Straight to DVD

The Wind That Shakes the Barley

The Wind That Shakes the Barley has much in common with my last reviewed film, The Lives of Others: Both are foreign films, both won prestigious film awards, both were very favorably reviewed, and both deal with fairly distressing subject matter—in this case, the violence in 1920s Ireland that led to the establishment of the Irish Free State and the partition of Ireland.

Wow, that sure sounds like a Queue Blocker, doesn't it? Yet this was another movie Whitney and I had looked forward to for months, based both on reviews and on our interest in all things Irish (my last name might have something to do with that, I guess). Oh, and on the presence of lead actor Cillian Murphy, who portrays only psychos in American films (Batman Begins, Red Eye) but is happily allowed to be more sympathetic in English and Irish ones.

Here Murphy plays Damien O'Donovan, a young Irishman about to head to London to be a doctor. His brother, Teddy (Padraic Delaney), who leads a local Irish Republican Army column, asks Damien to stay and fight against the British occupation. Damien sees the violence as pointless, but as he's preparing to depart, a series of horrors committed by British soldiers infuriate him enough to make him join Teddy and the resistance.

And at first, the fight to expel the British proceeds more or less as Damien expects, with attacks directly against the occupying force. But things soon get more complex: First the brothers must decide what to do about a comrade who's been forced (by threats against his family) to inform on the IRA. Damien's role in what follows leads him to say bitterly, "I hope this Ireland we're fighting for is worth it."

Then, apparent victory—a truce that leads to the withdrawal of British forces from most of Ireland—even turns sour, as the IRA splinters into those who support the treaty with the British and those who view it as a sellout. The O'Donovan brothers soon find themselves on opposite sides of the ugly civil war that ensues.

Director Ken Loach (a British indie-film legend) and screenwriter Paul Laverty clearly establish the English as the villains here, with the Black and Tans layering atrocity on atrocity in their attempt to keep a hostile populace pacified; the audience is enraged and provoked right alongside Damien. Yet Loach refuses to shy away from the fact that violence begets violence, and that those embarked on armed resistance to injustice inevitably seem to end up shooting at their friends.

It's pretty grim stuff, and it just keeps getting harsher as it goes along, all the way to a Gallipoli-like ending. The outright beauty of Barry Ackroyd's cinematography does make everything slightly easier to bear—the almost romantic period feel somehow makes a perfect contrast to the upsetting subject matter. And the very fine cast of Irish actors also makes the ride worthwhile. Murphy, a real rising star, finds just the right balance of fury, anguish, and self-doubt, as events carry his character well beyond where he wants to go. Delaney, Liam Cunningham as a stalwart fellow IRA man, and Orla Fitzgerald as Damien's hardened, world-weary love interest are also particularly outstanding.

It's nearly impossible, frankly, to find fault with much about The Wind That Shakes the Barley; it's no accident that it won the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 2006. But it is an exceedingly hard film to watch—not necessarily what you're looking for after you've finally managed to get through with dinner, bathtime, and seven consecutive readings of Hop on Pop.