Michael Collins Movie Analysis Essay Sample

The film Michael Collins is a movie centered around the Irish fight for independence from Great Britain's rule. During the movie, a man named Michael Collins goes through an internal conflict of whether he should look out for himself or keep his friends safe. As the movie progresses and the plot thickens, this conflict is continued and ends with an unanticipated twist.

This film is about the Irish Republican Army led by the protagonist, Michael Collins, and their war against Great Britain in the goal of winning their independence. Two of Collins’ friends, Eamon de Valera and Harry Boland, helped during this revolution. In the film, there is a point where Collins fears that the Irish Republican Army is going to lose the battle. In response to this, he negotiates a treaty with Great Britain and becomes known as a traitor to the army. Collins was ordered to kill his friends, and he is conflicted whether he should save his friends and live knowing he will be killed, or kill his friends and save himself. I found that this film only touched the surface of whom the characters truly are, and it was missing that expansion which would have helped me understand them better. That being said, I did get to see the genuine friendship between friends in this film. The minor characters in the film didn’t have much development either, but because of their low status it did not affect the film greatly.

One effective piece of this film was the emphasis on Michael's internal conflict. During the middle/end of the movie, one of Michael's main conflicts is that he had to decide whether he would save himself or his friends. This was engaging and left me wanting to find out what he was going to do. A piece of the film that wasn’t effective was the lack of entertaining content in the beginning and middle of the movie. Because of this, I found myself to be very uninterested, and I had a hard time “getting into” the movie. Another piece of the film that wasn’t very effective was the large amount of characters. I found it hard to differentiate characters in this film and what they supported because there were so many major and minor roles. By the time I started to understand who was who, it was already the middle of the movie, which made it difficult for me to understand what was going on in certain parts of the movie. Without the basic understanding of which characters are important and wBolandhich characters are not as important, the film was confusing and not entertaining.

The overall ending of the film contains twists and turns that add to the dynamic of the movie. Because of the movie's content revolving around war, it is expected that the conclusion would be dramatic. The ending kept me engaged and on the edge of my seat. There was violence and action, along with moments relating to friendships and loss. Close to the end of the film, Michael's old friend, Harry  dies. Michael was crushed by the loss of his long time friend. He decided to go and visit his other friend, Eamon De Valera but was led straight into a trap and was shot and killed. I was expecting a happy ending, like most movies, but having the drama of Michael's death was an unexpected twist.

I rate this film a 3 out of 5. Certain parts were interesting and engaging, but most of the movie I found to be dull. Sometimes during the film it was hard for me to differentiate characters and that made the movie not very enjoyable. While I didn't always understand who was who, in some scenes, the cast did an amazing job acting out the characters they were given. It was more of an informational and educational film instead of an enjoyable film that I would watch outside of school. With that being said, it did a good job of helping me understand the Irish fight for independence, which is part of my rating of 3 out of 5.