The General by John Boorman producer and director of the masterpiece Deliverance https://realini.blogspot.com/2017/05/deliverance-based-on-novel-by-james.html - 9 out of 10

 

The General by John Boorman producer and director of the masterpiece Deliverance https://realini.blogspot.com/2017/05/deliverance-based-on-novel-by-james.html

9 out of 10

 

 

The General is a fantastic motion picture, and we could expect that from the director of the magnificent Deliverance – the book  on which it is based is also one of the Modern Library Top 100 Novels https://realini.blogspot.com/2023/09/deliverance-screenplay-by-james-dickey.html - and Hope and Glory…

 

John Boorman has three films (at least, I have not yet checked for others) on The New York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made list https://www.listchallenges.com/new-york-times-best-1000-movies-ever-made/list/9 and as far as I can remember, Deliverance is also on The TIME’s Best 100 Movies list, a spectacular production

The General is Martin Cahill, a real life criminal, who has lived in Dublin, and who is portrayed by the astounding Brendan Gleeson, seen in the stupendous The Banshees of Inisherin https://realini.blogspot.com/2023/01/the-banshees-of-inisherin.html In Bruges, and many other excellent motion pictures

 

Martin Cahill is the leader of an ‘organized crime syndicate’, stealing and robbing, but all with a charming, often amusing attitude, which evidently makes him a complex, intriguing character to watch, and maybe learn from, things to avoid at all costs, and some endearing manners, especially towards his wife

By the way, he involved in a menage a trois, with legitimate spouse, Frances, and…her sister, Tina, and to make it all the more awkward, outré, it is Frances who suggests at one point that he takes Tina as his lover, and they ‘keep it all in the family’, they spend time ensemble, they go to the restaurant, and they are in perfect harmony

 

There is the small matter of the criminal activity, and the backlash, they have the Garda aka the Irish police at the gates and all around the rather large house that the gangster acquires with his ill gained stash, and the harassment is reciprocal – spoiler alert, at one point, the ‘men of the law’ use a ferret to get Cahill down

He is fond of pigeons, perhaps more than that, and he is thus devastated when he walks into their enclosure one day, only to find the furry killer at the throat of the last one, he had had a few dozen, I guess, and now the scene is one of heinous carnage, all the birds bloody and senseless…I have two macaws and hated that

 

However, if The General becomes a figure we at times pity, at other moments we laugh at, there is also the loathing, because he is brutal and ruthless – pity by the way is different from compassion, Milan Kundera was acclaimed for The Unbearable Lightness of Being https://realini.blogspot.com/2017/11/the-unbearable-lightness-of-being-9-put.html and this is where he explains

 

Pity is for those we see as inferior somehow, while compassion is addressed to our pears – this is simplified, and the way I perceived, or remembered it – and Cahill is at times the beneficiary of a little compassion, but mostly pity and Contempt https://realini.blogspot.com/2017/02/contempt-aka-le-mepris-by-alberto.html

When he has a suspicion, in fact, is he is almost convinced that the missing gold bar that he had sent with a man that travels with pigeons, and therefore they could hide the precious metal with the birds, Martin Cahill tortures the ‘suspect’ until he stops and says that ‘no man could resist that, he is innocent’…

 

Ergo, he takes the victim to the hospital himself, the busy waiting room is full, but the leader starts making noises, and then he pushes for his companion to be treated of the wounds he had caused…later, his right-hand man, Noel Curly, is in deep trouble, and hints that he may start talking, if he is jailed, under duress

Curly was accused of rape and incest, and confesses to his boss that, after drinking too much, because he misses his late wife (I think she died, but I am not sure) he just threw himself on his daughter, ‘and you know what they do to perverts in jail’, the rapist tells The General, and the latter is cornered, yet again, and has to think

 

He is very creative and resourceful, alas, he puts these skills to work for illicit activities, they steal Dutch paintings, almost destroy them, by leaving them in the open, under some bushes, there are the gold bars, and other such robberies, during which, the mastermind is careful to have an alibi, he stays in the police precinct

His foe is inspector Ned Kenny aka Jon Voigt, a once glorious actor, but now a crazy fellow – otherwise, I cannot explain his support for Orange Jesus, this is intolerance plain and simple, but for me, one has to be mad, stupid or vile, to embrace that monster – and the inspector is trying to outmaneuver the felon, or beat him

 

For Curly, the solution is to stage a fake assault, and then to make it look real, Cahill has to shoot the friend in the leg, but he chooses the knee cap, instead of a less serious wound – it was clear that he hated what his lieutenant did, proposed to the girl to buy her house, provide for her and have the rapist dealt with

Finally, The General is assassinated, only no need for spoiler alerts here, since we have this killing…right at the start, he has made enemies of the Garda, the IRA, and others, so it is predictable, and as mentioned, we see him die to start with

 

Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/unique-in-world.html?q=unique+in+the+world – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se

 

 There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know

 

As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html

 

Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works

 

‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’

 

‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’

 

“From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.”