History Film / MichaelCollins

* CombatPragmatist: The IRA. Use of an ImprovisedWeapon? Check. Creeping up and assassinating officials? Check. [[ExternalCombustion Car bombs?]] Check. Collins himself pioneered this "urban guerrilla warfare" which was taken up by movements from Israel to China from the 1930s onward. In truth though this was a strategy which had a long history and the car bomb was an invention of the script (Collins attempted to murder Sir Ormonde Winter, the head of British intelligence with one but Collins' captured documents betrayed the plot and Winter personally captured the assassin.

* LaResistance: The IRA fighting against the British Empire for the independence of Ireland. Until the Anglo-Irish Treaty is signed, Collins is always a member or leader of the Resistance (although Irish Unionists would always question what they were resisting to?).

-->'''Belfast Detective''': There's a new regime in here! And it's startin' now! Good day, Mr. Broy. [''to his colleagues''] Bit of Belfast efficiency is what they need. [''He gets into the car and slams the door. Cue ExternalCombustion.''] Never happened in real life. In fact Collins plotted to kill Sir Ormonde Winter, the head of British intelligence, using a car bomb but the plot was discovered due to Collins' captured documents and Winter personally captured his would-be assassin.

* Hypocrite: the IRA claim they are fighting for "freedom" yet ruthlessly exploit all the tenets of democracy for their own benefit, the British government practicing a policy of appeasement and repeatedly releasing IRA prisoners who went right back to murdering.

** Bloody Sunday is depicted as a knockout blow against British intelligence in Dublin. However it only killed 7 of the most junior members of the "Cairo Gang" whose organisation was nearly 100 strong, one of its' members commenting in the long term it made virtually no difference. No British officer used a woman as a shield and gunned down 2 IRA members, instead his pregnant wife miscarried trying to protect him. No armoured car machine-gunned the crowds at Croke Park and Army search teams recovered over 50 pistols from the stadium afterwards. Broy was not beaten to death for his treason either but like many of Collins' other moles would survive to be rewarded with a high position in the Irish Free State, becoming head of its' new police force, the Gardaí.

** No mention of the 1912 Home Rule, the Irish Parliamentary Party persuading the British government to grant Ireland progressive independence in the same manner as Canada, Australia, New Zealand. The casual viewer would be left with the impression that independence would not have happened without violence but some form was always inevitable. Equally it is not established that the Easter Risers were operating in support of the Germans.
** A wholly negative depiction of the Royal Irish Constabulary who in real life were described by Irish Secretary Augustine Birrell as "largely elderly men preoccupied with fishing". In the modern era the government of the Irish Republic has increasingly sought to honour the force, accepting they were decent men trapped in an impossible situation. The Irish Unionist viewpoint is also never addressed and the IRA's victims are wholly depicted negatively. Irish Unionist leader David Trimble disparaged the film as Irish history as Irish Nationalism would like to believe it was rather than reality.
** Bloody Sunday is depicted as a knockout blow against British intelligence in Dublin. However it only killed 7 of the most junior members of the "Cairo Gang" whose organisation was nearly 100 strong, one of its' members commenting in the long term it made virtually no difference. No British officer used a woman as a shield and gunned down 2 IRA members, instead his pregnant wife miscarried trying to protect him. No armoured car machine-gunned the crowds at Croke Park and Army search teams recovered over 50 pistols from the stadium afterwards. Broy was not beaten to death for his treason either but like many of Collins' other moles would survive to be rewarded with a high position in the Irish Free State, becoming head of its' new police force, the Garda

* {{Oireland}}: Thoroughly {{averted}} as Ireland is shown as a country with it's own culture, traditions and shady past. It undoubtedly helped that the director and most of the cast members were Irish natives. The Irish Unionist viewpoint is never articulated.

* ProtagonistCenteredMorality: The film consistently depicts the morality of the IRA's terrorist/guerrilla war against the UK largely in terms of what side Collins is on. When Collins is for revolution, revolution is the answer; when Collins decides that the revolution is over and turns his forces against those who want to keep the war going, that's that. The movie makes only halfhearted attempts at ambiguity, clearly basing itself on the audience siding with Collins, hated by Irish Unionists as a terrorist godfather responsible for the mass murder of the IRA's victims and by the anti-treaty IRA who considered him a sell-out.

-->'''Belfast Detective''': There's a new regime in here! And it's startin' now! Good day, Mr. Broy. [''to his colleagues''] Bit of Belfast efficiency is what they need. [''He gets into the car and slams the door. Cue ExternalCombustion.''] Never happened in real life. In fact Collins plotted to kill Sir Ormonde Winter, the head of British intelligence, using a car bomb but the plot was discovered due to Collins' captured documents and Winter personally captured his would be assassin.

Set between 1916 and 1922 the story follows Michael Collins (Neeson) as he builds the Irish Republican Army into a fighting force capable of taking on the British Empire, and achieving independence for Ireland. While he eventually succeeds in driving the British Government to the bargaining table, the compromises that must be made serve to drive the Irish apart, and Collins finds himself at war with his own former comrades and friends.

* CombatPragmatist: The IRA. Use of an ImprovisedWeapon? Check. Creeping up and assassinating officials? Check. [[ExternalCombustion Car bombs?]] Check. Collins himself pioneered this "urban guerrilla warfare" which was taken up by movements from Israel to China from the 1930s onward.

** In part, this is due to poor communication; many interpret the film as falsely suggesting that De Valera was responsible for the assassination of Michael Collins, which was never the director's intent. In fact it showed De Valera being not at all aware of the plan to assassinate Collins-rather, extremely upset by the divide which occurred between them. Collins' assassin even seems to take advantage of his being too distraught to give a reply so he can organize an ambush.

** A minor one occurs with the killing of an RIC detective. When reading the papers about the incident which say he was "riddled with bullets", Collins calls his men out on it, telling them that bullets don't grow on trees and that "[they] did well, but go easy on the riddlin'."

* {{Oireland}}: Thoroughly {{averted}} as Ireland is shown as a country with it's own culture, traditions and shady past. It undoubtedly helped that the director and most of the cast members were Irish natives.

* ProtagonistCenteredMorality: The film consistently depicts the morality of the IRA's terrorist/guerrilla war against the UK largely in terms of what side Collins is on. When Collins is for revolution, revolution is the answer; when Collins decides that the revolution is over and turns his forces against those who want to keep the war going, that's that. The movie makes only halfhearted attempts at ambiguity, clearly basing itself on the audience siding with Collins.

* LaResistance: The IRA fighting against the British Empire for the freedom of Ireland. Until the Anglo-Irish Treaty is signed, Collins is always a member or leader of the Resistance.

* SadisticChoice: As Ireland slides ever closer to civil war due to growing tension between supporters and opponents of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, Collins is left with one; either lead the Irish Free State's army against the anti-Treaty IRA (many of who are former comrades or men he trained during the War of Independence) or the British Army will be sent in to do it (with the tacit implication the British government will also revoke Ireland's free state status).

-->'''Belfast Detective''': There's a new regime in here! And it's startin' now! Good day, Mr. Broy. [''to his colleagues''] Bit of Belfast efficiency is what they need. [''He gets into the car and slams the door. Cue ExternalCombustion.'']

* YourTerroristsAreOurFreedomFighters: The heart of the controversy surrounding the film.