Michael Collins (film)

Michael Collins is a semi-fictitious film released on October 11, 1996 about Michael Collins, the Irish patriot and revolutionary who died in the Irish Civil War. Liam Neeson stars as the title character. Also starring are Aidan Quinn (as Harry Boland), Stephen Rea, Julia Roberts, and Alan Rickman (as Éamon de Valera).It was directed by Neil Jordan.The soundtrack was written by Elliot Goldenthal.

Jordan's defence

Neil Jordan defended his film by saying that it could not provide an entirely accurate account of events, given that it was a two-hour film that had to be understandable to a world-wide audience who would not know the minutiæ of Irish history during 1916 - 1922. His critics, however, alleged that the scale of the fiction introduced, the use of real names for 'composite characters' who, like Broy, did not die as suggested, and in particular the misrepresentation of de Valera, the manner of Collins' death, and the introduction of the car bomb, undermined the film's trustworthiness.

Related Topics:
Neil Jordan - Irish history - Car bomb

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A statement in the film that the Irish Free State was formed at the start of 1922, following the Dáil's approval of the Treaty, has since appeared as fact on various websites, even though the Irish Free State did not come into being until December 1922.

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