clonion

For those who are interested in modern Irish history - this is for you. It gives the details of the Treaty which ended the War of Independence between Ireland and Britain, which, dry though it sounds, is interesting. It has been well scripted, and superbly acted. It is ironic to consider that here, Brendan Gleeson plays Michael Collins, and in 'Michael Collins'(1996) only the sidekick. Liam Neeson doesn't do the character justice, Brendan Gleeson does. He looks a lot like Michael Collins, and from eyewitness accounts, behaves a lot like him as well. Another interesting point about this film is that it is almost all factually accurate (my sole quibble would be the interplay between Michael Collins and Lloyd-George's wife (I hope that's correct, its a while since I have seen it, sorry if it's wrong)) If you are going to rely on a film for historical accuracy, then please use this as opposed 'Michael Collins'

After reading through the comments here, I am appalled at the number of people who are willing to take this as gospel - please don't!! The scenes of the Rising and the Civil War are quite accurate (barring such things as carbombs, which someone else has already mentioned) though grossly oversimplified. Kitty Kiernan does not deserve the major part she has been given in this film - Michael Collins was never that interested in women. I have to stress, as someone else has, that there were the Auxiliaries as well as the Black and Tans (so called incidentally, because there were not enough field uniforms to go round, so they were a hodge-podge of different uniforms), and the Auxiliaries, the officiers, were discernably worse than the rank and file. Also, the fighting did nto affect most of the country. A note on the casting - the character of Kitty Kiernan was nto that big, though I think she was given more screen time as she was played by Julia Roberts. Someone tell this woman that she CANNOT do accents. Alan Rickman was more Sheriff of Nottingham than de Valera. Aiden Quinn as Harry Boland wasn't bad, though I would have to quibble about the character, but I feel that is more the fault of the writers than him. And lastly, sorry though I am to say it, Liam Neeson doesn't even compare to Brendan Gleeson's performance as Collins in 1992's The Treaty, even his accent wasn't quite right. For those who would like to know what really happened, I would recomment 'The Treaty', Tim Pat Coogan's biography (though he is a tad biased) and T. Ryle Dwyer's 'Big Fellow, Long Fellow', which is a joint biography of de Valera and Collins. This film is a real disappointment. I would have to repeat Bono's statement - 'I'm sick of Irish Americans come up to me, and tell me about the Revolution back home ... that the majority of people in my country don't want', which, unfortunately are the kind of sentiments that this film has engendered.