Puckoon

Directed and narrated by Richard Attenborough, Puckoon is an adaption of Spike Milligan's humorous book about an Irish village where the border between the six Ulster counties and what was then called the Irish Free State. I doubt that anyone on this side of the pond would know anyone in the cast other than Elliott Gould who plays the village Jewish doctor like he might have been understudying Paul Muni from The Last Angry Man. Gould's kind of artificially grafted into the proceedings and he really doesn't serve any purpose.

The main character is played by Sean Hughes and he's the village lout who avoids work like it was a bill collector. Somehow some way Hughes gums up everything he gets involved in, including the boundary commission where the line in Puckoon takes all kinds of crazy twists and turns.

You probably have to be a bit up on Irish history to appreciate most of this picture. Still there is enough physical comedy in it and that language is universal.

Puckoon is amusing enough and recommended, but for a select audience.

At last Puckoon has been made into a wonderful, mesmerizing film. This is a film that every Milligan fan will want to see many times, if just to catch everything that happens in each scene. The script has cleverly constructed in layers, the surface being the fast paced comedy and the deeper layers showing what happens to ordinary people, like the villagers of Puckoon, when their country is suddenly and arbitrarily divided

This film is a must see for fans of the book and Milliganesque humour. I think the best thing about it is that the film works as a stand alone film in itself, irrespective of the book. It must have been very difficult to pull all the various scenes and diversions in the book together into one cohesive film.

All your favourite characters and scenes are in, and a great deal of the dialogue is word for word from the book, so you don't miss out on some of the characters' classic soliloquies, descriptions and chats with the author/director/viewer. The characters and setting really did appear as they did in my mind when reading the book. Off the top of my head, look out for the following classic scenes and dialogue from the book: - Madigan talking to the camera ('author' in the book) about his legs, his wife, retreating not running away etc.. - The owner of the Holy Drunkard pub describing his wedding day - Drawing the line to decide the border - Rafferty - Moving coffins to and fro across the border - two brothers smoking the same fag - the soldiers waiting for a train to show up - and lots, lots more!

Sean Hughes is great as Madigan (changed from Milligan in the book), .... Gryff Rhys Jones is head of the border patrols, Ronnie Drew of the Dubliners has a cameo role, Richard Attenborough plays the 'author', and one of the Macgann brothers is in it as well. For me, it's one of those films that I could watch over and over again as there are so many funny lines and scenes - bit like rewatching Life of Brian.

I saw this at a Boston Irish Film Festival screening a few years ago and thought it was just simply amazing!! Does ANYONE know where to get it in the U.S.? It rivals such other Irish flicks as Waking Ned Devine and the Rat in it's hilarity, but alas it is unavailable here as far as I know. All about a little town in the hills that gets divided up during the separation of the counties of Ulster from the rest of the country. The most memorable scene to me was when people were trying to cross the border to get to their everyday lives. Women unable to feed their chickens/harvest the eggs, men being able to go into the bar but not actually sit at it. The church even gets separated from sections of the graveyard, which in turn creates some more very funny situations where some of the villagers and the priest (Daragh O'Malley) try and sneak into Ulster to bury a body of one of their late friends. Absolutely BRILLIANT!!!

Saw the film at the closing gala of the Ealing Film Festival in West London(England). Enjoyed it immensely. Although the Crow & the Chinese Policeman don't appear, and Dan Milligan becomes Dan Madigan (played by Sean Hughes (I)). The interaction between Dan and the Author (Writer/Director) voiced/played by Lord Richard Attenborough, works very well.

The rumour is that Lord Attenborough and Elliott Gould (as Dr. Goldstein) appeared in the film for just a pint of beer.

Spike was shown the film, on video before he died and by all accounts enjoyed it immensely.