were gunned down by the British searching for Sinn Feiners, and over a hundred wounded. Bloody Sunday indeed! While not condoning the British treatment of the Irish, it shows how retaliatory violence leads to the deaths of the innocent. But as history has shown, there was no other way for the Irish, except by fighting.

Many aspects or themes from Tim Pat Coogan's biography on Collins have either been altered or not emphasized, which is understandable for a movie with limited running time. For example, Ned Broy, the G-man who secretly helps Collins, survived instead of being tortured and killed. Three Irishmen were tortured and executed the day before, and Jordan clearly decided to use their deaths and Broy as a composite character. Another is the band of assassins Collins uses to carry out his hits. Coogan's book refers to them as the Twelve Apostles, which using a Christ-like metaphor to Collins as the saviour of Ireland. That isn't alluded to here, which is unfortunate. And the action slows down in the final quarter hour, a contrast to the first two hours.

The leads do well, Liam Neeson (Collins), Aidan Quinn (Harry Boland), Julia Roberts (Kitty), Alan Rickman (de Valera), and Ian Hart (Joe O'Reilly). The latter two would be reunited in the first Harry Potter movie as Professor Snape and Quirrel, respectively.

Those who know the story of Michael Collins will know how the story ends, but there is cutting back and forth of scenes of Kitty trying out her wedding dress to the final ambush, with Sinead O'Connor haunting rendition of the traditional "She Moved From The Fair" making it all the more poignant. And de Valera is portrayed as someone who wants independence but with strategic violence, not the bloodbath Collins spreads, and but in the end, a Machiavellian manipulator. Indeed, he did say that Collins legacy came at the cost of de Valera's own standing, and that is definitely true in this movie.

"Some people are what the times demand, and life without them seems impossible," Michael Collins's associate Joe O'Reilly (Ian Hart) says at the beginning of this movie. "But he's dead. And life *is* possible. He made it possible."

Much more than a comment on Collins's assassination, these lines instantly set the tone for Neil Jordan's controversial biography of "The Big Fellow," one of Irish history's most divisive personalities: the first modern terrorist leader, who invented urban warfare but also went to London to negotiate the 1921 agreement creating the Irish Free State which, realizing its widespread unacceptability, would-be President Eamon de Valera (reportedly) hadn't wanted to bring home personally, and which Collins himself prophetically referred to as his "death warrant."

Michael Collins was born in 1890 in West Cork, a farmer's son, and introduced to the quest for Irish sovereignty by his schoolmaster, a member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, which Collins soon joined as well and in whose ranks he began to rise during his nine years as a London clerk (1905-14). Returning to Ireland, he participated in the unsuccessful 1916 "Easter Rising" and, in the barely six remaining years of his life, created the Irish Republican Army as an organized terrorist group with the single aim of ending British rule, and with a small assassination command directly answering to Collins himself, nicknamed "The Twelve Apostles." After the 1921 treaty had polarized Irish politics to the point of civil war, leaving Collins and de Valera on opposite sides (the most divisive issue being the required oath of allegiance to the British crown; not, as indicated here, Partition), Michael Collins was shot in an ambush near his home in County Cork; ironically in a place known as Beal na mBlath ("Mouth of Flowers").

Several years in the making, Neil Jordan's movie likely was made possible only by the (short-lived) 1995 ceasefire in Northern Ireland. Ambitiously conceived and according to Jordan himself his most important film, it sets out to explore the manifold contradictions within Collins's personality; stopping short, however, of showing him to ever personally commit murder or other acts of violence - which is amply exhibited otherwise - and ultimately espousing the side of those who wish Collins to be remembered more for his contributions to Irish sovereignty than for his acts of terrorism.

Liam Neeson stars in the title role, for which he is a perfect match: physically (both in height and, to some extent, even in facial features) and also because, like Collins, he was born in rural County Cork, and brought an intuitive understanding to the part no outsider could have had. And he gives a tour-de-force performance, one of his best ever, bringing to life a man who could be ruthless and charming, proud and humble, exuberant and desperate, often within mere minutes of one another. Alan Rickman likewise brings his extraordinary talent to the role of Eamon de Valera - although I would have wished the script had allowed him to more fully display the multiple facets of this politician who, far more than merely Michael Collins's rival, was one of 20th century Ireland's most important statesmen, drafter of the 1936 constitution which equates national and territorial unity (a claim only modified after the 1998 Good Friday Agreement and still not uniformly abandoned) and establishes the primacy of both the Gaelic language and Catholicism; and founder of Fianna Fail, one of modern Ireland's major political parties. Nevertheless he comes across here, and certainly through no fault of Rickman's, as much more devious, coldblooded and sometimes even small-minded than he probably was. Problematic is also Jordan's choice to have Collins and de Valera communicate, the night before Collins's assassination, through an intermediary who is later seen as the assassin himself: If Jordan, as he insists, indeed didn't intend to suggest that de Valera had anything to do with Collins's death, this plot device - not grounded in fact anyway - is easily misinterpreted.

As important as Collins's interaction with de Valera is that with his best-friend-turned-foe Harry Boland (Aidan Quinn, who likewise gives a tremendous performance, although it's a pity to see him type-cast yet again as the honorable man turned bitter after losing out to an ostensibly more charismatic rival) and their - real-life! - love triangle with Kitty Kiernan (Julia Roberts, whose badly coached Irish accent detracts from her performance's other merits). Although Jordan again takes liberties with historic facts here - most notably, Boland didn't die in the sewers but was shot in a hotel room - Neeson and Quinn have incredible on-screen chemistry; and the slow change of their relationship, ground to shreds between political intrigue and rivalry for the hand of the same woman in a development both are unable (and ultimately unwilling) to prevent, is one of the film's greatest strengths.

Lastly, Stephen Rea deserves mention for his wonderfully unassuming portrayal of Ned Broy, the intelligence operative who finds Collins so "persuasive" that his assignment as his "shadow" eventually makes him turn the tables on his British superiors and secretly provide Collins with information, while simultaneously preventing his capture (and who, far from being tortured and killed as shown here, would go on to head the Irish gardai).

Commercially "Michael Collins" undoubtedly suffered from the comparison with "Braveheart" which, released only a year prior, while likewise not shying from the graphic display of violence, takes an even grander, unapologetically epic approach to a rebel leader's life. Moreover, some of Collins's lines sound eerily familiar to those who had heard William Wallace declare his desire for "a home, and a family ... but it's all for nothing if we don't have freedom." (Similarly, Collins tells Boland that he wants "peace and quiet ... so much [he'd] die for it," and when challenged "You mean you'd kill for it first," he responds, "No, not first. Last.") But financial bottom line and directorial liberties aside, this is a tremendously important movie, well worth watching by anybody interested in Ireland's recent history.

Also recommended:
The Big Fellow
A Memoir
1916: The Easter Rising
Battle of the Boyne 1690
Irish Freedom: The History of Nationalism in Ireland
The Crying Game (Collector's Edition)
Cal
In the Name of the Father
The Boxer (Collector's Edition)
The Making of Ireland: A History