Liam Neeson in Michael Collins Photo: AJ Pics/Alamy Stock Photo
Big-time films usually get their stamp of approval from critics and TV personalities, but sometimes a higher power can be called upon. Perhaps the apotheosis of this came when Pope John Paul II was said to have endorsed Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ with the words, «It's just the way it was.»
Neil Jordan's 1996 historical epic Michael Collins may not have earned the unmistakable approval of St. Peter's successor, but there was something better about it. Former Irish Prime Minister Garrett Fitzgerald was so impressed by the film that he gave his full endorsement in the Irish Times that September. The picture was a political hot potato, and for Fitzgerald to publicly declare that «by any standard the film is a triumph, and for many Irish people who see it it is likely to prove a deeply moving experience» was something money couldn't buy. film advertisement.
However, according to Jordan’s new memoir, Amnesiac, there may be a more complex story behind the endorsement. Jordan claims in his book that he confronted FitzGerald and thanked him profusely for his comments, to which the politician replied: “That reminds me, I’ve got to send the bill, I still haven’t been paid.” Jordan asked: “From the Irish Times?” FitzGerald replied: “No, from Warner Bros.” On paper, it sounds like a tongue-in-cheek joke, but in a new interview with the Guardian, Jordan suggests he was “shocked” and that “I don’t want to tarnish the man’s reputation, but that’s just the way it was.” (“There’s no way he would do that,” Mark FitzGerald, the former taoiseach’s son, told the Guardian. “He didn’t have a pound in his head.”)
There is an irony in the story that is now emerging, because Michael Collins is a film about the unreliability of politicians and the wretchedness of their ideology; an evergreen theme, whether in 1996 or today. However, Jordan's brilliantly executed and gripping account of the life of the early 20th century Irish freedom fighter and his relationship with the politician Eamon de Valera, who became Prime Minister and then President of Ireland, was surrounded by controversy before and after its release. Even today, it is difficult to consider the painting on its own merits without understanding the social and political unrest that this particular piece of historical biography caused.
The brief but eventful life of Collins, who died in 1922 at the age of 31, has been a source of fascination for historians and biographers over the past century. Nicknamed «The Big Guy», he was active for only a few years, between the Easter Rising of 1916 and his assassination by unknown assailants less than six years later. But at the time he was an important figure in the struggle for Irish independence, as well as a key figure in the nascent IRA. Some argue that Collins was a sincere man who longed for peace and a united Ireland, while others considered him to be little more than a proto-terrorist.
In any case, he was a rich dramatic character, and Frank O'Connor's laudatory 1937 biography The Big Guy only heightened interest in him. However, in Britain, Collins' links to the IRA meant that he was an extremely controversial figure. His 1969 drama A Play for Today, written by Brendan Behan's brother Dominic, was barely broadcast due to concerns about political sensitivities during the Troubles. It was only shown after David Attenborough, the BBC's then director of programming, decided to greenlight the drama on the grounds that it was an important subject that viewers should know more about. Hang Your Brightest Colors, a docudrama about Collins, was less successful; created in 1973, it would not be broadcast for another twenty years, presumably because its producer Lew Grade feared possible political upheaval.
However, while to many in Britain Collins was a bogeyman, to many in the United States he was a hero. What some Irish Americans would call nostalgia for the «old country» and others would call sentimentality was observed throughout much of the twentieth century and beyond. Many chose to emigrate to America during the Troubles, but a residual attachment to Ireland remains key to the identity of many immigrants; Look at the commotion that happens every year in cities like Boston and Chicago on St. Patrick's Day.
Collins's reputation may be greater in the States than in the United Kingdom, but that is true of many Irish politicians. When President Clinton shook hands with Gerry Adams in 1995 — to the dismay of then British Prime Minister John Major — it gave Sinn Féin the international credibility it had hitherto lacked, and when the BBC asked President Biden in 2020 to give them an interview, he replied: “BBC? I’m Irish,” before smiling and walking away.
Michael Collins was killed in 1922. Photo: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
Thus, given the possibility that nostalgic people might invest serious American money, numerous attempts have been made to make a film about Collins' life. The former was to be directed by Michael Cimino, who had been applauded for The Deer Hunter and criticized for Heaven's Gate, and would have starred Gabriel Byrne as Collins. When that project fell apart due to budget issues, it was revived after Kevin Costner's Dances with Wolves as a vehicle in which he could star and direct, tentatively titled The Mick. Decades later, Costner still held out hope that his Collins project could come to fruition, saying in 2020: «I love Michael Collins' epic idea. I would still like to make this movie someday. I found him an incredible man who was compromised by politics.”
However, many in Hollywood believed that an Irishman should make a film about Collins. And when Jordan, riding high on the double success of The Crying Game and Interview with the Vampire, was asked about future projects, he was able to point them to a script he wrote in the early eighties. He told the Irish Times in 2016: “David Puttnam asked me to write a script about Michael Collins and Warners read it but they didn’t want to make it. It disappeared into the vaults. Then, after I did Interview with the Vampire, they asked me, “What do you want to do next?” And I replied: “You have a script that I wrote many years ago.”
Unusually for a film that was undeniably Irish in both plot and setting, Jordan received a sizable budget of between $25 and $30 million (The Crying Game cost a tenth of that). He also assembled a star-studded cast that included Liam Neeson, then having success with Schindler's List, as Collins, Alan Rickman as de Valera, Jordan's frequent collaborator Stephen Rea as double agent Ned Broy, and Aidan Quinn as the right-hand man. Collins's hands. Harry Boland.
