“The General,” 4 April 1999 (1998), theater. This is an interesting look at an Irish criminal, Martin Cahill, who stole over 60 million dollars worth of jewels, paintings, and materials in addition to private burglaries. A brutal man of ascetic tastes (he raises pigeons as a hobby), he marries one sister and beds another, demands loyalty and punishes an apparent rat by nailing his hands to the floor only to admit that the man was innocent R Ebert suggests he was actually killed for messing with the IRA’s drug trade, but the movie suggests it had more to do with his willingness to sell swag to the Protestant radicals who could use that to make money to fight the IRA. Fascinating film, but there are few “heroes”. He was comfortable as a Robin Hood, who staged the largest jewel heist in Irish history. He gave away food to the poor. His robbery, however, closed down the company and cost one hundred people their jobs. Very ambiguous man. This film is remarkably well acted with superb work from Brendan Gleason as Cahill, all the supporting cast around him, and Jon Voight as the police inspector who devotes his life to snaring Cahill Directed and written by John Boorman who Voight worked with on “Deliverance”. Boorman figures in the film as a director/musician whose home Cahill robs and from whom a gold record (“Dueling Banjoes”) is stolen. It is only cardboard. I liked it much more than Bronwen who found it distasteful. Very thick brogue, hard to catch in spots, but the plot is clear. See this one!