Best of the Irish
Just some of the most successful Oirish films ever.
Like most elements of the arts, Ireland has contributed marvellously to the field of film acting and indeed film making. Actors like Peter O’Toole and Richard Harris have achieved demi-God status across the world and Irish films are generally well received and respected both here and abroad and either through coincidence or as some sort of good luck charm, Colm Meaney has appeared in all of them.
Here are just a few of the best and most successful Oirish films ever:
Michael Collins: The film that turned a generation against that lanky selfish ingrate Eamon deValera, Neil Jordan’s excellent take on Ireland’s most pre-eminent icon was rightfully a worldwide hit. Liam Neeson made a star turn as the Big Fella and was flanked by a fantastic cast including some of Ireland’s biggest names - Aidan Quinn and William Rea to name but a few. Some of the film’s several highlights include an awesome car explosion, that bit where Alan Rickman goes “I…disagree” and Julia Robert's attempts at an Irish accent.
The Crying Game: Another one of Neil Jordan’s creations, any film that has both the IRA and transvestism central to the plot is a winner in my book. Probably most notable for the title track sung by Boy George, and the bit where yer man gets his lad out. The film was a worldwide success, and has been inevitably parodied at every turnabout.
The Quiet Man: You wha’? Yes, okay, The Quiet Man might not strictly speaking be an Irish film, and yes it might be schmaltzy and sentimental for a time that never existed, and yes, John Wayne was an awful, awful man in real life, but damnit, it’s a good film all the same. Directed by John Ford, probably the best of the 20th century, The Quiet Man tells the tale of a Pittsburgh-born boxer who, after killing a man in the ring, tries to put his past behind him in his ancestral home of Inishfree, and inevitably falls for your typical red-haired Irish firebrand of a woman, played by Maureen O’Hara. With one of the best fighting scenes in film history and more toora-loora Oirishness than you could shake a shillelagh at, it’s still a classic.
The Commitments: The film where it was all right to be black and proud. It was based on a Roddy Doyle book, this quintessentially Irish film’s screenplay was actually written by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, who also wrote the legendary comedy Porridge. Documenting the occasional ups and much more regular downs of the hardest working soul band in North Dublin, it was one of the funniest films ever produced in the country and was the big box office hit of 1992, with a fantastic soundtrack, the frankly insane singing talent of Andrew Strong and a great ensemble cast foremost among the highlights. It also provided a launch pad for the career of a young Glenn Hansard, but we’ll say nothing about that. Glen Hansard sucks.
War of the Buttons: Never has a movie that encourages gang warfare been so entertaining. A right of passage for Irish children everywhere, the epic feuding between the children of Ballydowse and Carrickdowse gave more than few ten year olds across the country several ideas on how best to spend their after school time. Alas, cutting off people’s buttons as trophies just wouldn’t be accepted in the real world. Shame really.
By: Paddy Duffy
The opinions of writers featured on SpunOut.ie do not necessarily reflect the views of the SpunOut.ie team or those of Community Creations. We try to give everyone a chance to have their opinions heard but we are not responsible for inaccuracies contained within these.
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