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76 comments in total

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21 out of 24 people found the following comment useful :-
A great movie, 4 September 2006

Author: MrVibrating from Sweden

This movie is an excellent portrayal of the brutal and often non-conventional Irish freedom struggle. The movie has several great strengths. The biggest strength is Liam Neeson in his tour-de-force. His acting in this movie is as good as it gets. His personality changes subtly throughout the movie, becoming increasingly affected by the changes of the world around him. The supporting cast is also excellent, with Rickman in one of his best roles.

Cinematography is very nice, capturing everything from the hopelessness of the defeats in the ashy cities to the beauty of the Irish landscapes. The pacing is very good as well.

If you saw this movie with no opinion on the Irish history, you will have one when you leave the theater. This shows to me how powerful this movie is. After all, Michael Collin's tactics were not pretty, everything from car-bombings to mob-style executions. Yet we still care for him, we want him to succeed, even if he himself isn't sure he wants to.

Without it's politics, this movie is still excellent. It's a great piece of movie-making, it's involving, sad, funny and sometimes tense. One of the movies I consider classic.

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11 out of 13 people found the following comment useful :-
Underrated, 29 March 2008

Author: mswjr from United States

This is a very touching film. I was shocked to see the IMDb score of 6.8. The only major fault of this film is Julia Roberts. She really takes a wonderful film and turns it down a few notches. She can't keep an Irish accent, switching back and forth with her American accent throughout the duration of the film.

Anyway, Michael Collins is great to watch. The story is heartfelt, and the nuances between personal battles and patriotic duty are displayed in a very mature fashion - - to what extent will you go for your country? What will you lose? Who will you fight? Why will you do any of it? Who are your true friends? etc.

The music is FANTASTIC. Worth renting just for the listen. Of course Neison is great. So is Aidin Quinn (when I first saw this movie I thought Quinn was Irish given his name and his performance here). Alan Rickman is Alan Rickman - - which is great, though he doesn't pull off the Irish thing too well. However, given his character, Eamon de Valera, it isn't really a miscast, just takes time to get in.

If you can ignore how horrible Julia Roberts is and think about the heart and emotion behind this film while enjoying the awesome score you're in for a treat. A jewel in the rough. (my favorites)

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26 out of 43 people found the following comment useful :-
Deeply flawed but compelling, 6 March 2006

Author: poc-1 from Cork, Ireland

I saw this first in the now defunct Capitol Cineplex in Cork. I was surprised to see so many senior citizens in the cinema. The cineplex was so scummy it had to be something special to draw them in. Some of them might have been old enough to remember the civil war or at least to have had a close family member killed in it. Many of them were clearly moved by it particularly the end with its archive footage. It is a moving film, but you have to be careful.

One should never confuse history with entertainment and this is not a history lesson. All the major events are there, but there is a horrible bias from the director. I don't like DeValera or what he stood for, but what was hinted at the end in this movie is a travesty. If such a thing is true, you have to prove it, you can't slyly hint at it. There are other insidious things such as mortars and car-bombs which are clear reference to the 1970s-90s Northern conflict. Such weapons did not exist in 1916. To me this is an oblique way of implying that the Provos are somehow the legitimate heirs of the IRA in 1916 which of course they are not.

Despite this I enjoyed the movie a lot. The production values and acting was so good, it really felt like a timewarp. Neil Jordan is a great director, Neeson and Rickman are superb in their parts. Rickman looks so much like DeValera it is uncanny. I even liked Julia Roberts. It looks like she made a fair attempt at a Dun Laoghaire accent and of course it sounded phony. Southside Dublin accents all sound phoney to me anyway so I didn't mind. The best moment was the scene where Collins starts the civil war sitting behind a howitzer aimed at the Four Courts and fires. You can see a huge explosion and bits coming out portico. I actually felt scared that they had damaged this famous Dublin landmark. This won't mean much to someone from overseas, but anyone familiar with the Four Courts and the resident lawyers (sorry "barristers") in their eighteenth century costumes would surely enjoy firing an artillery piece at the overpaid clowns. I wish I had a howitzer like that.

