Re-watching ‘Michael Collins’: It was a sign when they didn’t spell ‘guerrilla’ right

My wife and I both recently read the two volumes of Ernie O’Malley’s memoirs of the Irish war of independence and the subsequent civil war (thanks to a BD contributor recommendation), so we decided to watch the film Michael Collins. I was surprised at how cheesy and Hollywoodish the whole thing seemed, with a dull love story embedded in the middle, with the female love interest played woodenly by Julia Roberts. 

But I shoulda know the jig was up during the introduction that gave the historical context, and it informed us of the “guerilla” war in Ireland against the British — that is, with one “r.”

I know, I know, we should have been watching The Wind That Shakes the Barley. But my wife already has seen it twice. The first time, we were in a theater, and she gasped when the priest refused communion to the anti-Free Staters. She said, “My mother told me that happened to her father” (in County Clare).