Dublin, 1 9 1 6. After the failed Easter Rebellion, the Irish rebels are either executed or arrested by the British Army, among them Eamon de Valera and Michael Collins. They are released after two years, and do not give up on Irish independence from the British Empire. After de Valera is again arrested in 1 9 1 9, Collins, serving as the Director of Intelligence of the underground Irish Republican Army (IRA), adopts guerilla tactics and orders assassinations of 14 British military and police officials in Dublin, including an MI6 agent, resulting in "Bloody Sunday". The reprisals go back and forth, until the British make a peace agreement and grant Ireland a form of independence. But since Northern Ireland is to stay part of the UK, and the Irish Free State has to make an Oath of Allegiance to the British King, many dissatisfied Irish politicians rebel, which leads to the Irish Civil War. Collins warns them that this is the best option currently available. He is assassinated in an ambush in 1 9 2 2.
9 years after M. Cimino tried to make a biopic about Michael Collins, director Neil Jordan managed to film this version of it: Jordan knew there would be inevitable controversy regarding it, but to him, the story was simply too good not to be told on the big screens—controversy or not. "Michael Collins" was better received in the English-speaking world than in Europe, where several film critics disputed it. For instance, Croatian film critic Arsen Oremovic gave a negative review, disparaging: "Jordan glorifies an ordinary terrorist, a man who incited murder of people without hesitation". However, said statement is untrue and undue—Collins' main targets were not civilians, but British security and military officials, then de facto an occupying force of Ireland, and thus his guerilla tactics against the much stronger British Army were no different than the one shown in Pontecorvo's "The Battle for Algiers", for instance. Jordan shows an archetypal story of one nation trying to gain independence and decolonization from an empire, shown through the Irish War of Independence, rarely depicted in cinema, and he has a lot of style, inspiration, aesthetic images and flair in the first two thirds of the film. The opening is especially powerful: after the failed Easter Uprising, British officials demand from a British commander: "Show me the ringleaders of this little farce". They then single out several people from the captured Irish rebels, and even kick a wounded Irish man on the ground—Collins, among the lined up rebels, wants to intervene, but Eamon de Valera stops him: "Wait, Michael, wait." - "Until when?" - "Until next time".
Realizing his IRA is no match for the British Army in conventional combat, Collins devises guerilla tactics, with several audacious ventures: for instance, since there is no official photo of him, Collins simply goes to the British headquarters, introduces himself as a British informer (!) going to deliver a report, and then simply walks inside, as his aide Ned Broy allows him to go into the room with intelligence files, where Collins copies the list of all British high ranking officials working in Dublin, to be used as targets later on. IRA then kills all the British military and security officials during their private lives: one man exits from the building, and is shot through the newspaper of an IRA member pretending to be the street vendor; others are shot while in a bathtub or having a dinner in a restaurant. This leads to reprisals, including the infamous Croke Park massacre, where an armored car opened fire on Irish civilians during a football match. Several details in the film are also quite clever (for instance, de Valera is in prison, but spots that the priest has the keys of the gate, so he takes it—and makes an imprint of it on a candle which he then sends via post to Collins, who then simply copies the key design to release him). Jordan does not glorify Collins, showing several of his decisions as questionable but he understands his quest, figuring that independence is rarely achieved without bloodshed. He makes several compromises and sometimes strays way too much from historicity (for instance, Broy was never killed and went on to live all until 1 9 7 2!), whereas Julia Roberts' role as Kitty, Collins' love interest, is underwritten. The last third of the film, depicting the Irish indepndence disagreements and civil war is much weaker, losing a lot of inspiration and ending on a rather underwhelming note. Nonetheless, "Michael Collins" deserves to be seen for its enthusiasm towards Irish history and spirit.
Grade:++
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