Critics reviews

Boorman's decision not to use color can be seen as an effort to deglamorize a glamorous figure, or reflect the depressed state of Ireland's underclass, but ultimately the trick proves an overt bridge to such classic Hollywood gangster movies as Howard Hawks' Scarface.

Working contrary to the crateloads of wistful comedies and political deadpans that creak out of Ireland each month, this manages hard edged and comedic, a convincing character study, that doesn't concern itself with upending the political strife of that fair isle.

Funny, scabrous, disturbing, tragic, and improbably life-affirming, The General travels its own idiosyncratic path with more real style and substance than the past half-decade of Hollywood gangster movies combined.

Boorman's film is shot in wide-screen black and white, and as it often does, black and white emphasizes the characters and the story, instead of setting them awash in atmosphere. And Boorman's narrative style has a nice offhand feel about it.

The General is a refined, traditional movie about a character who is never more traditional than when he imagines himself outside the law. It’s a great paradox, but it barely comes alive on the screen.

Boorman pays a price for his neutrality: The General isn’t an emotional grabber. But on its own terms it’s nearly perfect... It’s agreeable to find him grounded in the here and now–the magic is there but below the surface.

"The General" may be the most intimate and matter-of-fact of Boorman's films. Movies like "Deliverance" and "Excalibur" revealed Boorman as a master of scope. "The General," which is one of his masterpieces, proves the depth at which he's working.

With “The General,” Boorman... has not only come up with a pic that puts many British New Wave filmers half his age to shame in its energy and ’60s esprit, but he has poured all his love of his adopted homeland, Ireland, into a movie that says more about the rebellious Irish psyche than a heap of overtly political pictures.

It’s extremely competent, shot in ‘Scope (Boorman’s best screen format), and though it kept me absorbed it failed to win me over... Boorman fills out this design with wit and polish, grandly assisted by Brendan Gleeson as Cahill, Jon Voight as his favorite adversary, and Maria Doyle Kennedy and Angeline Ball as his wife and sister-in-law (whom Cahill managed to romance simultaneously), but I still felt I was buying a very old suit of clothes.