Ryan’s Daughter/Michael Collins/The Butcher Boy/The General DVD – Liam Neeson, Stephen Rea

Box set featuring four popular Irish films. In ‘Ryan’s Daughter’ (1970), Rosie Ryan (Sarah Miles) is a young woman trapped in a passionless marriage to an older schoolteacher (Robert Mitchum), who begins an affair with a shell-shocked English soldier (Christopher Jones), provoking gossip and gaining a reputation as a traitor to the Nationalist cause. Directed by David Lean, the film won Oscars for Freddie Young’s cinematography and John Mills’ memorable performance as the village idiot. ‘Michael Collins’ (1996) is director Neil Jordan’s account of the life and career of Irish revolutionary leader Michael Collins. Though not always historically accurate, it tells of Collins’ (Liam Neeson) struggle to release Ireland from British rule in the 1920s, his love affair with Kitty Kiernan (Julia Roberts) and political struggles with Sinn Fein president Eamon De Valera (Alan Rickman). In ‘The Butcher Boy’ (1997), young Francie Brady (Eamonn Owens) grows up in a small Irish town in the 1960s. His father Benny (Stephen Rea) is a drunk, while his ma has to be carted off to the local asylum after a breakdown. Francie finds solace with his best friend Joe, but a tragic chain of circumstances is set in motion when the boys begin to terrorise their studious classmate, Phillip Nugent. Phillip’s mother calls Francie’s family ‘pigs’, and Francie becomes obsessed with making her life a misery, estranging himself from Joe in the process. Finally, in ‘The General’ (1998), Irish gangster Martin Cahill (Brendan Gleeson) becomes known as ‘The General’ after co-ordinating a series of armed robberies in Dublin during the 1980s. Hailed in some quarters as a folk-hero for his defiance against the authorities, he pulls one job too many when he steals paintings belonging to the Beit collection. With the police closing in, Cahill’s problems are multiplied by the increasing interest of the IRA in his activities.

This box set features the following films: The Butcher Boy (Dir. Neil Jordan) (1998): Francie and Joe live the usual playful fantasy filled childhoods of normal boys. However with a violent alcoholic father and a manic depressive suicidal mother the pressure on Francie to grow up are immense. When his mother eventually commits suicide Francie sinks ever deeper into paranoia. He directs his anger towards Mrs. Nugent a nasty neighbour and after his father dies Fancie’s condition worsens his behaviour becomes more bizarre and erratic. Michael Collins (Dir. Neil Jordan) (1996): This is Neil Jordan’s depiction of the controversial life and death of Michael Collins the ‘Lion of Ireland’ who led the IRA against British rule and founded the Irish Free State (Eire) in 1921 Ryan’s Daughter: Special Edition (Dir. David Lean) (1970): Lovely headstrong Rosy (Sarah Miles) cannot forsake her passionate romance with the handsome British officer (Christopher Jones). Yet is there a greater love? The devotion of her reserved schoolteacher husband Charles (Robert Mitchum) who stands by Rosy when her illicit affair leads to a charge of treason. The General (Dir. John Boorman) (1998): True story about the rise and fall of Irish criminal Martin Cahill – who became a Dublin folk hero.