CINEMA: MICHAEL COLLINS: WANT A REVOLUTION?

HE LED THE FIGHT FOR IRISH INDEPENDENCE AND FELL IN LOVE WITH HIS BEST MATE'S GIRL WHILE HE WAS AT IT. SOUNDS LIKE A GREAT MOVIE, BUT IS MICHAEL COLLINS GREAT HISTORY?

Like those other great military geniuses of 20th century revolution--Trotsky, Zapata, Guevara--Ireland's Michael Collins comes to a mean, messy and untimely end, a victim of assassination and, in a larger sense, the victim of his own romantic reputation. But unlike these men, with whom he was completely comparable in the cunning and charisma that are invaluable in rallying the armies of the night in wars of liberation, he has remained a stubbornly obscure figure.

Even in his native land he is more shadowy myth figure than living historical presence. Maybe that's because he died when he was only 31 years old,...

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