THE GENERAL

REVIEWED BY CHARITY BISHOP

Our rating: 3 out of 5

Because of: language, violence, thematic elements

Rated:

One of the most notorious criminals in the history of Dublin was Martin Cahill, the head of a gang of Irish thieves who pulled off some of the most remarkable heists in Irish history, all the while outsmarting the police at every turn until a bullet caught up with him. The General is a rough depiction of his story, both praised for its interesting facets and controversial for its attempts to romanticize an exceedingly brutal individual.

Once more, Martin Cahill (Brendan Gleeson) has managed to escape justice with no more than a bruise. Released from serving a short time for petty theft, he returns home just in time to see his family being evicted from the tenant building the city intends to tear down for new housing. Determined not to be tossed out, even after his wife Frances (Maria Doyle Kennedy) moves with the kids into a safer location, Martin camps out, first in the building, then in a camper, and then after the police set fire to that, in a canvas tent, until the authorities agree to relocate them to a much nicer neighborhood. Still, conditions are cramped, what with all those children and half of his theft ring swinging by on a regular basis, and soon Frances proposes the notion of moving into a nice suburb. They need eighty thousand to buy the house, so Martin gathers together his friends and they take out a jewelry emporium the IRA have had their eyes on for months.

Police Inspector Kenny (John Voight) knows that Martin was responsible but cannot prove it, so he drags him and his associates in on occasion for a good beating and then puts a watch on the house. With the rumble of dissention from within the group, as the police pull ranks and even the IRA insist on a payoff in exchange for no retaliation, Martin becomes more and more clever, placing his life, that of his family, and all of his friends in danger as he plans another fabulous heist. The movie is not as structured as it could be, and would have benefited from a little more background in some instances, but is nevertheless interesting if only as a biopic of an infamous figure in recent Irish history. It does, however, leave rather a sour taste in one's mouth when it comes to the police, who are shown as nothing more than brutal thugs. More than once, they beat a prisoner in their keeping for no reason other than out of sheer meanness. Part of their nastiness involves letting a ferret loose in Martin's dove hutch, so that his son finds all their beloved birds dismembered. One cop even urinates on Martin when he finds him sneaking into the house through the backyard.

The synopsis for the film paints Martin Cahill as a "Dublin folk hero" but there's nothing heroic about him. When questioning a new gang member's allegiance, he nails the man's hand to a pool table. He takes a mistress, with his wife's "permission." Not only that, but he's no Robin Hood: all of the thefts are for his own personal gain. That aside, it was quite an interesting take based on a bestselling book of the same name. There are actually two versions of the movie out there. One of them is filmed in black and white, and contains a great deal of foul language. The other is in muted color, and all of the f-words have been dubbed over for American television audiences. If you do decide to peruse this film, that's the version to stick with, although a handful of abuses of deity and British profanities do remain. 

There is some violence. Cops bloody prisoners in holding cells. A man is shot through the head. What bewildered me the most was realizing that Martin was carrying on a relationship with his wife's sister. That's not as surprising as the fact that Frances is both aware of it, and utterly accepting of it. She even gives Martin "permission," knowing that he has been considering straying. It's kind of creepy to be honest, and one cannot help but wonder at a woman who would agree to such a thing. The performances are all quite good, and there's more than a few laughs or clever moments along the way. One of my favorite scenes involved a police tail and a country lane, although it might horrify art critics and fans alike when a dozen paintings are cut out of their frames and stashed in the woods, among them a Vermeer.