The Wind That Shakes the Barley (10/10)
by Tony Medley
This is a brilliant,
compelling telling of the Irish fight for independence from Britain. The
format of the telling reminded me a lot of the Kirk Douglas-Burt
Lancaster film “The Devil’s Disciple” (1959) based on George Bernard
Shaw’s play of the same name, although there is nothing comedic about
this. In order to enjoy the film and get the most out of it, however, it
is necessary to know something about Irish history.
The English invaded Ireland
in the 12th Century and established penal laws that kept the
Irish in subservience until the early 20th Century, when the
Fenian Brotherhood, started in the 19th Century, could no
longer be denied.
In 1916 the Irish Citizen
Army staged a doomed but symbolically powerful armed uprising in Dublin,
which was put down brutally by the British. After they executed the
leaders, the harsh military reprisals that followed swayed public
support away from moderate nationalism to the separatist movement,
embodied in the Sinn Féin (“We Ourselves”) political party and Irish
volunteers.
This resulted in the 1918
election in which Senn Féin won a huge majority throughout the country,
except in the northeast, where Protestant Unionists, who were opposed to
any change in the Union with Britain, held the day. That small segment
of Ireland is still the problem today, as the Protestants have
steadfastly discriminated against Catholics. To give President Clinton
credit, he is the only U.S. President of my memory who did anything to
try to solve the problem of the Protestant persecution of the Catholic
minority in Northern Ireland. When his eight-year term ended, and the
Bushes once again regained the White House, U.S. interest in the Irish
problem ended.
After the 1918 election, Sinn
Féin established an Irish parliament, Dáil Eireann, and declared Irish
independence to the world. Unfortunately, nobody in the international
community would give it credence and the British government refused to
accept it. The Dáli was outlawed, the Republic went underground and the
Irish Volunteers became the Irish Republican Army (IRA).
Even though underground, a
counter-state was developed, including courts, and it was supported by
the labor movement. The rail workers refused to transport anything or
anybody British, and the IRA took the offensive against the armed police
force, the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC). The British reinforced the
RIC with hoodlums called the “Black and Tans,” mostly demobilized First
World War soldiers, and the Auxiliaries, a corps of former officers. The
British were brutal, raiding, burning, and looting houses, villages, and
towns, all of which is depicted in this film. The IRA retaliated by
countryside ambushes.
The Irish were hopelessly
outgunned. At no time were there more than 3,500 guns and rifles in
their hands, against the enormously well-armed British. This film shows
what a heartless, brutal civil war it was. Finally, the Anglo-Irish
Treaty was signed in December of 1921, which ended the violence but
dashed the hopes of many who wanted complete freedom, the result of
which set brother against brother.
Based on this background,
this is the setting about which Director Ken Loach and writer Paul
Laverty have made a brilliant film that shows what it was like, circa
1920-22. Damien (Cillian Murphy) is a young doctor who is about to leave
for England. Teddy (Pádraic Delaney) is his brother who is committed to
obtaining Irish freedom. Two brutal incidents convince Damien his place
is to remain in Ireland as a patriot. As things progress, however, after
the treaty, Damien and Teddy end up on opposite sides, and not the sides
one would have predicted at the outset.
This is an action-packed,
psychologically violent film that zeroes in on what it’s like to be an
oppressed majority, and how a Civil War can rip families apart. Murphy
and Delaney give exceptional performances, which add to the tension of
this movie that runs four minutes over two hours. Murphy, a deliciously
evil bad guy in 2005 in both “Batman Begins” and “Red Eye,” shows that
he is an actor with admirable range here, as a protagonist.
I didn’t look at my watch
once. The only problem I had with it was that the realistic, heavy Irish
brogues were often difficult to comprehend. But that’s a minor complaint
for such a wonderful, educational film that captures history.
In theatres and video on demand to cable
subscribers on IFC In Theatres.
March 11, 2007
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