Puckoon (2002)

Spike Milligan's book about the divided Irish village of Puckoon comes to the big screen.

Director:

Terence Ryan

Writers:

Spike Milligan (novel), Terence Ryan (screenplay)

Stars:

Sean Hughes, Elliott Gould, Daragh O'Malley

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Sean Hughes	...	Dan Madigan
Elliott Gould	...	Dr. Goldstein
Daragh O'Malley	...	Father Rudden
John Lynch	...	O'Brien
Griff Rhys Jones	...	Col. Stokes
Nickolas Grace	...	Foggerty
B.J. Hogg	...	Rafferty
David Kelly	...	O'Toole
Milo O'Shea	...	Sgt. McGillikuddie
Freddie Jones	...	Sir John Meredith
Richard Rickings	...	Alex Walker
Richard Attenborough	...	Writer-Director
Marc Sinden	...	The surveyor
Frankie McCafferty	...	Lenny
Conor Mullen	...	Shamus

Storyline

Puckoon is a wee Irish village that gets caught up in an argument about where the border separating Northern Ireland from Ireland should be. Keen to get the matter sorted before the pubs close, a random borderline is wrestled on the map of the Emerald Isle and Puckoon gets divided as well - literally. As the barbed wire fences and Army checkpoints go up overnight, suddenly people cannot get to their outhouses or walk from one side of the street to the other. It has some advantages - everyone squeezes into the tiniest corner of the pub because it is in Northern Ireland territory where the beer is cheaper, but worst of all is the church and its graveyard. Now the newly deceased need a valid passport, renewable every year, if they want to be buried "across the border". A plan is hatched to return the newly dead back to Ireland. At the same time, a plan is hatched to smuggle explosives in coffins to Northern Ireland with, as they say, hilarious results.

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Plot Keywords:

ireland | border | church | coffin | priest | 

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Taglines:

Knowing where to draw the line

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Genres:

Comedy

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Details

Official Sites:

Official site [uk] cast photos, trailer, reviews

Country:

Ireland UK Germany

Language:

English

Release Date:

4 April 2003 (Ireland)

Also Known As:

Határvillongások

Filming Locations:

Ballywater Park, County Down, Northern Ireland, UK

Company Credits

Production Co:

Bórd Scannán na hÉireann, Distinguished Features, Insight Ventures Limited

Technical Specs

Runtime:

82 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Last cinema film of Milo O'Shea.

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Crazy Credits

No animals or humans were hurt in the production of this movie with the exception of Ben Sloan the Production Trainee whose feelings were slightly hurt on one occasion.

User Reviews

simply not funny

technically, this movie would have had it all: decent actors, a nice landscape, no obvious sights of a lack of budget, a celebrity like richard attenborough. the plot summary also sounded promising, suggesting a satire on silly bureaucracy and common people outwitting it.

however, it never delivers. the plot is simply too illogical. throughout the whole movie, not one person does a single sensible thing. mad politicians, ridiculous soldiers, brain-dead villagers - all just hustle from one incredible situation to the next. what they all do never makes sense in a context beyond the current scene.

of course, this kind of movie has to be absurd and exaggerated. however, it's also supposed to have at least one instance to point out the madness behind splitting a city in the middle. actually, there are (at least) two attempts, which unfortunately fail: the main character, who doesn't seem to have a clue about what's happening to him, and the "writer", who occasionally cracks jokes from the off that might be considered funny by an audience consisting solely of 12 year olds.

what i found most impressing is that the movie tries to be funny all the time, but didn't made me laugh once. i've seen several bad "funny" movies, but until yet every single one of them featured at least 2 or 3 good laughs. so in this sense, "puckoon" is really remarkable.

if you want to see a great movie with a comparable plot, check out "brazil". don't waste your time on "puckoon".