Julia Roberts, Liam Neeson and Aidan Quinn in the film “Michael Collins” Photo: Alamy
Because the film was thought to need both an American star and a love interest, Julia Roberts was cast as Collins' fiancée Kitty Kiernan, although upon release she was singled out as the weak link due to her wandering accent. However, Roberts continues to praise both Jordan and the film, saying last year that «[it] was one of those films where I kept pinching myself… it was a wonderful time and [I made] great friends making this film is so beautiful to watch and so heartbreaking.”
Roberts is right. Jordan came up with the bold and daring idea of making not a boring historical biopic about a great man (like, say, Spielberg's Lincoln), but an exciting and violent gangster film where politics plays a secondary role in the struggle for power and where sudden death is the main thing reason. a common fate faced by most characters. Jordan's film owes a clear debt to The Godfather — there's a key sequence in which Collins takes down his enemies, in which he and Kiernan lie in bed together, which was clearly intended as an homage to Coppola's picture — but he also made a complex situation come to life like a movie.
According to Jordan, the production was absolutely amazing. “I loved doing it,” he recalled. “They put the whole of Dublin at our disposal, so it was a way of recreating the city that I remembered well when I was young.” The film premiered at the Venice Film Festival, where it won the Golden Lion for Best Film and Best Actor for Neeson.
Rivalry: Alan Rickman and Liam Neeson in the film «Michael Collins» Photo: Maximum Film/Alamy Stock Photo
This early success should have brought recognition and fame to the film, but unfortunately, British and American critics objected to the film — albeit for completely different reasons. In the States, de Valera was seen as an important figure in his attempts to unite Ireland, and his negative portrayal in the biopic was unsuccessful. Roger Ebert, in his positive review, described Rickman's performance as de Valera «as a weak, campy, whining prima donna whose public performance led to decades of unnecessary bloodshed in Ireland and beyond.»
Although the photo does not directly suggest that the politician was responsible for Collins' murder, it certainly implies it. Jordan further reinforced this description in contemporary interviews: «If history gives you a villain, you couldn't ask for a more charming person.»
However, the director — a self-proclaimed «most peaceful man imaginable» — also released his film at a very politically difficult time. Although the IRA declared a ceasefire in 1994, not all of its members received the message. Just two years later, when the film was released, there were two major bombings in England, one in London's South Quay DLR in January and another in Manchester in June, not to mention ongoing violence in Northern Ireland. The peace process may not have been helped by what Sinn Féin politician Gerry Adams said last year when a member of the public in Belfast shouted: «Bring back the IRA» and «They haven't gone anywhere, you know.»
It was in this context that a film about a man many would call a terrorist was released and, as expected, many newspapers and commentators were outraged. The Daily Mail didn't fight back, calling it «a morally repugnant film praising IRA terrorist Michael Collins» that «sees the British solely as villains, conquerors and brutes» and gives «yet another vindication for Hollywood's ethical lepers, perhaps the most dangerous people on Earth to further promote their pro-terrorist fantasies.”
Jordan, who gave an unflattering portrayal of the IRA in The Crying Game, hit back, saying: “I’ve never supported the IRA. I’ve hated them for years.” He continued: “People tend to demean you if you go into detail about Irish politics in the Irish past. They’re afraid to touch on those topics, so they try to somehow link you to the IRA. It’s a kind of smear.” However, his comments were ignored by more hysterical voices, particularly on the right, who saw Michael Collins as an existential threat to the nascent peace process.
Even unexpected support from the fiercely pro-Unionist film critic Alexander Walker of the Evening Standard — a man who was not afraid to tear films to shreds if he considered them politically dubious — could not stop the attacks on him. Newspaper columnist Eoghan Harris called the film disastrous and historically inaccurate and said he was «disgusted» by it; his criticism may or may not have been motivated by the realization that he had to write the script for the stalled Costner biopic.
Although the controversy led to increased awareness of the film in both the United Kingdom and America, it did not do well at the box office in either country, only defraying its production costs, which totaled approximately $32 million. But it was a different story in Ireland, where it became the highest-grossing film of all time, easily surpassing Independence Day, and only behind Titanic, another historical epic that drew criticism for its historical liberties, but which also featured another film. doomed Irish icon — will another film make more money?
However, Jordan remained irritated by the deliberate, even perverted, treatment of him after his release. “I have been accused of condoning political violence,” he said. «It had the [structure of] a crime film, and people kind of misinterpreted it… no one seems to mention to what extent we did get it right.» He admitted his portrayal of de Valera was unfair, but justified it by saying: “I was never a fan of his. I grew up in De Valera's Ireland. It was a fair portrayal of the wide range of policy decisions made by de Valera at that time.»
After the release of Michael Collins, the specter of the IRA and Irish terrorism in Britain receded significantly. However, while Jordan's film no longer has the electric energy or even menace it had upon release, it still makes valuable and thoughtful observations about the fine line between legitimate political goals and almost random violence, which should make it invaluable viewing for any potential viewer. politician.
And it's worth remembering that, historical liberties aside, the film was good enough for Garrett Fitzgerald to give it a glowing endorsement—whether or not he was influenced by anything other than the film's undeniable excellence .
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