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.
