THE COURIER (1988): DUBLIN, DRUGS, AND THE DICKENSIAN ASPECT
Aug 16th, 2009 by Conor McCabe
Viewed by many as possibly the worst Irish film of all time, The Courier was released in 1988 in a chorus of publicity and, ahem, glamour. It did terrible at the box office, was shown once on UTV in 1990, and pretty much sank without trace after that. It is, quite frankly, awful.
However, back in 1988 it aroused feelings of national pride - it was two years after Self-Aid, after all, so national pride wasn’t quite in the stratosphere. And the film came out in February 1988, so we didn’t have this to cheer about just yet.
I remember seeing it in Savoy One when it was released, and walking out afterwards desperately wanting to like it. I was with my friend Ciarán, and we got as far as the Flowing Tide before we gave in to the inevitable and simply slagged it to bits.
Mind you, there is some great acting in The Courier, most notably from Andrew Connolly as a small-time stick-up artist and drug addict, and from Gabriel Byrne who is simply fantastic given the material he’s working with. Patrick Bergin’s not bad, as another small-time gangster and right-hand man to Byrne.
The film, though, rests on the shoulders of its two main stars, Padraig O’Loinsigh and Cait O’Riordan. And that’s unfortunate, really, because they’re shite.
The Courier is also noticeable for a small role by Aiden Gillen (Murphy) - Carcetti in the Wire. Gillen plays a rent boy in a scene with Byrne which proves beyond doubt that Gabriel Byrne could take a script by Eoghan Harris and make it sound like David Mamet.
Still, it has to be seen to be believed, and now it can.
Part one is below, while the rest of it can be seen on smotri.com
Enjoy.
Ta for that Conor - and for the pirating clerical student in Maynooth who seems to have put it up on that site straight from his VHS.
Only managed to get through 15 mins then keeled over from the sheer tediousness of it. Only thing of interest then, as now, is the soundtrack.
Seem to remember waiting with bated breath for the, ahem, Something Happens track to appear - can’t even remember which one it was now. Note Lord John White over the credits.
As for Cait O’R, I prefer it when she sticks to the singing :
And it seems she’s still stuck in Dublin - and being held hostage by members of the Hothouse Flowers (unfortunately, no singing by her or red hair either) :
Sounds a bit like when the Stones try to go country - pity about the terrible name - part of that wedding zombiedom that seems to have Ireland in its grip, I suppose. The amplified stuff on their MySpace is [ expletive that goes with onions deleted ]
you can see the back of my head in the scene where the coked-out guy is editing the Something Happens video. I was in the Baggot Inn for the shooting of it.
Thanks for this, been looking for ages for it and the soundtrack. I disagree that it’s one of the worst Irish films. Sure it’s flawed, some of the casting was fatal particularly with Padraig O’Loinsigh and Cait O’Riordan. (I can’t help thinking how it would have turned out if Andrew Connolly had’ve been cast as the courier.) Other than that I think it’s pretty decent film. Frank Deasy was way ahead of the game with this. And even though the film he wrote isn’t exactly what we see, it was a breath of fresh air at the time and is well worth a look today.
Jimmy I agree with you, I think it might have worked had they cast Andrew Connolly as the lead. The script is dire, though.
Ok, time for the makers of the Courier to speak out. It’s Frank Deasy’s first anniversary today- a brilliant screenwriter and a truly lovely man. We did our best guys, the script was pretty good to be honest, but it never went to a second draft - we were complete novices catapulted into making a movie for cinema- the finance which we got for this one demanded that it be made immediately- we never intended it to be more than a tv movie at best. Casting was also something which was heavily influenced by the finance. But, The Courier was the first mainstream urban movie made in Ireland and as such it broke a lot of ground and made way for film makers after us, admittedly never our intention! it’s time to just give the film its place in history and ease up a bit perhaps.
sorry - should have signed that contribution - producer- The Courier
I agree it was far from the rotten film it is being made out to be. It has the feel of a period piece now and is worth a second look (for the very handsome Mr O’Loinsigh if nothing else - what did happen to him?) and a second hearing for that soundtrack.
I have to agree with Hilary. The Courier, for all it’s flaws, was the first attempt to make an urban film in Ireland and was definately breaking ground at the time - in dealing with issues like the drugs trade in Dublin. I have been dissapointed over the years to see it left out in various histories of Irish film making. It was a brave move for three young Dubliners starting out and deserves to be acknowledged as a milestone in Irish film.