The General

Stark, vivid images and riveting acting give film an appropriate mythic quality

Directors often make the oddest choices in real-life characters they decide to turn into heroes, and the superb film biography "The General" really stands out in that regard.

The real-life General, Martin Cahill, was a notorious Dublin criminal mastermind who became a folk hero during the '80s because of his contempt for authority — certainly not because he was a good person. Fortunately, veteran filmmaker John Boorman doesn't pull punches in his film depiction of Cahill. He's shown as being ruthless, vicious and more than a bit unbalanced.

But as played by Brendan Gleeson, Cahill is also such a likable rogue that you're put in the morally troubling position of rooting for him and not for the nearly hapless police investigators in pursuit.

That said, the film is full of wonderful surprises, not the least of which is the dark, and at times hilarious, script — as well as a slew of terrific performances, including Gleeson and Jon Voight, who plays his longtime police nemesis, Inspector Ned Kenny.

Much of the story concerns Kenny's efforts to put Cahill away and spotlights the General's ingenious schemes to pull off a series of heists, in spite his being under constant surveillance by the police.

Even when they do nail him for something, such as the robbery of a video-game parlor, the General is able to slip off the hook by way of a legal technicality, or by intimidating the witnesses.

But the General makes a huge mistake when one of his capers lands him in hot water with the Irish Republican Army. With the threat of retaliation, and with continued pressure from Kenny and his men, the General's criminal empire begins crumbling around him.

As mentioned, it is a warts-and-all portrait, one that even addresses his odd romantic relationships with his wife (Maria Doyle Kennedy) and sister-in-law (Angeline Ball). But the material is handled cleverly by Boorman, who makes even the most brutally violent scenes somehow seem non-exploitative.

Boorman's decision to shoot the film in black and white also yields stark, vivid images of poverty-stricken Ireland, giving the story a strangely appropriate mythic quality.

And the interplay between Gleeson and Voight — whose excellent performances are obvious standouts — is so riveting you almost wish it would go on forever.

"The General" is rated R for vicious beatings and some gunplay, excessive profanities, use of vulgar slang terms, shots of nude male backsides, gore, two scenes of torture and use of ethnic slurs.