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6 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
A powerful story about a fascinating man in a fascinating time, 4 February 2008

Author: uk6strings-1 from The Twin Cities, Minnesota

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

History has seen its fair share of revolutionaries and heroes throughout its course; few, however, have been as controversial as Irish revolutionary Michael Collins. To his ardent supporters, Collins was a brilliant military mind, a patriot, a father of a nation - quite simply: a hero. To his most hardened critics, Collins was a terrorist and not worth the wood he was buried in. Strong feelings on the issue continue to be stirred up in modern times; the year 1996 especially shook the British Isles into controversy just over a decade ago by the mere screen reincarnation of the man in Neil Jordan's great film Michael Collins starring Liam Neeson.

Liam Neeson is amazing as Michael Collins here in this film, more than deserving of his Best Actor award at the Venice Film Festival. I've yet to see a bad performance from Mr. Neeson, but he especially puts everything into his performance of Collins here in this film, and it surely ranks among his very best. Despite being older and 4 inches taller than Collins was, Neeson still makes the role work with tremendous ease. He brings out Collins' charismatic sides which includes both his general likability and his ability to rally a crowd. Neeson's glaring intensity and seemingly unnerving dark side shown in this film also brings out Collins' ruthlessness superbly. Neeson is also surrounded by a great cast who perform their roles excellently. Alan Rickman is perfect for the role of Eamon de Valera, his snake-like presence is very fitting of de Valera's infamous ability to beguile his rivals. Stephen Rea is awesome as Ned Broy, a very likable composite character of the many G-men who were working with Collins; Aidan Quinn is quite good as Collin's friend and "general mayhem" partner Harry Boland; and Ian Hart's performance as Joe O'Reilly is also great and a surprise coming from a generally unknown actor in such a small role. The film also sees Julia Roberts in a smaller role as Kitty Kiernan, a woman of whom both Collins and Boland have affection for. As much I as dislike Roberts in most of her films, she manages a pretty good performance here in Michael Collins (she particularly does an excellent job in the last scenes), but they seriously couldn't find an Irish actress to play the role?

The film's cinematography and score add so much to the film and were both rightfully nominated for Academy Awards. Chris Menges does a fantastic job with the cinematography, Michael Collins is amazingly shot with great use of light and color along with the film's incredible art-direction, really makes you feel like you are in the era. Elliot Goldenthal's score is absolutely wonderful – beautiful in many areas, powerful in others, and sometimes delivering a feeling that is more terrifying than the intense images on screen. There is also a lot of Celtic music throughout the film, no doubt because of the film's setting. I'm a music lover (as most of us are) and I personally adore Celtic music. There is comfort in the most somber of pieces and even a suspended feeling of awe in the most cheerful and upbeat of tunes. Goldenthal's score for Michael Collins incorporates Celtic themes as well as orchestral techniques perfectly that not only benefits the overall film, but also creates an extraordinary stand-alone piece of music. Sinead O'Connor also lends her great voice to a few parts of the film – she really adds to much emotion to the final scene of the film.

Since Michael Collins is a film, there are a couple of historical inaccuracies; most of which however, are perfectly reasonable and do not screw up the film's overall historical accuracy. One thing that has been labeled an inaccuracy by some of the film's critics inaccuracy is the depiction of a massacre at a sports event in Ireland by the British. The film shows a British armored car bursting into the area and shooting up the crowd. While the real massacre did not happen this way, Jordan said he took the liberties that he did with the scene because he wanted the scene to last only 30 seconds. The real massacre is arguably worse than the one showed in the film, with the British locking the Irish civilians in the area and scaling the walls to fire into the crowd. Another inaccuracy was during Collins' speech to de Valera's young go-between. In the film, de Valera is shown over hearing Collins' speech and becoming quite overwhelmed with emotion to the point of inaction – leading the go-between to set up Collin's death with a supposed meeting with de Valera. Collins and de Valera were going to meet in fact to discuss an end to the Civil War the country and spun into, but it is not known if the meeting was a designed set-up to assassinate Collins. By having the scene go the way that it did, Neil Jordan was able to have an ending to the film – an obvious necessity to any film. One inaccuracy is hard to defend however: the scene were Kitty pulls a gun on a man who is violently disrupting one of Collins' speeches is very hard to believe and an extremely unnecessary part of the film in the first place.

History shows that Michael Collins cannot simply be summed up with one black or white point of view, but with a compilation of both. By being a skilled, resourceful, and ruthless leader, he is a complex, intriguing, and influential historical figure - from his rise to early 20th century Irish political prominence to the unclear nature of his death. One thing is clear however, Michael Collins was the most important figure in the Irish struggle for independence and nationhood; Jordan's film shows this masterfully, but it is also just a fantastic film from beginning to end.

