Customer Reviews

The Wind That Shakes the Barley

5 star:		(59)
4 star:		(25)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

Ireland in the early Twenties exploded into armed rebellion against the British. Two brothers at first made opposite decisions. A group of Black and Tan British soldiers arrive at a farm where the brothers and a group of other young men are resting after a hurling game (something like field hockey). The British terrorize everyone there, the men, the women, the aged and the young. They beat and kill one man for refusing to give his name in English. When they roar off, one brother, Teddy (Padraic Delaney), immediately helps form the men into armed resistors. Damien (Cillian Murphy), a medical student, decides to go on to London to a prestigious medical school where he is enrolled to finish his studies. At the train station he witnesses another group of soldiers attack and beat the train's conductor and engineer. The attacks are filled with screams and rifle butts. Damien returns to the village and joins the armed resistors.

From then on we're in the middle of a rag-tag guerilla war, driven by a stern sense of justice and a determination to force the British out of Ireland. The British use wide-spread intimidation, brutality, imprisonment and executions by courts martial. Some of the men we've met die, British soldiers die, hostages die, traitors die, a young friend of Damien's who gave information is executed by Damien. He slowly moves from a reluctant fighter to a man who has become single-minded in what he does. When a truce is declared and a peace treaty is finally agreed upon in 1922 between the British Government and Sinn Fein, the stark reality of compromise splits the fighters. On the one hand, there will be an Irish Free State with British troops withdrawn. On the other hand, it will be a member of the British Commonwealth, an oath of allegiance to the British crown will be required and Northern Ireland will remain an integral part of Britain. Is this what we fought for...to give allegiance to the British, many ask? What we fought for was independence and in most regards we have it, say others. Ireland must be whole, say some. If we don't agree the British will flood the island with their troops, say others. We watch a civil war begin, with Irishmen taking up arms and killing each other. For the brothers, who once fought the British together, it means a crucial split. One fights to put down the rebellion against the newly independent Irish state, the other vows to fight until all Ireland is completely free.

One critic of the film said that "there isn't much nuance to either side." That's probably because, nurtured by terrible actions and long memories, there wasn't much nuance in real life. The Wind That Shapes the Barley is a sad, powerful and emotional film. It doesn't shy away from the brutality and torture by British soldiers or the ruthlessness of the armed response. Most of all, we come face to face with both the courage and the grime needed by the Irish to finally, after centuries of ruthless, condescending oppression, rid most of the island of the British. The acting is uniformly persuasive, especially by Murphy and Delaney as the two brothers. Cillian Murphy, in particular gives a subtle and mesmerizing performance. The brothers' fate may not be tragic but it is so sad it makes you reflect on what you've seen. That's not a bad thing. Each brother in his own way pays for the choices he makes.

And the title? It's from a 19th Century poem that tells of a young Irish boy who soon will leave his sweetheart to join others fighting the English in the 1798 rebellion. They would carry barley in their pockets as provisions on the march. When they were slain and their bodies pitched into unmarked mass graves by the English, from their bodies the sprouting barley came to symbolise that Irish resistance to the British would never die.

I sat within the valley green, I sat me with my true love
My sad heart strove the two between, the old love and the new love
The old for her, the new that made me think on Ireland dearly
While soft the wind blew down the glen and shook the golden barley

'Twas hard the woeful words to frame to break the ties that bound us
But harder still to bear the shame of foreign chains around us
And so I said, "The mountain glen I'll seek at morning early
And join the bold united men," while soft winds shake the barley

While sad I kissed away her tears, my fond arms round her flinging
A yeoman's shot burst on our ears from out the wildwood ringing
A bullet pierced my true love's side in life's young spring so early
And on my breast in blood she died while soft winds shook the barley

I bore her to some mountain stream, and many's the summer blossom
I placed with branches soft and green about her gore-stained bosom
I wept and kissed her clay-cold corpse then rushed o'er vale and valley
My vengeance on the foe to wreak while soft wind shook the barley

But blood for blood without remorse I've taken at Oulart Hollow
And laid my true love's clay cold corpse where I full soon may follow
As round her grave I wander drear, noon, night and morning early
With breaking heart when e'er I hear the wind that shakes the barley.

