MEDIOCREMOVIE.CLUB
  • Reviews
  • Side Pieces
  • Shane of Thrones
  • Podcast
  • About
  • Archives
  • Game of Thrones Fantasy

The Wind That Shakes the Barley

3/6/2016

0 Comments

 
B+

Directed by Ken Loach

Starring Cillian Murphy and Padraic Delaney

Review by Jon Kissel
Picture
​
​The 20th century story of Ireland gains a new cinematic facet in Ken Loach's The Wind That Shakes the Barley.  Eschewing the Troubles of In the Name of the Father or '71 for a period decades earlier, Loach frames the struggle against English occupation within a fraternal bond.  Set during the War of Independence and the Civil War that immediately followed, Loach captures the allure of the sunk cost fallacy in a high-stakes setting.  
Brothers Damian (Cillian Murphy) and Teddy (Padraic Delaney) begin the film playing lacrosse on an emerald green field, in the shadow of a mountain range.  Their idyll is quickly broken up, as the occupying English have decreed that any gatherings, including for sport, are not allowed.  The resulting interrogation results in one of their friends being beaten to death.  Frustrated by the cycle of violence, Damian had planned to leave his country and become a doctor, but the absence of justice and the risk to his friends and family pushes his plans aside, and he joins his older brother, a soldier, in resisting the English.  Loach follows the duo and their comrades through training and the accumulation of arms, culminating in successful operations, Pyrrhic prison escapes, and the silencing of informants.
​
Despite long odds, the English eventually sue for peace, but celebrations do not last long.  The treaty allows Ireland greater autonomy, but the country remains an English dominion.  This half-result drives a wedge between the brothers, as Damian wants all that he's done to truly guarantee a future while Teddy is simply ready for peace.  Class divisions also rear their head.  The brothers come from a landowning family, and Damian is haunted by his father callously making tenants destitute or homeless.  He insists that a political revolution must also become an economic one, lest the English banks and interests retain their hold on Irish lives.  Teddy's place in the new Irish army puts him directly against his brother's desire to continue to fight against the now-collaborating government, and despite the withdrawal of the English, the battle rages on.

The presence of the class issue makes The Wind That Shakes the Barley more complex than the typical Troubles films.  These often are straightforward thrillers or morality plays, complete with a Manichean struggle at their center.  Paul Laverty's script contains plenty of fist-clenching scenes of brutality visited upon the weak, but it resists easy characterizations on the Irish side.  The chasm between Damian and Teddy is well-communicated, with each making cogent points.  Damian is clear-eyed and the most clever debater in the film, but he has allowed the perfect to become the enemy of the good.  Needing to make his sacrifices and the sacrifices of the dead worth it, he charges on even after his initial enemy has been defeated.  Teddy gets less screen-time, but it's apparent how exhausted years of warfare has made him, and how painful it is for him to have to fight against his countrymen.  While they frame the War for Independence as a good, Loach and Laverty don't leave the viewer with a historical warm-fuzzy, and instead continue into a much grayer period.

Murphy and Delaney lead the strong cast of Irish actors.  They have a believable brotherly relationship, with the older Teddy as the brawn and the younger Damian as the brains.  Decades-in-the-making dynamics play out between them, with Damian beginning to doubt his faith in his brother and Teddy struggling to see his brother as anything other than a child.  Murphy fills Damian with the fire a young revolutionary needs, and Delaney gives Teddy the plaintive charisma necessary for a voice of caution and tentative steps.  Liam Cunningham plays a key role as Dan, Damian's main source of moral support on the front lines.  When people turn to Dan for his opinion, it's easy to see why, as Cunningham is a strong and noble presence throughout.  Orla Fitzgerald plays Sinead, a woman as stuck in her situation as Damian, whom she's in a romantic relationship with.  Both are drawn to each other out of their shared, hopeful outlook, but both share fatal flaws of being too committed to their people.  Sinead mirrors Damian's arc closely, and both actors convey the frustration of thwarted dreams.

The Wind That Shakes the Barley is an intelligent microcosm of revolutionary history, playing out grand ideas and forces on a small and resonant scale.  The Irish Civil War doesn't have a lengthy film recounting, so Loach's film admirably contributes to a clearer picture of the period.  History education doubling as enthralling entertainment is an easy thing to recommend.  B+
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Side Pieces

    Random projects from the MMC Universe. 

    Categories

    All
    Action
    Adventure
    Author - Bryan
    Author - Drew
    Author - Jon
    Author - Phil
    Author - Sean
    Best Of 2016
    Best Of 2017
    Best Of 2018
    Best Of 2019
    Best Of 2020
    Best Of 2021
    Best Of 2022
    Best Of The Decade
    Classics
    Comedy
    Crime
    Documentary
    Drama
    Ebertfest
    Game Of Thrones
    Historical
    Horror
    Musical
    Romance
    Sci Fi
    Thriller
    TV
    Western

    Archives

    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    June 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015

    RSS Feed