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4 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
Michael Collins an Unperson Recalled From Obscurity, 14 July 2007

Author: lord woodburry (deanofrpps@aol.com) from The Society NY

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Collins shaped the IRA out of a nest of informants, drunks and melodramatic would-be martyrs into a fighting force. However the movie opens not with the formation of the underground army skilled in sleuth and carrying on a cloak and dagger war, but in failure: The uprising on Easter Sunday 1916.

Irish-born Liam Neeson stars as the Irish Patriot Michael Collins. In bringing to life a complex warrior and in competing with the eloquent portrait of a Rebel that American actor James Cagney created in Shake Hands With The Devil, Neeson advances no personal commitment to politics. Despite parts in films with Celtic themes, Neeson lacks Cagney's allegiances to the Irish cause. In 1999 Neeson joined Ronald Reagan as an Officer of the Order of British Empire (OBE).

Michael Collin's times were without hope of tributes between the ancient enemies. On Easter Sunday 1916 the Irish Volunteers took over the main buildings in the city of Dublin. Forced to surrender, The leaders of the rebellion were executed. Confident that nothing more than the usual silly and flowery speeches would follow, the British released the remaining prisoners.

In the war that followed Collins paid heed to lessons learned. As a warrior Collins carefully weighed the risks, avoided rash moves, direct confrontation and pitched battle. Collins organized an effective intelligence gathering operation and penetrated G division of Dublin City Police. After Dail Eireann (Irish Parliament) declared independence, Collins concentrated on a guerrilla war conducted by flying squads which carried out their mission and melted away. Demurely Collins cycled around British police and soldiers in the guise of a businessman, blithely imposing a death penalty on friends of the Crown.

With success, Collins threatened the position of the nascent Irish Republic's president, Eamon de Valera.

Alan Rickman plays Eamon de Valera the way Collins described him: a be-speckled nit picker, a marked contrast to the tough but unassuming Collins.

De Valera deplored the shot-in-the-back tactics favored by Collins. A plan was laid over Collins' objection for a raid on Dublin Castle. Collins who stressed hit and run and economy of lives predicted a failure on the proportion of 1916. The raid exacted a heavy toll on irreplaceable Volunteers. However de Valera correctly predicted that the raid would prove to be the final blow for British authorities. The burning of the customs house proved to the British that no target, however well defended, was immune from attack.

The Michael Collins, played in the Liam Neeson movie , accurately portrays a man devoted to the cause. His strength in fighting a well-entrenched enemy is concentrating on vulnerable points with minimal damage to his own men. When the enemy tires from battles, Collins proves not to be as expert in the war of diplomacy and political machinations. Talks in London created an anomalous relationship with Britain: Ireland was free or in the Empire depending on perspective. Collins went to London as a hero who had out-foxed the greatest military power on earth and returned home as the scapegoat with a treaty creating a state nominally neither independent nor tied to The Crown, but somewhere in a grey zone in between.

Anxious to declare victory and restore peace, Dail Eireann (The Irish Parliament) supported Collins. Collins took command of evacuated British posts. At Dublin Castle, the symbol of British domination, Collins arrived seven and a half minutes late for the change of command, one minute for each century of occupation. Collins remarked to the British general "after seven and half centuries we won't begrudge you seven and a half minutes." Not shown in the film is the Guardia's protest against the treaty: They refused to post their colors until the British left the stronghold, an official military insult.

Collins would have little time to bask in the moment. Where the revolution ends, the civil war begins. IRA units had taken over the Four Courts in Dublin in April. Free State troops (The Guardia) bombarded the building with British artillery. The Civil War had begun. Michael Collins under the cover of an inspection in Cork area was on his way to a peace parlay with the Rebel rebel DeVelera when his convoy was ambushed. Thousands of people lined the streets of Dublin for the funeral of Michael Collins. His adversary de Valera would later reflect: "It's my considered opinion that in the fullness of time, history will record the greatness of Collins and it will be recorded at my expense." From Da Valera's ascension to power until 1965 Collins remained un-person in the country he helped create. In the Jimmy Cagney movie of 1959, Collins is never named; he is referred to as 'The Commandant' and seen only as a shadow. But no stone wall can contain such a legend.

