Martin Cahill was perhaps one of the strangest gangsters Europe - no matter Ireland - ever had. One of those lives that no fiction would have touched because it goes so much against the grain. One of those gangsters that took on the police head on and seemed to mix cruel intentions (including attempted murder) with black comedy.
Cahill wasn't really a successful criminal because his game ended up lost. How I won't say, but there is only two options. Think about it. His only success was keeping the inevitable at bay for as long as he did. This film is about the how and why.
The two posters boys are John Voight (Inspector Ned Kenny) and Brendan Gleeson as Cahill himself. Voight brings a bit of Hollywood to the piece but looks out of place - his accent is not at all bad though.
This film has a lot of natural humour because Cahill seemed to enjoy a joke. Taunting an enemy is actually not that clever a ploy when the enemy is the state and he learns this the hard way. Despite what Cahill believed you can't be both an outlaw and a family man. Professionals talks about "living in boxes" and this what Cahill attempted. Family man one minute - cold blooded torturer the next.
What I liked best was the onlookers and the family. Cahill is a criminal who doesn't pretend anything else. However he has weak jellyfish people around him - people that take his favours and therefore his blood money. There is not a Robin Hood story - his actions put good people out of work.
This is a focus on one man and the script isn't clever enough to weave any dimension in to the minor characters. They are people that seem to spend their life nodding and agreeing - they are weak in the face of someone with a brain and ideas.
This is the kind of stuff that the British industry can do. It is small - it is even in black and white - and it achieves what it sets out to do. It carries you through to the end and lingers in the memory, but it makes only limited appeal to a world audience who are not in-tune with Irish politics. Any other country would have fought dirty tricks with dirty tricks - that is why Cahill never went to the British mainland to steal.
Cahill wasn't really a successful criminal because his game ended up lost. How I won't say, but there is only two options. Think about it. His only success was keeping the inevitable at bay for as long as he did. This film is about the how and why.
The two posters boys are John Voight (Inspector Ned Kenny) and Brendan Gleeson as Cahill himself. Voight brings a bit of Hollywood to the piece but looks out of place - his accent is not at all bad though.
This film has a lot of natural humour because Cahill seemed to enjoy a joke. Taunting an enemy is actually not that clever a ploy when the enemy is the state and he learns this the hard way. Despite what Cahill believed you can't be both an outlaw and a family man. Professionals talks about "living in boxes" and this what Cahill attempted. Family man one minute - cold blooded torturer the next.
What I liked best was the onlookers and the family. Cahill is a criminal who doesn't pretend anything else. However he has weak jellyfish people around him - people that take his favours and therefore his blood money. There is not a Robin Hood story - his actions put good people out of work.
This is a focus on one man and the script isn't clever enough to weave any dimension in to the minor characters. They are people that seem to spend their life nodding and agreeing - they are weak in the face of someone with a brain and ideas.
This is the kind of stuff that the British industry can do. It is small - it is even in black and white - and it achieves what it sets out to do. It carries you through to the end and lingers in the memory, but it makes only limited appeal to a world audience who are not in-tune with Irish politics. Any other country would have fought dirty tricks with dirty tricks - that is why Cahill never went to the British mainland to steal.