After visiting Ireland nearly three years ago I undertook an exhaustive study of Michael Collins, the Irish War of Independence and the Civil War. I was finally able to see this movie after waiting anxiously since it took Cannes. I was not disappointed. I went with my husband who is not the fan I am and he was impressed as well. The acting is superb, even the flubs, and the photography, (and, of course, Ireland)is stunning. What I would most like to interject into the reviews is that the movie was an exceedingly accurate representation of the Irish situation as it was at that time. (Though I liked the movie Michael Collins, I could not say the same about it in its details.) I would highly recommend it to anyone who wants to understand the various sides to the issues which the Irish, the British, the pro-treatyites and the Republicans confronted at that time.

I looked forward to this film as I do to any that attempts to shed light on the struggle of the Irish for freedom from England. The movie is beautiful cinematically and the acting very convincing, although I did think Cillian Murphy somewhat miscast as Damien, the young doctor who is reluctantly converted to the IRA cause by the British brutality he witnesses. However, overall I found the movie disappointing for somewhat the same reasons as reviewer Pouliot. If the viewer does not have a pretty good background in Irish history, especially of the 1910-1922 years, he is likely to have difficulty understanding what is going on and why. The film is narrowed so sharply to one small group of guerilla fighters in Cork County that I don't know how an average viewer could put the action in perspective with the 1916 Easter rebellion, the nationwide struggle going on, the direction and control being exercised by IRA leaders in Dublin and the overall scope of the fight against the British. The biggest plus of this film, to my mind, and it is a very big plus, is that it shows graphically the kind of savagery being engaged in by the British soldiers (the "black and tans" who were sent in to support the regular British forces in Ireland) and the galvanizing effect it had on the Irish populace. It also shows the tragedy that befell Ireland when the independence movement came apart after the Treaty was signed and the die-hard Republicans refused to support the new Irish Free State, feeling that it was a sell-out to accept anything but complete freedom for the whole island. The movie does a good job of showing how the two sides could differ so drastically and still each have legitimate reasons for taking the stance they did. It also drives home how devastating the Civil War was in the final wrenching scenes of what devotion to their beliefs cost the two brothers. This was certainly a singularly Irish story, as another reviewer said, and it leaves you feeling very melancholy to realize what their independence ultimately brought the Irish, i.e., families torn apart forever, scars much deeper than any the British left and a shadow that hangs over the land even today. A haunting if not fully satisfying film.

"The Wind that Shakes the Barley," (from an old Irish revolutionary song) Ken Loach's uncompromising, tragic film begins in chaos: a group of young Irish men are playing a rough and tumble game of hurling while the referee yells and threatens to stop the game or eject one player or another out of the game. It's all very testosterone fueled: men at play, having fun, taking it all too seriously. In the next scene, these same men arrive at a shocking scene at the home of one of them: English Black and Tans (the occupying soldiers sent from England to stamp out the crackling embers of Irish independence), thuggish and cruel and intent on demeaning the Irish, are taunting a house of women and upon spying the young men with hurling sticks, the B&T's demand that they stand up against the house and give their names in English (not Gaelic). One man refuses to speak English. He is killed.
And so begins this shocking, mesmerizing film about a County Cork rebellion against the British, circa 1920-1922 and zeroes in on two brothers Damien (a sensitive, intelligent, driven Cillian Murphy of "28 Days Later"), trained as a doctor who feels that, instead of pursuing his life long dream of working in London, chooses instead to stay home and fight the good fight. Damien's brother Teddy (Padraic Delaney in a fueled-by-fire performance...his first movie), a big man strangling under the iron grip of the British. The Cain and Abel story is recalled here as it is in a number of Motion Pictures including "East of Eden," as Damien and Teddy eventually have a moral and political parting of the ways and find themselves on opposite sides of the Anglo Irish Treaty of 1920.
Loach's films are all about making the political personal and the personal political and "TWTSTB" is no exception. Cillian Murphy is the perfect choice to play Damien: he is a good son and caring brother, he does the right thing, he is inextricably caught up in a David versus Goliath war who emotionally shouts at a particularly terrifying juncture in the film: "I hope this Ireland we're fighting for is worth it." Murphy's heartfelt and emotional characterization of a man who has dedicated his life to saving others but who kills in the name of his beliefs, until he finds himself impossibly torn between patriotic oaths and blood ties forms the moral core of this film.
Loach is painting on a large canvas here as this subject matter requires but his artist's palette is muted by the many gallons of blood and the many buckets of guts spilled by both the Irish and the British in this rebellion. "Barley" has the soul of an anti-war movie and the style of a thriller.
There are no winners here, no good people or bad people, there is logic on both sides of this war...that's the tragic dilemma.

