THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, October 26, 1996 TAG: 9610250072
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, ENTERTAINMENT WRITER
LENGTH: 138 lines
A NEAR-RIOT broke out in the Uptown Theater in Toronto when the epic film ``Michael Collins'' screened there as a part of the Toronto International Film Festival last summer.
``Brits out of Ireland!'' someone screamed from a rear seat.
``Ireland forever,'' another shouted, standing and shaking his fist.
``QUIET!'' a chorus of irate moviegoers chorused from another section. Tempers flared and there was the threat that the movie's conflict was about to become real life.
``Michael Collins,'' which has finally arrived in local theaters, chronicles the life of the man whom some hail as the father of modern Ireland while others revile him as no more than a terrorist.
Initially, it was announced that the film would not be released in England because of potential trouble. That decision has, predictably, been reversed. ``Michael Collins,'' rejected by Hollywood investors for more than a decade, finally got a go-ahead, and a modest budget of $28 million, after possibilities of peace surfaced in Ireland. It again became controversial when peace talks broke down last spring. But by then the film was already in production and Warner Bros. studio was stuck with a hot Irish potato.
Liam Neeson, who has the title role, shook his head as he lumbered into his hotel suite in New York weeks after the Toronto premiere and declared that he feels the potential controversy is ill-placed.
``There are those who don't want this story told,'' Neeson said in the thick Irish brogue that seemingly made him perfect for the role. ``In Ireland, families, particularly the older people, are still divided about whether Michael Collins was a hero or a traitor, even though all this happened 70 years ago. The younger people see him as a hero.
``Yes, I think Michael Collins was a hero to his country, but I don't play him strictly as a hero. I was born in Northern Ireland and I grew up seeing both sides. Those who are trying to claim that the film `Michael Collins' is an IRA film are wrong. Michael Collins has nothing to do with the modern IRA. He was of a different time.''
Collins, though, is largely regarded as the father of guerrilla warfare. He organized bands of poorly armed peasants and working-class youths who called themselves the Irish Volunteers and fought the British. His underground tactics were unheard of at the time.
Collins brought the mighty British Empire to its knees, which resulted in the formation of the Irish Free State and the country being divided in half, with Northern Ireland becoming a hotbed of civil war.
Collins remains one of the 20th century's most significant yet overlooked political figures. But was he also the father of modern terrorism?
``No relation,'' Neeson said as he peered though tiny wire-rimmed spectacles. ``In Collins' day, it was a political war and his actions didn't touch innocent civilians the way they do today. He would be turning in his grave if he knew that some of the actions of the IRA today are claimed to be related to his tactics.''
Collins, who was assassinated when still in his 30s, fought in the Easter Uprising of 1916 and was imprisoned after a six-day standoff at Dublin's General Post Office ended with British military forces arresting the leaders. Upon release, he organized the Irish Volunteers and became known nationally simply as ``the Big Fella.''
Eamon De Valera, a United States citizen, was the brains of the Irish resistance but Collins was the muscle. With machine guns secured through De Valera's money-collecting trips to America, Collins' ``invisible army'' fought against the ``Tans,'' British soldiers paid 10 shillings a day to ``teach the Irish obedience.''
Eventually, Collins was sent to London to negotiate a peace with Winston Churchill. The resulting treaty is the reason for the continuing debate on his national character. He secured the establishment of an Irish Free State but also brought about the partitioning of the country and required an oath of allegiance to the British Crown. The treaty was narrowly approved by the Irish, but De Valera and many of Collins' former friends walked out. De Valera became prime minister of the Free State of Ireland in 1932 but remained in opposition to the treaty negotiated by Collins. Civil war broke out between the anti- and pro-treaty forces.
Collins, who had always claimed that he was a simple fighting man not a negotiator, issued a statement saying ``Let us not waste our energies brooding over the more we might have got. Let us look upon what we have got.''
A film version of Collins' life has been the obsession of actor Neeson and director-writer Neil Jordan for more than a decade. Jordan, who wrote the script 13 years ago, long before his surprise hit ``The Crying Game,'' was born in southern Ireland and had always regarded Collins as a hero.
Not so with Neeson, who grew up as a member of a Catholic farming family near Belfast.
Neeson describes himself as a ``partially practicing'' Catholic but remembers growing up in a predominantly Protestant neighbor-hood.
``I always understood the other side, and many of my friends were Protestant,'' he said, but he declines to comment on the present status of his homeland. ``My mother still lives there, and every time I make a statement, it gets in the papers back there. In no way will I comment.''
The actor claims, ``I look nothing at all like Michael. . . . Mainly, I just tried to capture his energy.''
Jordan says that his leading man ``steamed through the movie like a train - full throttle.''
Neeson was the local boxing champion in Belfast as a youth and gave up teacher's college to drive a forklift. He eventually got into the famed Abbey Theater in Dublin, got a part as a knight in ``Excalibur'' and, after a number of forge-table movie roles, broke through in the chiller ``Suspect'' with Cher. He received an Oscar nomination for ``Schindler's List'' and, after winning best actor at the Venice Film Festival, is a leading contender for a second nomination for ``Collins.''
Much of his public persona has come from his love affairs with famous and beautiful women, including Julia Roberts, Helen Mirren, Sinead O'Connor and Barbra Streisand.
``That was five lives ago,'' he said. ``I'm a happily married man now.''
He's married to actress Natasha Richardson, the daughter of Vanessa Redgrave and grandaughter of the late Sir Michael Redgrave. They have two sons, Micheal, 1, and Daniel Jack, born just weeks ago. The two met when they co-starred in ``Anna Christie'' on Broadway in 1993.
Jordan says it was difficult trying to make an epic film on a mere $28 million budget - not much by current Hollywood standards.
``They told us not to come back and ask for a cent more,'' the director said. ``The film was regarded as a risk as it was.''
The set to represent O'Connell Street in Dublin is the largest ever built for a movie in Ireland.
``We could film in Dublin, but we needed a street that we could burn and destroy,'' the director said. ``That added greatly to the cost.''
Jordan admits that some facets of his film were forced to interpret rather than report the truth.
``The main two ingredients that are questionable,'' he said, ``are in the picturing of Ned Broy, a spy for Collins, played by Stephen Rea. That actually was several men but, in order to simplify it, he became one man. The other was in the depiction of Collins' death. Only one of the theories is that he was shot on the way to a political meeting in Cork in an effort to reunite the pro- and anti-treaty forces. That is the version that I believe to be true. There are others.''
Neeson puts it more succintly when he says, ``It's just a case of putting our history to rest.''
It is a history, though, that is by no means at rest. Like our own Vietnam, ``the Troubles'' in Ireland will take many years to accept - or to put to rest. MEMO: ``Michael Collins'' will be reviewed in the Sunday Daily Break. ILLUSTRATION: WARNER BROS.
Liam Neeson in ``Michael Collins,'' a film that chronicles the life
of a man who is a hero to some, a terrorist to others. by CNB