Search - The General on DVD

MPAA Rating: R Content Advisory: Violence, Profanity, Sexual Situations Movie Release: 1998 DVD Release: 07/20/1999 Format: DVD - Black and White,Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV Audio Tracks: English Subtitles: English, French, Spanish SwapaDVD Credits: 1 Number of Discs: 1 Run Time: 2 hrs 4 mins Studio: Columbia TriStar Members Wishing: 4 Genres: Crime, Crime Drama, Gangster Film, Biopic [feature]

John Boorman, who won the 1998 Cannes Film Festival's Direction award for this film, previously won the same Cannes award almost three decades earlier for his Leo the Last (1969) about an alienated aristocrat in a London slum. Shot in widescreen color (but printed in sharp black-and-white), The General is a biographical portrait of ruthless Irish crime lord Martin Cahill, shot down outside his home by a single assassin on August 18, 1994. After this opening, the film then unfolds as a lengthy flashback of the events that led to his death, sketching in the raw beginnings of the youthful Martin (Eamonn Owens of The Butcher Boy) and moving into the Dublin slum of Hollyfield to show the adult Cahill (Brendan Gleeson) and his link to a local cop, Inspector Ned Kenny (Jon Voight). Various thefts enable Cahill to support his wife Frances (Maria Doyle Kennedy), his four children, and his sister-in-law Tina (Angeline Ball). As the years pass, Cahill rises as a mobster, bamboozling cops, constructing airtight alibis, pulling off a near-impossible jewel heist, and setting up a menage a trois with Frances and Tina. (Both actresses were seen previously in Alan Parker's The Commitments). ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

Brendan Gleeson - Martin Cahill
Adrian Dunbar - Noel Curley
Jon Voight - Inspector Ned Kenny
Maria Doyle Kennedy - Frances
Angeline Ball - Tina
Sean McGinley - Gary

John Boorman's atmospheric Irish crime drama arrives on DVD with a widescreen anamorphic transfer that preserves the original cinematic aspect ratio of 2.35:1. The English soundtrack is rendered in Dolby Digital Stereo. English, French, and Spanish subtitles are accessible. This distinctive-looking film was shot in black-and-white. American audiences were shown a color print of the film (the colors were highly desaturated). Both versions are available to view on this disc. Supplemental materials include talent filmographies and production notes. The tense psychological cat-and-mouse game played between the thief and the cop plays even more tightly thanks to the intimacy of the small screen. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide