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The General | 1998 | R | - 4.6.10

Brendan Gleeson plays Martin Cahill, a modern-day Robin Hood who, with the help of his daring band of thieves pulled off some of Dublin's biggest robberies during the 1980s. Also with Jon Voight, Adrian Dunbar, Sean McGinley, Maria Doyle Kennedy, Angeline Ball, Eanna McLiam and Tom Murphy.

SEX/NUDITY 4 - Some sexual innuendo and a couple of references to rape and molestation. A few kisses (in one brief scene, we see a man kiss a woman who's wearing a small top and panties). A single woman gets pregnant. A man drops his pants and dances in his boxer shorts. Several times we see a painting of a nude woman (only her breasts are visible), and we see about ten boys' bare buttocks (see below under Violence/Gore).

VIOLENCE/GORE 6 - Several instances of threatening with guns; in one scene, a man is shot and killed (we see a bloody bullet hole in his neck and a little blood on his face). A man trashes another man's house and then shoots him in the leg (we see blood on his pants). A man hammers nails into another man's hands (we see a close-up of a very bloody hand). A man falls off his motorcycle and rolls into a wall. A man's trailer and several cars are set on fire; also, a car bomb explodes and injures a man (we see him walking with crutches later). A man who was apparently attacked has cuts and bruises on his face, a bandaged hand and arm, a neck brace and an object in his mouth. We see several scuffles and fights, and several people are punched and kicked; in one scene, a boy punches a man, who then repeatedly slaps the boy (we see some dried blood on his lip in the next scene). A man hits several boys' bare buttocks with a belt. Kids throw bottles and potatoes at police officers, a group of people throws bottles at a man and his house, and a group of men throws sticks at two people. A man urinates on another man. We see dead pigeons in a coop, one with blood all over its body (it's implied that the pigeons were killed by a ferret).

LANGUAGE 10 - Nearly 90 F-words (we also see a boy making an obscene finger gesture several times), several anatomical references, many scatological references and many insults and slang terms.

DISCUSSION TOPICS - Robbery, murder, infidelity, the legal system, loyalty, Irish politics.

MESSAGE - Thieves can have a moral code and a conscience.

CAVEATS

Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.

We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.

Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated, Special, Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.


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