The Wind That Shakes the Barley is a beautiful looking film made in Ireland by director Ken Loach. It took home the Palme D'Or in 2006 at the Cannes Film Festival and deservedly so.

Loach tells a sympathetic and political tale of war and the birth of the I.R.A through two brothers Damien played by Cillian Murphy who is solid in pretty much every film I have seen him in and Teddy played by Padraic Delaney who equals Murphy's performance with a great one of his own. Damien a med school graduate headed to a London hospital to further his training decides against it after witnessing one to many atrocities on his people at the hands of the British Black and Tan soldiers and joins a guerrilla squad of the Irish Republican Army headed by his brother Teddy to fight and prevent such atrocities.

Above everything I found this to be a political film and doesn't go into the brothers relationship in any detail although there are some powerful and painful moments between them that could bring tears to your eyes. Also there facial expressions and looks in there eyes say a lot which can be attributed to powerful performances and great acting all around.
Even a love interest between Damien and a strong willed Sinead is still a backdrop for there political cause which they share an equally strong if not greater love for, there real passion in this film is the cause they fight for.

A truce is declared but with of course many unacceptable terms as seen by Damien. And seen as a victory and a stepping stone to greater things as seen by Teddy, which inevitably divides the Irish against there own people and brother against brother.

I rented this film from Netflix but will now be purchasing, It is a good add to any film collection at a fair price and highly recommended, this is one of the best of 2007 I have seen so far.
Thanks for reading.

anyone who ever said 'gee why do the irish hate the english people so much?' ought to see this film. to those who lived it - some of my relatives - the thuggish behavior by the black and tans and other british soldiers turned loose to "teach the irish a lesson" is a disgrace that's yet to be appreciated over here. it's a stain on british history that the english government treated a proud and free people like this - but then, they did the same to every colony didn't they? american patriots who are proud of OUR revolution against england would do well to watch this and appreciate the irish version of the same thing

I returned from Ireland barely a month ago where I learned more than I imagined about the Irish "Rising" and Civil War, something few Irish Americans even know about.

A friend of mine--by the name of McCarthy--recommended this film as "what really happened; all the rest you hear is hot air."

Yes, it's brutal, but should a "war movie" not be that way? The worst brutality came from the British troops--it took place in 1920--who treated the Irish like they weren't humans--or even animals! It caused me to reflect: How many of the British troops who treated the Irish like they were fertilizer are now buried in "honor and glory" in British national cemeteries and remembered as if they were heroes in English history books? As I frequently visit the Arlington National Cemetery, I thought the same about Vietnam, Korea, Iraq--and the many other wars. That's where the "metaphor" comes in.

While in Ireland, I picked up the book "Brother Against Brother" on which the film, alas, may have been based. There's so much we need to learn, about that struggle, and about struggles in general...

The Irish civil war cause, so beautifully summarized by the film's script, was a consequence of those willing to continue under provisional English rule, and those who declared, "What? They've been oppressing and killing us for 900 years. I won't accept ANY English rule!"

The acting is stellar, the set magnificent, the story needs to be repeated! I've recommended the film heartily to friends and acquaintances of all nationalities, more for the metaphorical than historical value. Perhaps when we realize how we can treat and have treated others, we'll learn to stop doing so.

Why only four stars? Well, when some of the characters were shot, there was no blood. It's true that such a fine film didn't have a Hollywood budget so such special effects may have been too expensive. But perhaps if they had been included, the real brutality may have been more evident, and not gratuitous.

Despite "only" four stars, I have preordered the film, so I can see it again and again, and show it to others, those interested in Irish history, and those interested in the truth of war.