The Director Neil Jordan could not have imagined anyone other than Liam Neeson in the lead role. Tall Neeson has the good-bad guy charm the American actor James Cagney believed necessary to such a role: the swagger of a street brawler, with the deceptive innocence of a boyish face. Neeson assumes Collins' passion, a man aflame in his cause yet in fatalistic tears over the aftermath.

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9 out of 15 people found the following comment useful :-
Well scripted and sharply directed., 30 October 1999

Author: Stephen Stratford (stephen.stratford@btinternet.com)

When I first saw this film I was not sure what to expect. Was it going to be a biased portrayal? Although some incidents were merged, I'm glad to say that I thought the film was excellent, with a powerful script, well directed and a superb performance by Alan Rickman as De Valera and Liam Neeson in the title role.

The direction of the film was very well done, especially the scenes at the Four Courts in Dublin.

A well recommended film, which I found to be very fair in the portrayal of incidents committed in the period of British rule and the subsequent civil war.

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15 out of 28 people found the following comment useful :-
Beautiful Cinematography Highlight This Biography, 26 June 2006

Author: ccthemovieman-1 from Lockport, NY, United States

I didn't know if Hollywood was distorting history but someone who knows the story of Michael Collins assured me this was a pretty accurate portrayal of him in here, which makes this film go even higher in my ratings, because it's definitely entertaining and is spectacularly photographed. There is more blue color in here - beautiful blue - than in any movie I've ever seen. It looks just gorgeous on DVD.

Liam Neeson's charismatic portrayal of Collins keeps you riveted to the screen, even though it's a fairly long movie. Julia Roberts and Alan Rickman seemed a bit miscast. Being American and British, respectively, they weren't quite believable as Irishmen, perhaps because I'm used to hearing them as they normally talk. I also don't like to hear the Lord's name in vain so often as what was in here, but that seems commonplace among the Irish, at least in all the movies I've seen and books I've read (and my relatives, half of whom are Irish!)

Anyway, this is a very interesting story with a nice combination of drama, action and romance. Very much recommended regardless of anyone's stance on Irish-English relations.

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Historical Biopic Falls Flat, 17 June 2009

Author: brocksilvey from United States

Neil Jordan's historical biopic about Michael Collins, the man who fought for a free Ireland in the early 20th Century, has its heart in the right place, but it just doesn't work. I'm not sure why it doesn't work exactly, because it's got a good central performance from Liam Neeson, an intelligent screenplay and handsome production design. Despite all of those qualities, however, it just sits on the screen like a lead paperweight.

One thing that definitely IS wrong with the film is Julia Roberts, horribly miscast and giving a lame performance. Roberts is far too contemporary an actress ever to be convincing in a period piece, and she's not a good enough actress to fake it.

Grade: C

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1 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
Needs More Backstory, 4 May 2009

Author: petesea from United States

I only knew the name Michael Collins before watching this film and now I know of his exploits, but I could have used some more backstory instead of "700 years of struggle." Like why Liam Neeson's Collins and Aidan Quinn's Harry Boland are such great friends and why Alan Rickman's Eamon de Valera fear the both of them working together on the Irish Republican cause. So, my Irish history is rusty and this movie helps fill in some gaps, but I think more of the history of these folks struggle should have been shown.

Julia Roberts' Kitty Kiernan is character who needed further development or she should have hit the cutting room floor. Why is she involved in the cause? Who does she love Michael or Harry? Is she a country lass or a city woman? Why is she in the film again? To me, it seemed like the actors were not as immersed in their roles as they should have been.

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3 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :-
Good, but not great film, 22 August 2003

Author: SilencioDrive from Schenectady, NY

It has it's moments and is beautifully photographed (by Chris Menges), but it still has script problems as well as false history. Ned Broy was not killed during the upheaval after the Irish Republican Brotherhood's formation; he lived long after. Many historical facts were sacrificed for the film. While they did make sense, they didn't make this movie a classic. Still, the character of Michael Collins is inspirational, especially if you have an interest in Irish history or are Irish yourself. The performances are first rate all around, except for Julia Roberts who I thought was expendable. In real-life history her character wasn't very important and is no more important for the film. Still, writer/director Neil Jordan makes a movie that is difficult to stop watching. I give it 7/10

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