It's a film easier to admire than it is to like – for all McDonagh's rich command of language, it feels unrelentingly written from first line to last – but Gleeson's weary, weathered interpretation lends it gravity and consequence.
To attend one of Mr. Burge's recitals, critics almost uniformly agreed, was to hear a challenging yet immensely satisfying program that showcased his immense technical facility; prodigious memory for the works' myriad rhythmic, tonal and stylistic complexities; acute musical intelligence; and rich command of aural color.
While 95% of the time this isn't a big deal – there is a rich command-line interface, after all – it would be nice to skin OS X a bit now and again.
Equally, tax avoidance and evasion is very much the perk of the extremely rich, who command the armies of accountants and lawyers in order to organise it on an industrial scale, which is reckoned to cost the taxpayer £25bn a year.
But the films (with one exception) do have life in them, and their rich material commands your attention.
Some of the governors in the oil-rich Delta command budgets bigger than entire west African countries, yet traditionally, after they have spent most of the money on their own helicopters, limousines and Glorylands, together with gangs of hired thugs at election time, there is little left over for anything fancy like schools or hospitals.
They are remarkably resilient, as their rebound from the nationalisations of the 1970s proved; they are still capital-rich; they command the top talent in the business; and they can still claim to have the edge in technology.Any survival strategy for the majors must centre on technology, for two reasons.
The men and women on the Forbes 400 list of richest Americans command armies of workers, steer the economy and wield unimaginable political and cultural influence.
Those two notes were powerful and rich, surprisingly commanding.
Sitting at an immense conference table inlaid with marble, Lee Shau- kee, Asia's richest man, commands a sweeping view of Hong Kong's central office district from the headquarters of his flagship property company, Henderson Land.
1. Tangier may have a rich history and command a magnificent perch overlooking the Strait of Gibraltar, but the city has largely remained off the mainstream tourist track.