I was very interested in watching this movie, since it is set at a time and place that is very intimately connected with me. My own parents could well have been among the characters in it. It is set in 1920-1922 in West Cork, around Ballingeary, not so far from my mother's home. Indeed, my parents played their own roles in these events, my father in the IRA and my mother as a messenger (just like the several children that appear throughout).

The early scenes of the movie, of the casual and brutal violence of the Black and Tans, were for me the visualization of stories I have heard from my childhood. People I knew in my youthful visits to Ireland were among the victims. But it is hard for someone born in the US to really grasp how terrifying it must have been. This movie certainly does it well.

It also does a good job of cataloging the ways in which kindly disposed young men could be driven to become guerrilla fighters who, in their turn, became efficient killers.

I think the movie is better in presenting the early part of the story. It breaks down somewhat in dealing with the Treaty and the Civil War. Although the Civil War forms the final emotional climax of the film, the steps leading up to that final tragedy are set out fairly pedantically, in the context of an extended argumentative meeting and a church service. It felt lacking in the bitter passions that actually drove it. I'm afraid that this terrible divide, which cast a pall on the country for decades, needed a bit better handling to introduce it to people not already familiar with the issues.

That said, it was interesting for me to see a well done film of the world my parents grew up in and of the dilemmas faced by so many in it.

Set in Ireland in the early 1920's, this is the story of two brothers fighting for the cause of Irish independence. The IRA was a ragtag band of farm boys and local townsmen who, enraged by the appearance of the British Black and Tans in their country, decide that independence for Ireland is going to be a fight to the death. The British used cruel paramilitary tactics to try to suppress the rebellion, which did more to undermine their moral authority than anything else. The film depicts the futility of military tactics to subdue a people defending their own land. A political solution, though not a cure all, as we know from history, was the only answer.

Teddy O'Donnell unsuccessfully tries to draw his doctor brother Damien into the struggle. But Damien abandons his intention to take a job at a prestigious London hospital as he witnesses an act of violence on the platform of the train he's about to depart on. The brothers lead a band of guerillas harassing the British at every turn; exhausted by the fight, a Truce is finally declared by the British. But there's no redeeming end to this story for many years, as we all know. The Truce was the beginning of a fierce civil war, that has tragic consequences for the brothers and has had terrible consequences for Ireland for decades.

Shot on location, primarily in County Cork, the film doesn't romanticize the countryside or the people. The land is rainy and foggy and cloudy; the farms are poor. The interiors are cramped, smoky and dark. The film has a gritty, realistic quality, to match the grim story. The actors are all Irish, the dialogue often heavily accented and mumbled, occasionally mixed with Gaelic. This is a painful film to watch, but well-deserving of the awards it's received. The movie has excited comment in Britain for good reason--the British come off looking very bad. Nothing is spared in depicting British torture and murder; I covered my eyes a few times. There's no doubt that this is the Irish side of the story, but keeping that in mind, it's a great film and well worth your time.

I'm fortunate enough to have studied the struggles of the Irish, and to call many Irish people my friends, and to have visited their country many times, and on account of that, and as a follower of Irish history it's hard for me to view this movie through naive eyes. It is one of my top 5 favorite films. It is harsh and brutal. It is the only movie to ever make me want to tear at my hair and sob (and I am not the sort of person to feel this way about much of anything). What I see in this film is a beautiful and tragic tale of a people so determined to have their freedom, unwilling to give in, to accept defeat in order to alleviate suffering. The film shows what the Irish people are still in some ways torn between; Catholics vs. Protestants, The North vs. the Republic. Loyalists vs. Nationalists. It's all one in the same in most regards, but I would think that for anyone who doesn't know the history that the movie would still be great because it's a FASCINATING tale and might only make you want to type a few questions into google in order to educate oneself further and there is nothing at all wrong with a movie which leaves you with a feeling such as that. The Wind That Shakes the Barley is worthy of watching for any adult... It's different, it's engrossing, it's impassioned, it's everything you could ask for from a movie, except much laughter... I recommend it to every person I know. It is a brilliant film, not the usual Hollywood junk food.