War on Terror (now with potatoes!!!)

The Wind That Shakes the Barley

2007
Directed by Ken Loach

"What we've done here today is sent a message to the British, that if they send their savagery over here, we will meet it with a savagery of our own."

For once, a movie that is tangled and imperfect on purpose. Violent revolutions are never clear or comprehensible, and this film most definitely mirrors it's own subject matter. Bloody, chaotic, and challenging.

Our government would call them "insurgents" today. Back in the 1920's, they just kept it simple and called themselves revolutionaries. The Irish Republican Army. The story of the IRA's early years are told here through the eyes of two brothers, Damien (Cillian Murphy) and Teddy O'Donovan. After British colonial soldiers murder one of their innocent friends for refusing to give his name in English during a random search, the young men in the village vow to take up arms and fight against the occupation. Teddy steps up as a leader, but Damien is hesitant to join the fight at all. He has plans to go to London to study medicine, and at this point his political views are hinted at being of the non-violent socialist variety. But his views change quickly after seeing one too many attacks on innocent countrymen first-hand. He chooses to stay and fight alongside his brother and friends.

The rest of the film follows Damien and his "regiment" through their successes and failures, captures and escapes. At 2 hours, it is filled with everything from brutally realistic torture scenes to difficult political debates between the characters. There are more than a few battle scenes, but it never feels like an action movie. It's clear that director Ken Loach has no interest in making the violence too entertaining.





I'd be lying through my gapped teeth if I claimed to have understood everything that was said in the movie. I honestly didn't. Some of the thick Irish accents here make Trainspotting look like Blue's Clues. At times I just said "fuck it, I get the gist of it, let's wait for the next scene." But I want to stress that even in those few moments where you may get lost in the language, the overall plot points never drift or lose their significance in the drama. I think that's a great testament to Loach's power as a filmmaker, and his long-since-proven ability to make lucid what seems impossibly ambiguous and abstract, including even dialogue in this case.

Cillian Murphy is off to a somewhat slow start in his career. He's been in a handful of very good films (Breakfast on Pluto, Girl with the Pearl Earring, Batman Begins, etc) but no truly great ones. And even in those he has yet to have anything resembling a real moment of greatness. That being said, this is his strongest performance yet as far as I'm concerned, and I predict that he has that greatness in him somewhere. With his character, he holds a kind of quiet alertness that really strengthens not only the tone of the movie, but the positions he represents in the political spectrum compared to his comrades. The rest of the all-Irish (obviously) cast is solid as well.

Beautiful cinematography. Just in case you never knew why Ireland is always associated with the color green, this movie will leave no doubt.

To sum it up, this is a fiercely political film that is always sympathetic, but never romantic. Well-acted, perfectly paced and confidently directed by a veteran. Realistic and devastating. It won the Palme D'Or at Cannes this year, and for what it's worth I've already watched it twice in the last two months. Definitely worth the rental if you can find it.