Heroic Tale Neeson Ideal As Irish Revolutionary

‘Michael Collins” is a roughhouse re-examination of history from Neil Jordan, starring Liam Neeson as the near-legendary leader of Ireland’s bloodiest fight for freedom from the British Empire.

Except legend is the furthest thing from Jordan’s mind. Much as the filmmaker suggested some realities that might underlie superstition in “The Company of Wolves” (1985) and dared to put a vulnerably human face on political terrorism in “The Crying Game” (1992), he now finds a passionate excitement in events whose age might cause many people to question their vitality and relevance.

Michael Collins was a fiery revolutionary man of action who rallied an oppressed people like nobody’s business. If Collins achieved results more shocking than many dissidents would envision, he clearly believed in the cause sufficiently to lay down his life for it. He is largely forgotten today except perhaps as a “thug” because, as the saying goes, history is written by the conquerors.

It is 1916, and the English have possessed Ireland for eight centuries, putting down disunity with an iron fist. A monumentally failed rebellion convinces Collins - one of the survivors, and the most cunning of guerrillas - that orthodox resistance is futile. Before the decade runs out, Collins will declare himself Minister of Mayhem, a title bitterly lampooning the English preoccupation with propriety, and go out in deliberate search of all the trouble he can stir up.

His turning point comes via a renegade (played by “The Crying Game’s” Stephen Rea), who supplies Collins with information necessary to strategize a series of assassinations. Though Collins practically “lives underground,” he is amply known to the Crown as an instigator. British retaliation provokes renewed hostilities - which, of course, will intensify to this very day. “Michael Collins” works well enough as a historical entertainment, but in real-world terms it helps to put a troubled present-day situation in striking perspective.

The endless strife in Northern Ireland is the film’s lamentable touchstone to the present day, and “Michael Collins” explains stirringly how the situation came to be. If Jordan, who started writing this screenplay around 1983, had hoped things might resolve themselves before he could get his picture completed, he must finally have decided the story simply needed telling - whether or not things ever get resolved.

And whatever the cause for the long gestation period, the timing is ideal for Liam Neeson. The actor is in the prime of both his dramatic craft and his star appeal. Neeson’s Collins is a rambunctious danger man, living hard and playing hard and immersed in dedication to a life-or-death cause. Neeson is especially convincing in his interpretation of Collins as a master schemer, as capable of intrigues as of pandemonium.

A restrained element of “mush” works surprisingly well here, for such stories are seldom tolerant of romance. Jordan establishes well enough, however, that his “heroes” are essentially grassroots rebels fighting well-heeled tyrants, and thus he can work in an odd element of sexuality involving a romantic “understanding” among Collins, his closest ally (Aidan Quinn) and a spirited woman named Kitty (Julia Roberts). This friendly triangle, of course, cannot last, and its collapse ties directly to the climactic tragedies.

Jordan has peopled his cast with such wonderful personalities as Alan Rickman as a maverick politico and Ian Hart as Collins’ most loyal ally. Stephen Rea is a marvel of tension as a double agent, and Julia Roberts makes a fine conflicted love interest.

Jordan keeps the pace lively, building anxieties especially well toward the end. The two-hour-plus running time fairly zips by.

MEMO: These 2 sidebars appeared with the story: 1. “Michael Collins” Locations: Newport cinemas Credits: Written/directed by Neil Jordan, starring Liam Neeson, Aidan Quinn, Alan Rickman, Stephen Rea, Julia Roberts Running time: 2:10 Rating: R

2. OTHER VIEWS Here’s what other critics are saying about “Michael Collins:” Jay Boyar/Orlando Sentinel: “Michael Collins” has a lot going for it. An epic about “the father of independent Ireland,” it’s elegantly photographed and filled with intriguing characters. But it’s hard to get really excited about the film, because the inner lives of those characters never quite come into focus. Bob Straus/Los Angeles Daily News: Intimate and exciting, complicated and mad, as beautiful as it is intelligent, this film’s ultimate, overriding virtue is the way it breathes. It’s a vital, visceral, spinning-top-on-the-edge-of-chaos experience, the polar opposite of the stultifying stateliness that mummifies most political bio films.