The General

Rating:
Summary: excellent movie, but confusing and poorly made disc
Review: This is a very good movie, Boorman's best since Deliverance, but the disc, which presents a 2:35:1 version in "desaturated color" and a 1:85:1 version in black and white, makes it unclear which way the director intended it to be seen. After carefully analyzing several scenes in both versions, I discovered that the 2:35:1 version is cropped from the original aspect ratio, which was most likely 1:85:1, which is the ratio of the black and white version (unless Boorman filmed it in 1:33:1, as Kubrick and some others liked to do), so I'm guessing that this version, the b+w version, is the one which the director prefers. (also, he filmed it in black and white and probably wanted it to be seen this way.) The computer-colored version is also very cheesy-looking anyway. Hope this helps!

Rating:
Summary: excellent movie, but confusing and poorly made disc
Review: This is a very good movie, Boorman's best since Deliverance, but the disc, which presents a 2:35:1 version in "desaturated color" and a 1:85:1 version in black and white, makes it unclear which way the director intended it to be seen. After carefully analyzing several scenes in both versions, I discovered that the 2:35:1 version is cropped from the original aspect ratio, which was most likely 1:85:1, which is the ratio of the black and white version (unless Boorman filmed it in 1:33:1, as Kubrick and some others liked to do), so I'm guessing that this version, the b+w version, is the one which the director prefers. (also, he filmed it in black and white and probably wanted it to be seen this way.) The computer-colored version is also very cheesy-looking anyway. Hope this helps!

Rating:
Summary: Excellent acting, not-always-compelling story
Review: This is a very interesting movie with a brilliant perfromance from Brendan Gleason and wonderful supporting performances. I admired the way they showed the main character's brutality along with his charm. Things simply aren't black and white here, it's a film about gray. You sort of root for The General even though you know from the start that he's doomed himself. The story isn't completely enthralling throughout but there is plenty here to make the film worth seeing.

Rating:
Summary: Boring and, well, inertly comic
Review: This movie is like a soup whose ingredients are so good that you can't miss, and yet it comes out bland as dishwater. It's a true and incredible story, masterfully photographed, well acted, lots of great Irish accents, and.... it's boring as hell. It might have come out okay if Boorman had added pathos, but he only goes for humor (like the movie Robin Hood), and it plays so forced that it comes across as desperate and callous (to Cahill's victims). I love just about everything Irish, but this movie was impossibly boring, and its humor was forced.

Rating:
Summary: Great authentic Irish movie
Review: This was a most unexpected treat, not least because I despaired of an Irish movie with John Voight playing an Irish Garda (cop). The movie was delightfully sleazy and gritty, with a great depiction of the flexible morality of the main character, the General. As an Irishman in exile I was impressed the authenticity of the Irishness of the movie, none of your stage Irish here. Big bonus, Voight was terrific and his accent was great. I saw it on the big screen and so cannot comment on the DVD issue. Well worth renting, but be prepared for some heavy accents and heavy language.

Rating:
Summary: One of the best films of the year, terrible dvd.
Review: This was the second best film of the year, and certainly the most beautifully photographed in widescreen black and white. Just don't expect that from the DVD. It contains two versions black and white and a "desaturated color version." The black and white version is shown 1.85:1, not the original 2.35:1. The color version was obviously done on a computer, with some footage in color, while most is still in black and white. You would think you could solve the problem by turning off the color on your t.v. pre-sets, but it turns out the only available audio has all obscenities dubbed out, like on network television. Save your money untill Columbia represses the disc.