Puckoon (2002)

Director:

Terence Ryan

Writers:

Spike Milligan (novel)
Terence Ryan (screenplay)

Release Date:

4 April 2003 (Ireland)

Genre:

Comedy

Tagline:

Knowing where to draw the line

Plot:

Spike Milligan's book about the divided Irish village of Puckoon comes to the big screen.

Plot Keywords:

Rural | Breaking The Fourth Wall | Border Checkpoint | Coffin | Border

Cast

Sean Hughes	...	Dan Madigan
Elliott Gould	...	Dr. Goldstein
Daragh O'Malley	...	Father Rudden
John Lynch	...	O'Brien
Griff Rhys Jones	...	Col. Stokes
Nickolas Grace	...	Foggerty
B.J. Hogg	...	Rafferty
David Kelly	...	O'Toole
Milo O'Shea	...	Sgt. McGillikuddie
Freddie Jones	...	Sir John Meredith
Richard Rickings	...	Alex Walker
Richard Attenborough	...	Writer-Director
Marc Sinden	...	The surveyor
Frankie McCafferty	...	Lenny
Conor Mullen	...	Shamus

Runtime:

82 min

Country:

Ireland | UK | Germany

Language:

English

Colour:

Colour (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Finland:K-11 | UK:PG

Filming Locations:

Ballywater Park, County Down, Northern Ireland, UK

Company:

Bórd Scannán na hÉireann

Trivia:

John Lynch (O'Brien) cut his lip badly in the drinking scene, after the plotting to recover the three bodies from across the border (with Father Rudden etc), about 47 minutes into the film. Just after he says "I can't drink anymore," and as he says this someone places a glass in front of him, he lent forward, thus catching his face on the glass. The scene was stopped after that.

Spike really hit the nail...

Puckoon, the story of a small Irish town divided by the Partition of Ireland in 1924 - really divided, the border goes through the middle of it! The characters are wonderful - the village idiot, the poacher, the priest and the hero(?)Dan Madigan, who participates reluctantly in hare-brained schemes to smuggle explosives into the North and deceased Catholics from the now Protestant side of the churchyard back into the Catholic part. Spike Milligan really hit the nail on the head with this hilarious story - pointing up the ridiculousness of political partition by 1)making it so farcical and 2) making the authorities who try to enforce it look like idiots. I notice that the Norwegian reviewer thought it a waste of money - but perhaps this film has the sort of message that only the Brits and Irish would understand. 10/10