The General

(Columbia TriStar)

Shot in tabloidish black and white, John Boorman's sly and sardonic masterpiece begins with the IRA-hitman death of its real-life protagonist -- Martin Cahill (Brendan Gleeson), a/k/a "The General," modern crime legend and the scourge and delight of Dublin. Then it flashes back to Cahill's rise as the Robin Hood-like leader of a gang of stalwarts from his slum neighborhood of Hollyfield. Cahill's fate is squalid and typical, but not so its metamorphosis into the rueful beauty of The General, Boorman's portrait of the artist as a career criminal.