Beautiful movie, and Alan Rickman kinda steals the show (of course, he seems to have a habit of doing that in films)...

Grade: A

Joy

A veritable cinematic gut punch, Michael Collins pulls off the rare trick of combining Hollywood bombast and historical accuracy (its largely accurate) while still being a truly emotional piece of cinema.

I can honestly say when I saw this in the cinema I'd never seen so many old people watching a film before. Amongst all the young you'd have a sprinkling of people well into their 80s watching as well, I guess the urge to see the history they lived shown on screen was strong, and thankfully Michael Collins delivered on virtually all fronts.

Liam Neeson delivers the greatest performance of his career (forget Schindlers and others) as the titular "Big Fella", a mix of brutalistic realism and moments of true heart he captures the essence of Collins better then anybody could have dared hope. And he never forgets the wry humour along the way. Just as the real man was the definition of magnetism so is Neeson here.

Elsewhere Alan Rickman's portrayal of Eamon De Valera is as calculating and smart as the real man was, and only the hit and miss accent supplied by Julia Roberts as Kitty Keirnan blots the performance copybook.

All the major events like the Easter Rising, the Bloody Sunday at Croke Park and the initiation of the civil war via the shelling of the Four Courts are captured in a vivid and chilling manner, its clear that Neil Jordan knew his history and paids it the maximum of respect.

The ending is a true downer even if you know its going to happen, and it highlights the great tragedy of Collins, a man made from violence that can't escape it even when he wishes better things for his fellow countrymen.

On balance I think its Jordan's best film along with The Butcher Boy.

A+

Haven't seen either MC nor TBB, but I find it hard to believe that they were better than The End of the Affair which was an outstanding piece of filmmaking (but then again... what do I know, I also loved his horror movie In Dreams)...

Try them out Bradford, The Butcher Boy is a very dark and occasionally brutal tale, and its humour is served very black.

Haven't seen The End of the Affair, I'll have to seek it out.