Great Film - shame about the story

Rating: 6/10 (3 August 2006)

I enjoyed this film on the whole, and especially to start with, but towards the end it really was utter rubbish. Like many people, I can't understand why it's taken so long to make a film about this. Neither do I understand why a film with plenty of characters slating Michael Collins as a sell-out has nobody even mention Eamonn DeValera once. Maybe everybody would get up and hiss or walk out. That thief nationalised all my grandfather's land! All the fuss about this movie has been about the alleged anti-British stuff. As a born and bred Brit with an Irish father, I have no complaints there at all, except for the English accents on the Black and Tans, which doesn't make any sense. But once it got the civil war, it was so one-sided and unrealistic I didn't care about the ending at all. You can't fight a war without money or guns. Sorry Cillian, no opportunity for your fine performance to be affecting as a result.