Filmbesprechung: Michael Collins

Michael Collins

Gesehen: 2005

This is a - historically not fully correct - account of the life of Michael Collins and the events that led to Ireland's relative freedom from England in 1922. I've started to watch the movie in English, but most of the actors speak with a clear Irish accent, and I could understand only half of the dialogue. So I switched to German, but this lost the whole atmosphere of the movie. Then I switched back to Irish English and heard Liam Neeson talking about people from "Kassel" (a city in North Hessia, Germany) - took me some time to find out that he referred to Dublin Castle.

I think that in this decade of international terrorism and war, Michael Collins is as important a figure as in his own time. We need him to draw the line between a terrorist and a freedom fighter. In our time, most people would view Collins' cause as justified - the demand of the Irish people for independence from England. And many people would also view the means as justified by which Collins and his IRA achieved independence - because the British left them no choice. Only violence could force them to the negotiation table. So, Michael Collins was a freedom fighter, not a terrorist. And so was Achmed Sukarno, and so was Ho Chi Minh. But if they are true freedom fighters, why are then the provisional IRA of today, or the ETA, or GAM, MILF and what they all are called, only terrorists? I have no real answer for this. But Michael Collins must give a clue.

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