Puckoon

I saw this at a Boston Irish Film Festival screening a few years ago and thought it was just simply amazing!! Does ANYONE know where to get it in the U.S.? It rivals such other Irish flicks as Waking Ned Devine and the Rat in it's hilarity, but alas it is unavailable here as far as I know. All about a little town in the hills that gets divided up during the separation of the counties of Ulster from the rest of the country. The most memorable scene to me was when people were trying to cross the border to get to their everyday lives. Women unable to feed their chickens/harvest the eggs, men being able to go into the bar but not actually sit at it. The church even gets separated from sections of the graveyard, which in turn creates some more very funny situations where some of the villagers and the priest (Daragh O'Malley) try and sneak into Ulster to bury a body of one of their late friends. Absolutely BRILLIANT!!!

Fantastically funny with a serious message at its heart. Director Terence Ryan has captured the bright infectious humour of Milligan's comic novel and balanced it with the darker political message of the partition of Ireland.

Saw the film at the closing gala of the Ealing Film Festival in West London(England). Enjoyed it immensely. Although the Crow & the Chinese Policeman don't appear, and Dan Milligan becomes Dan Madigan (played by Sean Hughes (I)). The interaction between Dan and the Author (Writer/Director) voiced/played by Lord Richard Attenborough, works very well.

The rumour is that Lord Attenborough and Elliott Gould (as Dr. Goldstein) appeared in the film for just a pint of beer.

Spike was shown the film, on video before he died and by all accounts enjoyed it immensely.

Spike Milligan was one of the funniest men I've ever seen, and a huge influence on my life.

This movie is limp and awful, and does his memory no credit. The script is cluttered and preserves too many lines from the book intact (the leg jokes here are incomprehensible). The actors' performances are uniformly ineffective, a great cast wasted, and the lead, Sean Hughes, delivers Milligan's belligerent hostilities in a plaintive whine, which misses the point completely.

The gentle pacing is a killer as well. Farce should accelerate towards the end. The Goon Shows often did, the novel "Puckoon" definitely did, but this film, if anything, slows down just when you want the various elements to smash together in a final climax.

Milligan narrated an abridged audio recording of "Puckoon" in 1980, with T.P. McKenna, Dermot Kelly, Norma Ronald and Jack Hobbs. Now, that's funny. Ten minutes of that is funnier than this whole film. I believe the LP was transferred to CD, but don't know if it's still in print.

There is a movie of "Adolf Hitler: My Part in his Downfall" with Jim Dale and Arthur Lowe. It too is a godawful mess, but it's funnier than this thing.

It's possible that Milligan's spirit is too rambunctious for the screen. The other reviewers here are indulging in politeness and wishful thinking. This film fumbles virtually every opportunity and never misses a chance to disappoint.

This film is a must see for fans of the book and Milliganesque humour. I think the best thing about it is that the film works as a stand alone film in itself, irrespective of the book. It must have been very difficult to pull all the various scenes and diversions in the book together into one cohesive film.

All your favourite characters and scenes are in, and a great deal of the dialogue is word for word from the book, so you don't miss out on some of the characters' classic soliloquies, descriptions and chats with the author/director/viewer. The characters and setting really did appear as they did in my mind when reading the book. Off the top of my head, look out for the following classic scenes and dialogue from the book: - Madigan talking to the camera ('author' in the book) about his legs, his wife, retreating not running away etc.. - The owner of the Holy Drunkard pub describing his wedding day - Drawing the line to decide the border - Rafferty - Moving coffins to and fro across the border - two brothers smoking the same fag - the soldiers waiting for a train to show up - and lots, lots more!

Sean Hughes is great as Madigan (changed from Milligan in the book), .... Gryff Rhys Jones is head of the border patrols, Ronnie Drew of the Dubliners has a cameo role, Richard Attenborough plays the 'author', and one of the Macgann brothers is in it as well. For me, it's one of those films that I could watch over and over again as there are so many funny lines and scenes - bit like rewatching Life of Brian.