Kalistani Major History

[Doc]

Republican Pictures releases film about Robert M. O'Leary
Biopic covers controversial rise of the Growers Syndicate and the beginnings of ODEN
Sulari, Duchy of Suldanor
October 15, 5548


Poster for O'Leary, staring Liam Connor as Robert O'Leary

Republican Pictures has released a new film starring actor Liam Connor as the controversial labor organizer Robert M. O'Leary who was one of the driving forces behind the founding of the Kalistani Growers' Syndicate and an early, if unsung, force behind the original ODEN. O'Leary was born in 2331 in Odufaray, and committed his life to organizing farm laborers, agricultural transportation workers, and small land owners into a single, nationwide union known as the Kalistani Growers' Syndicate. But his history was complicated by his alleged ties to organized crime and political corruption. It is widely believed that he was murdered by a professional hitman when it became clear that criminal elements could no longer control him. His body was never actually located but it is widely believed that he was cut up and thrown into the Ananto Strait in 2377. He never lived to see the foundation of ODEN five short years later.

"O'Leary was an absolutely committed labor boss in the old sense of the word," said director Melanie Weller, who made her directorial debut in O'Leary. "He had a one track minds--But he was also a bit of a sociopath, and he upset a lot of the wrong kind of people, so that when he disappeared, the state wasn't too enthusiastic about tracking his body down or looking for his killer. Is it possible that he went underground? Yeah, and the State did use his disappearance to make some arrests of some known organized criminals. But they never found him, and it is doubtful that they ever looked for him."

"Robert O'Leary was a real challenge to play," said actor Liam Connor, who lives in Sulari. "I come from the stage, where there is a lot of BIG action and you have to be this bigger than life character all the time, you know... and that's really the kind of guy Bob was. But the challenge came in the fact that he never turned it off. It was largely the charisma he had, but it was also the bands of armed thugs who were always ready to go out and smash in some dude's house when he didn't, you know... uh give his workers a contract, you know? Like he had these gangs of dozens of guys armed with tire irons or Molotov cocktails, or whatever, you know... Like 'you think you can stand up to the union? Here's your mother's house on fire and look- her dog's hanging from a tree...' Stuff like that... He never took a day off."

Early reviews from the film were mostly positive. Where people critiqued it, some viewers called it "overly long." "I think it was a bit too long," said Emma Martini, from Eshar. "It was good but like halfway through I needed more popcorn. I think they could have done without so many flashbacks." Other viewers were concerned with the violence in the film. "There were some really gory parts," said Thomas James of Kaliburg. "They showed stuff like these scab vigilantes getting their heads beaten in by these coked up union guys. I know it was a fight back then to even get recognized but damn..."

Overall, though the positive comments about the film outweighed the negative ones. "The actors made this movie for me," said Willa Alexander of Yoshimi. "I thought Connor did an excellent job in the main role and Mike Wallerstein, [who played Syndicate enforcer Judah Goldberg] really did a good job playing the more human and humane side of that whole struggle. I liked that part where when Goldberg was asking O'Leary why he told these mafia guys where the things the union took was hidden, and O'Leary explained that the local mafia boss was going to be doing them a favor in about a week. And Goldberg was upset because he and his crew had almost gotten blown up taking the stuff, and OLeary said something like 'When you've known a guy a long time, worked with him a long time, you can't slight him. A real grievance can be resolved. A difference of opinion is easy to deal with, no problem. But an imagined hurt? A slight? That M-F is gonna hate you until the day he dies.' I totally can hear that right now. I feel that way about a lot of things in this world."

"The audiences sort of reacted to this film on a visceral level," said cinema analyst Walter Norton. "Everywhere we're seeing people come out of this film having cheered for someone who is, for all intents and purposes, a megalomaniacal criminal, a real violent man who is so driven by his vision for a union that he just wipes out and alienates everyone in his path until even the worst of the worst see him as too much, and handle him. Yes, good came out of it, but not because of Mr. O'Leary. But these audiences aren't connecting on a moral level. They are willing to overlook the outright criminality and corruption because he sorta represents what they wish they had in their society today: Someone who fights for his principles and doesn't let rules or narrowminded tunnelvision, or even time, get in his way."

Historians added that the film's portrayal is mostly accurate. "It's not proven that O'Leary actually boiled that guy in hashish oil, the way the film portrays it," said Dr. Franka Proctor, of Kaliburg Polytechnic. "There was a lot of license taken: O'Leary was more of a 'tell Jimmy to do the thing' kind of guy. But he was a family man and did love animals, and as the film stated, he was notoriously sober himself and never drank or used drugs. I think that was one of the things that the Organized Crime factions didn't like about him: they never trusted a guy who didn't drink or smoke, and O'Leary did neither."

Republican said that the film, now in its second week, is already profitable, and is well on its way to being one of the biggest earning films of the year.

Below is a clip from Republican Pictures' O'Leary- the scene where Union enforcer Judah Goldberg, played by Mike Wallerstein, gets pulled over on his way to a meeting with O'Leary which O'Leary never makes it to. O'Leary, directed by Melanie Weller, is beginning its second week and can be seen at all first run cineplexes across the Empire.

[Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFSJxGGBRHM]