Michael Collins (1996)

Neil Jordan's film is an extraordinary epic that succeeds as both cinema and history. Liam Neeson's performance as the title character stands out as stirring and blood-curdling.

The critic praises Jordan's intelligent, passionate direction and the film's momentum as a thriller about the Irish revolutionary, while noting it stumbles due to Neeson's lack of charisma in the lead role. It highlights strong supporting performances and moments of directorial mastery in cross-cutting.

The critic views the film as a well-mounted but overly schematic and romanticized biopic that portrays Collins as a plaster saint while demonizing the British. It singles out Alan Rickman's complex, menacing performance as de Valera for particular praise.

The film is a rare epic true story transferred to screen with matching intelligence, skill and elan; it is an extremely cinematic, beautifully made David Lean-type epic with a vital, confidence-filled performance by Neeson that captures Collins perfectly.

Jordan has made a thriller that is astonishingly untalkative and blarney-free, depending on episodes to excite rather than persuade; it is a strong advance on his previous work, with fine cinematography, though it encourages the audience to like Collins too much and has some sketchiness.

The critic notes the uphill battle Jordan faces in selling the little-known subject and criticizes the film's sugarcoating and sloganeering, but praises its passionate enthusiasm for the material and Neeson's magnetic, blustery performance as Collins.

Jordan's most ambitious and satisfying film to date, a dense and stirring thriller tracing Collins's career with real scale, pace, menace and moral import. Exceptional performances (aside from one mannered turn) and atmospheric camerawork and design evoke a country in turmoil.

The film is intelligent, enormously accomplished and seriously problematic, with tremendous action, incident and momentum that comes off like political history as gangster film; it has strong efforts from all hands but does not quite pay off dramatically.