The General

Martin Cahill was a real criminal in Dublin whom the police could not catch for years; the press called him the General, and when he appeared on camera he covered his face with his hands. The film follows his robberies, his friction with the police and his standing in the neighbourhood. The subject is not robbery but a man who builds his own moral order and holds to it absolutely. Cahill trusts neither the state, nor the church, nor the system; the punishments he inflicts on his own men are meanwhile as merciless as the order he opposes. The form is black and white and distanced. John Boorman shot it in monochrome and mostly kept the camera far off to avoid making a hero of him. Boorman's own house had once been robbed by Cahill, so the director has a personal connection to the subject and has said so in interviews. The film won the directing prize at Cannes in 1998. Brendan Gleeson's Cahill is regarded as the start of his international recognition. Adrian Dunbar and Sean McGinley play members of the gang, with Jon Voight as the policeman pursuing him. Who it is for: viewers who like true crime and morally murky protagonists. Who it is not for: anyone who wants room made for Cahill's victims; the film looks mainly from his side, and that choice was debated.