TheUnknown837-1 Like with any movie genre, there are good gangster movies and there are bad gangster movies. If you asked me to name a good gangster movie, I'd have dozens to choose from. If you asked me to name a bad gangster movie, probably the first one to pop up in my mind is one that still has me in a sort of depression of disappointment about a week since I saw the film for the first and I promise you, the last time. That film is "The General", unrelated to the 1926 silent film of the same name. This is a very dry, very slow gangster epic that raises questions not about the story (it's more than easy to follow) but about why the filmmakers chose to make this rather flimsy endeavor.Like "Goodfellas" (1990) and "American Gangster" (2007)—two superior mob movies—"The General" is based on real people and true events. The film revolves around an Irish criminal named Martin Cahill (Brendan Gleeson) who started his long chain of crimes stealing food as a teenager and then moving up to robbing museums and houses as an adult. Meanwhile, the police led by an inspector named Kenny (Jon Voight) try desperately and vigorously to prove just one of his crimes and convict (or kill) him.Perhaps because it's a film in the same category as the marvelous "Goodfellas" (1990) and the first two "Godfather" films, I was expecting too much from "The General." But that may be going too easy on it. This would have been a bad film had I not seen the aforementioned masterpieces before being swamped by boredom in this oater and its far-too-stretched running time of screaming bad scenes. Let's start knocking the film by just looking at the style in which it is presented. For some reason, director John Boorman and cinematographer Seamus Deasy selected to film this movie in black-and-white while its style and presentation are clearly the elements that belong to a full-fledged color film. Now I have nothing against b/w pictures, not even ones made in modern-day times. "Schindler's List" (1993) was more than ninety percent filmed in black-and-white and it's a masterpiece. "The General", made just five years after "Schindler's List" is not. The cinematography is also far too blown out with high lighting keys that seem very distracting and give the movie a very video-game-like quality that I found simply annoying. The filmmakers were obviously going for a realist's documentary-like style, like "Schindler's List" did, but they fail by making it seem too much like a documentary and at the same time, too much like a classic-style motion picture. Performances in the film range from passable to poor. Brendan Gleeson and Jon Voight gave decent enthusiasm for their roles, but it seemed to me at times that even they were getting kind of run down by the awful screenplay from which they were quoting. The sound design is also very primitive, probably in an attempt to give it a 40s crime-noir appeal, but that also fails because again, it's made too much like a contemporary picture and seems vastly out of place.But the worst thing that occurs is that there's not one—not one—character in the film that I felt any emotions or opinions for. In fact, for every moment of every scene, the only thought going through my head was "okay…so what?" Moments that in a better film might come across as shocking or appalling are just dull and time-consuming here. I did not sympathize or hate the Brendan Gleeson character because the way the Cahill character is written is simply flat and dull. Gleeson just plays the common criminal and does not strike out with the impact the real Martin Cahill obviously did. If a character is killed off (as they always are in gangster films), we feel nothing. No remorse, no relief, no surprise, nothing. We just say "so what?" And that's all I did during the entire running time of this very flimsy, very poorly-made crime film.

Robert Aber Well, some differences: Martin drives a four-cylinder "mini" instead of a gas-guzzler Ford SUV. Carmela's ready to defenestrate philandering Tony whereas Martin's such a good husband/father that his wife willingly lets Martin sleep with the woman he fantasizes over - and isn't jealous.Martin, true criminal mastermind, isn't above collecting welfare. He wears clothes Michael Moore might wear. Tony's always checking the mirror and would "sleep with the fishes" before he'd take welfare. Martin has better taste, though. Would Tony rip off a Vermeer? Doubt it.("Rubens. He's the tit man.") The General is smart, funny, brutal and great as any "Soprano" episode.Aside from needing "closed captioning" in order to keep up with machine-gun-like Dublin dialect, it's one terrific movie.

yesacs I didn't know much about Martin Cahill before this film, and I tripped over it on IFC a few nights ago. And I'm glad i did because this is one of the best movies i have seen in quite some time. Shot entirely in black and white and told through a flashback, we are shown Cahill as both the clever criminal gang head, and as the father, brother, and husband of his family. The dialogue is intelligent, fast paced, and ripe with wit and banter between the characters, but one must keep attentive, because you may miss a lot due to the Irish accents. pay particular attention to Cahill and police when they awake him in his tent in the beginning. I think this is a must see for any taste

darth_sidious Everything, from the technical standards to the performances are superb, folks, this is fantastic film-making. Boorman's direction is pretty amazing, making full use of the anamorphic widescreen frame. The problem I have with this picture is that the story left me cold, there seemed to be a distance between the audience the picture. Maybe the story features an anti-hero? Someone you cannot identify with. The dialogue is a little hard to understand, the accents are very thick, very irish. The film is shot in panavision anamorphic wide-screen. If you haven't seen it in wide-screen, then you are missing out on 43% of quality picture. Overall, fantastic in every department, but the story left me cold.