I didn't know there was a novelisation done for this movie !

Hi there

A "Tie-in" novel is almost never written by any of the production team (ie: director, scriptwriter, etc) as the novel is being written whilst the film is being directed/ post-edited, etc. They simply wouldn't have the time to contribute to the writing of the novel. The novelisation is based on the original script. However during the shooting and post-editing there are always improvised changes to the script which never appear in the novel. Likewise anything cut out of the film is still retained in the novel, making it appear more raw.

I am still reading the novel, there are a lot of scenes in it that are not in any of the versions I have seen. The novel hilights the mistakes of the script with regards to the time-setting of the story. In the movie I always assumed that the Irish revolution which John (Sean) Mallory refers to was the failed 1916 revolution, which is why he is on the run from the British. This would put the setting of the movie as 1920 (which I believe was phase 2 of the Mexican revolution). However in the novel Sean's flashbacks describe the British soldiers as "Black and Tans" which means that the 'Irish revolution' was actually the successful Irish War of Independence (1919-1921). And yet all of this made complicated by the fact that novel dates the story as taking place in 1913 (phase 1 of the Mexican Revolution).

I suppose to correct this error in the film I would assume that Nolan was recruiting members to the various Irish paramilitaries that were being amassed prior to WW1 in preparation for an eventual Irish revolution (ie: The Irish Citizen Army - ICA, Irish Volunteers, etc). And that Nolan was then captured by the British and interrogated by them to reveal members of the organisation that he recruited. He was then brought by regular British soldiers (they weren't wearing Black & Tan uniforms in the movie) to the tavern where Nolan had done his recruiting to identify his comrades, and thus ends up getting "executed" by Sean Mallory for treachery. Sean is of course wanted for the killing of the British soldiers and so is forced to flee to Mexico and ends up taking part in phase 1 of the revolution (1913). Sean Mallory's "IRA" flag is still a goof in the movie, however in reality it would have been an "ICA" (Irish Citizen Army) flag, as Mallory is obviously a "citizen" thats recruited into Irish rebellion. This is compounded by the fact his "wanted poster" by the British shows him wearing "civvies" and not any Irish uniform, since most of the wanted posters of known Irish rebels always displayed photos of them in military dress such as the Irish Volunteer uniforms.

Also the novel does describe Mallory's anguish at his killing of his best friend Nolan, this indicates that his reason for deserting the fledging ICA/Irish volunteers was guilt (along with the fact that Nolan had blown his cover to the British thus rendering him fairly redundant to the Irish freedom campaign).

The novel reads quite well, the description of the characters and their clothing are a little different to the way they are in the movie but that is common among nearly every tie-in novel ever written. I would definitely recommend this novel to any fan of the movie, that along with the excellent soundtrack (one of the finest ever composed in my opinion)

"Be seeing you!"

No6