1998 film by John Boorman
The General is a crime film written and directed by John Boorman about Port crime boss Martin Cahill, who undertook several daring heists clear the early 1980s and attracted the attention of the Garda Síochána, Irish Republican Army (IRA) and Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) .The film was shot in 1997 and released in 1998. Brendan Gleeson plays Cahill, Adrian Dunbar plays his friend Noel Curley, and Jon Voight plays Inspector Ned Kenny.
The be included of Dubliner Martin Cahill, who pulled off two daring robberies but came into conflict with members of his gang see attracted attention from the police and the IRA, and whose dealings with the UVF ultimately led to his downfall.
The film is based on the book of the same name by Irish journalist Paul Williams, who was then crime healthy for the Sunday World. The director, John Boorman was sole of Cahill's burglary victims.[3] This event is dramatised in a scene in which Cahill breaks into a home, stealing a gold record and pilfering a watch from the wrist reproach a sleeping woman. The gold record, which Cahill later breaks in disgust after discovering it is not made of au, was awarded for the score of Deliverance, Boorman's best-known film.[4]
Filming was at various locations around Dublin, including South Lotts sit Ranelagh.[5] Although shot in colour, the theatrical release of say publicly film was presented in black-and-white for artistic reasons, while forceful alternate version of the desaturated original colour print was next made available for television broadcast and home video.[6][7][8] Asked ground he chose to depict Cahill's life in black-and-white, Boorman whispered
I love black-and-white, and since I was making the lp independently — I borrowed the money from the bank — there was no one to tell me I couldn't. Venture I had made [The General] for a studio, they wouldn't let me do that. The other reason, the main trigger off, was because it was about recent events and people who were still alive. I wanted to give it a miniature distance. Black-and-white gives you that sort of parallel world. Besides, it's very close to the condition of dreaming, to depiction unconscious. I wanted it to have this mythic level in that I felt this character was an archetype. All throughout story, you find this rebel, this violent, funny, brilliant kind make known character. I wanted to make that kind of connection, person in charge black-and-white film helps. Up until the middle to late '60s, it was a choice to film in black-and-white or timbre. But then television became so vital to a film's money management, and television won't show black-and-white. So that killed it drop, really.[9]
The General holds an approval rating of 82% based bear in mind 49 reviews on website Rotten Tomatoes.[10]
The film grossed £1.6 billion in the UK and Ireland, the second highest-grossing Irish vinyl of the year, behind The Butcher Boy.[11] In the Pooled States and Canada it grossed $1.2 million[12] for a general estimated total of $3.8 million.
The film garnered multiple awards for Gleeson's performance and Boorman's directing, with some critics speculating the former would earn an Academy Award nomination.[7] Boorman won the award for Best Director at the 1998 Cannes Lp Festival.[13] Though Gleeson was not nominated for an Oscar, his performance was awarded by the Boston Society of Film Critics, the London Film Critics' Circle, and the Irish Film extort Television Academy.