Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2918 in DVD
• Released on: 1998-09-25
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Full Screen, PAL
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, Arabic
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 127 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
A heartfelt epic from Irish director Neal Jordan (The Crying Game, Interview with the Vampire), Michael Collins is the biography of the charismatic and controversial Irish rebel leader who led the fight for independence from Britain. Among the most beautiful and atmospherically photographed movies of the 1990s, Michael Collins is also a rich and intelligent study of the nature of politics and leadership: the IRA spokesman, full of fiery convictions, eventually gives way to the more mature negotiator who strives to reach a compromise solution and is politically undone in the process. Liam Neeson gives a grand and towering performance as Collins, but for all the character's legendary, heroic, or otherwise larger-than-life attributes, Jordan and Neeson also keep him human. This is sweeping historical filmmaking of the kind we haven't seen since the heyday of David Lean, but with Jordan's characteristic touches of complexity and ambivalence. --Jim Emerson

Special Features
Full Screen
DVD 10
English
English
Region 2
Dolby Digital 5.1 English
Dolby Digital 5.1
Interactive Menus
Production Notes
Scene Access
Trailers
The South Bank Show Documentary
Interview And Actual Footage Of Michael Collins
Arabic
English

Synopsis
Starting with Ireland's bloody Easter Rebellion of 1916 and ending with his untimely death, this brilliantly photographed epic from director Neil Jordan tells the charged story of Michael "Mickey" Collins. An IRA founder whose innovative guerrilla tactics succeeded in bringing freedom from British rule, Collins remains a controversial but much respected political figure, who is skillfully embodied in the film by Liam Neeson. Aidan Quinn plays his longtime friend Harry, and Julia Roberts, sporting a nice brogue and lovely period costumes, is Katie, the woman they both love.
Jordan staged most of the battles, riots, ceremonies, and speeches at their actual locations in Ireland with a cast of thousands and a great eye for period detail. The result is a film that is both historically evocative and stunningly beautiful thanks to the breathtaking cinematography of Chris Menges. The film is also surprisingly nonjudgmental in its depiction of Collins's appalling but inarguably successful methods of "bloody mayhem." Stephen Rea and Alan Rickman costar, with Elliot Goldenthal contributing a rich Oscar-nominated score.

Customer Reviews

Ignore the pedants, a great film about a great revolutionary
Ignore the views that say this film is "inaccurate" or "biased" or "incomplete" - this is always said of historical movies.

Neil Jordan and his cast succeed admirably in conveying the smells, passions and dilemmas of a turbulent time, and in showing the vastness of Collins' achievements. Collins' commitment to Irish freedom was enfused with a deep realism rather than a sentimentalism, and his ruthlessness and bravery in war were matched only by a deep humanity, an almost boyish vulnerability and commitment to making peace.

The loss of Collins was a major one for Ireland and the Irish, and yet his spirit and principles cast a longer shadow than those that opposed him and those who killed him.

Comments on an Hero
This film celebrates the life and work of a truly amazing individual. The films begins in 1916 during the Easter Rising and ends with Collins' assasination. As far as stories go, it would have been extremely hard to make a hash of this film as Collins truly led an amazing life. In places the film assumes the viewer has an insight into Irish politics and consequently appears to jump from stage to stage rather quickly without warning. This can lead to confusion if you are unfamiliar with the life of Michael Collins, or indeed the turmoil that surrounded the Irish Question throughout the last few centuries. My advice is to see the film; if you become confused simply read a his biography.

One of the few good movies about Irish history
Michael Cimino was one of many who tried to bring the story of Irish revolutionary Michael Collins to the screen and on the evidence of the mess he made of Salvatore HGiuliano's story in The Siclian (and the bizarre gay love triangle in his proposed version) it's a good job he didn't. Kevin Costner's attempts resulted in some equally simplistic scripts that enshrined cliche over history before Warners decided to drop his version in favor of Neil Jordan's long-planned film. Even if they were motivated more by the success of Interview With the Vampire than the material, they made the right choice: Michael Collins is easily one of Jordan's very best films and a strikingly intelligent piece of political cinema. There are changes for dramatic purposes, but these generally seem made for sound reasons and don't change the essential truth of the Irish Republican hero who became a scapegoat for de Valera's failure to gain a Republic and ended up being assassinated by his former colleagues in Ireland's forgotten and bloody civil war.

Clocking in at little over 130 minutes, Jordan keeps a sense of momentum that occasionally loses the odd detail that would be helpful to audiences unfamiliar with Irish history (such as the way the popular hatred towards the rebels who fought in the Easter Rising was turned around by the disastrous decision of the British to execute its leaders) but which still manages to find room for character as well, personalizing the tragedy surprisingly effectively. One of the last historical epics to use real sets and real extras instead of CGI, the film feels grounded in reality while still being an enthralling and cinematic political thriller. Sinead O'Connor's screaming over the assassination scene is unhelpful, but even that can't destroy the film.

Keeping his promise to cast Liam Neeson despite heavy lobbying from Michael Collins lookalike Kenneth Branagh (who lacks the presence necessary for the part), Jordan gets good rather than great performances from his leads, although Alan Rickman nails de Valera's reptilian and hesitant delivery and Ian Hart impresses as one of Collins' lieutenants. The unwelcome presence of Julia Roberts threatens to turn the film into Hollywood but thankfully her extremely limited abilities aren't stretched to breaking point. Probably the only film about the IRA that protestants and Brits can see without bringing Molotov cocktails to the cinema, it's release fell foul of America's constant denial of the complexities of the situation, Ireland's denial of the civil war and the rest of the world's horror at the IRA breaking their ceasefire without warning and killing a little girl in the process. Rarely revived, it's definitely worth rediscovering.

The DVD comes with an excellent South Bank Show that fills in many of the film's historical gaps, including archive footage of Collins himself (who really was a dead ringer for Branagh), although it is irritatingly a flipper disc.