Michael Collins (1996) is getting the 20th anniversary treatment.
Neil Jordan’s film – starring the late Hans Gruber as Eamonn de Valera, Liam Neeson as the Big Fella and Julia Roberts as the Voice of Ireland – might not be historically accurate, but it’s still a great watch.
As part of this year’s ADIFF [Audi Dublin International Film Festival] , there will be a special screening on February 20 at the Savoy Cinema, followed by an on-stage Q&A with Jordan and cinematographer Chris Menges (The Killing Fields, The Mission).
Festival director Grainne Humphreys sez:
“Everyone remembers the excitement in Dublin when it was being filmed and so many people were part of it as extras. The resulting film was and is the great film of the period from Neil Jordan at the height of his filmmaking powers. I expect it will resonate with the festival audience just as beautifully as it did 20 years ago.”
A Blu Ray edition with new director’s commentary is released on 4th March, and the digital format will be in cinemas nationwide from March 18.
Audi Dublin International Film Festival
Previously: Shooting Michael Collins
but will they cgi some fresh things into it, a la George Lucas?
Cuchulain will be in the GPO.
Or Enda
The Civil War lives on. I’ve a close relation, FF anti-treaty stock. Their verdict on the Michael Collins film: “Crap film, brilliant ending.”
I’d nearly forgive the inaccuracies over the casting of Roberts as Kitty Kiernan. Cringing performance.
What was the ending again? Oh yeah, Dev gets thrown through a skyscraper window in downtown Dublin, Collins stumbles out of the building bloody and beaten, but alive. He looks up at the dawn rising over 5th & Sackville and shouts “Freeedom!”, witnessed only by a nearby scotch man. Fade to credits and Maroon5 theme tune
i wish
There are loads of historical inaccuracies, and way too much melodrama.
The opening of the 1916 rising is really cinematic though. (RTE’s rebellion looks like a cheap historical reenactment in comparison).
Assassinations sequence straight out of The Godfather.
1919 would be a better time for this re-release. Collins had a relatively minor role in 1916, and the film pays little attention to this period.
It was generally right on the bigger picture stuff
A great score. And a movie that also has some accuracies.