 |
|||
 |
 |
||
 | |||
 | |||||||||||
|
|
Starring Brendan Gleeson, Adrian Dunbar. Released to DVD on July 20, 1999. ![[Photo]](/photos/general1.jpg) During the summer months, theaters are ripe with big-budget movies filled with A-list superstars and explosions to match. In summer, smaller films are those starring Julia Roberts that only cost $50 million to make. Foreign films and independent productions are often swept under the rug, or put on hold until fall, as the general consensus in Hollywood is that when dealing with a movie you have to spend money to make money and if there is one constant element of independent films, it is that they don't have huge budgets. However, I enjoyed John Boorman's The General-not to be confused in any fashion with Buster Keaton's 1927 masterpiece, The General-more so than any other film I have had the opportunity to screen in the last two months. The General follows the life and crooked ways of Martin Cahill, played with a surprisingly light, affable charm by Brendan Gleeson. From his childhood onward, Cahill has been enchanted with criminal enterprises, finding that the workload is fairly easy and the rewards are quite lucrative.
|
| |||||
![[Photo]](/photos/general2.jpg)
Boorman, who wrote, produced and directed The General, poured his heart into this work, and it is quite evident in the final product. Gleeson's performance is outstanding, yes, but what made his portrayal of Cahill strong to the degree it was, came with the subtle nuances of his character that Boorman had created. From Cahill's predilection to keep his face covered with a hand, to the casual yet fastidious nature of his thieving masterplans, Boorman has created both a strikingly well-rounded character, and a small-budget film that is vastly more enjoyable than