On April 6, 1997, the biographical film “Michael Collins” hit French screens, tracing the political actions of Michael Collins, a man who shaped the face of modern-day Ireland and worked for Irish independence throughout his life.
April 1916: the Easter uprising is a failure. Michael Collins, a nationalist deeply committed to the pro-independence cause, together with Eamon De Valera and his best friend, set up a violent and murderous guerrilla war against British imperialism in order to achieve the total liberation of Ireland.
A master strategist, Michael Collins created a veritable army, advocating armed infiltration and spreading terror among the representatives of the British Empire. Assassination after assassination, Collins’s army creates more and more tension within the London government. Michael Collins soon proved to be a troublesome character, and the British Empire decided to negotiate…
Michael Collins signs the Treaty of Division of Ireland, giving the North to the British, but making the South an independent, autonomous Republic.
The film is intended to be biographical, recounting the story of this independence campaigner up to the signing of the Treaty dividing Ireland into 2, and ending with the terrible ambush that led to his death.
Neil Jordan ‘s film portrays Michael Collins through a somewhat romanticized vision. To make the film more digestible for the public, he uses a soppy backdrop in which the politician and his best friend fall in love with a young Irish girl played by Julia Roberts.
This angle enables him to paint a human portrait, making him a symbol, in such a way that we find in him the image of an Irishman like any other, engaged in a complex struggle over which he has no control. But Michael Collins is above all a patriot, and an intelligent one at that, whose shrewdness enables him to envisage an effective clandestine struggle and wage guerrilla warfare in the name of the liberation of Ireland. He gradually became a living icon, a symbol of courage and dedication.
However, Neil Jordan takes the analysis a step further, demonstrating that Michael Collins is seeking peace through guerrilla warfare. This ambiguity testifies to the need to push the action towards violent ends, rather than diplomatic means (means that would only see the light of day after the struggle, when the treaty calling for the abandonment of the North was signed).
Michael Collins’ film shows the leader’s rise to prominence, the controversies he stirred up, and the danger he ultimately represented, right up to his untimely death in a terrorist attack.
The film is a must-see, thanks to its prestigious cast ( Liam Neeson, Julia Roberts, Aidan Quinn, Stephen Rea, Alan Rickman, Charles Dance, Ian Hart…). It aptly tackles the different parameters of the war waged by Irish nationalists, with their questions and insights. However, Neil Jordan develops the image of Michael Collins in a way that’s sometimes too smooth, because it’s too Hollywood. The film turns him into a legendary hero, whose exemplary patriotic convictions are glorified in grandiloquent sequences that sometimes go too far.
What’s more, the film sometimes gets lost in a sentimental story that’s a little too light…
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