The Wind That Shakes the Barley is a 2006 Ken Loach film set during the Irish War of Independence (1919–1921) and the Irish Civil War (1922–1923). Written by long-time Loach collaborator Paul Laverty, this drama tells the story of two County Cork brothers, played by Cillian Murphy and Pádraic Delaney, who join the Irish Republican Army to fight for Irish independence from the British Empire. It takes its title from the song "The Wind That Shakes the Barley".
Widely praised, the film won the Palme d'Or at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival. Loach's biggest box office success to date,[1] the film did well around the world and set a record in Ireland as the highest-grossing Irish-made independent film ever.[2]
Plot
The film opens in 1920 as Damien O'Donovan (Cillian Murphy), a young doctor, is about to leave Ireland to work in a London hospital. His brother Teddy (Pádraic Delaney) commands the local flying column of the Irish Republican Army. After a hurling match, Damien witnesses the fatal beating of his friend, Micheál Ó Súillebheán, by British Black and Tans. Damien rebuffs his friends' entreaties to stay in Ireland and fight for independence from Britain, saying that the IRA is too outnumbered to win. As he is leaving town, Damien witnesses British soldiers beating a railway guard for refusing to allow the troops to board, as well as the subsequent resistance of the train driver (Liam Cunningham). Damien decides to stay and joins Teddy's IRA brigade.
In retaliation for Micheál's murder, the brigade raids the local Royal Irish Constabulary barracks for guns, then uses them to assassinate four British Auxiliaries. In the aftermath, Anglo-Irish landowner Sir John Hamilton (Roger Allam) coerces one of his servants, IRA member Chris Reilly (John Crean), into passing information to the British Army Intelligence Corps. As a result, the entire brigade is taken prisoner. In their cell, Damien meets the train driver, Dan, a union organizer who shares Damien's Marxist views. Meanwhile, British officers interrogate Teddy, pulling out his fingernails when he refuses to name names. Later, Johnny Gogan (William Ruane), an Irish-Scots soldier in the British Army, helps all but three of the prisoners escape.
After the actions of Sir John and Chris are revealed to the IRA, both are taken hostage. Because Teddy is still recovering, Damien is temporarily placed in command. Because the three remaining IRA prisoners were executed, the brigade receives orders to execute Sir John and Chris. Despite the fact that Chris is a lifelong friend, Damien shoots both him and Sir John. Later, Damien tells his sweetheart, Cuman na mBan courier Sinéad Sullivan (Orla Fitzgerald), about the shame of facing Chris's mother.
After the IRA ambushes and defeats an armed convoy of the Auxiliary Division, another detachment of Auxiliaries loots and burns the farmhouse of Sinéad's family in retaliation. Sinéad is held at gunpoint while her head is shaved. Later, as Damien comforts her, a messenger arrives with news of a formal ceasefire between Britain and the IRA. While the village celebrates, Damien and Sinéad steal away for a sexual interlude.
When the terms of the Anglo-Irish Treaty are announced, the IRA divides over whether or not to accept it, as it only grants Ireland Dominion status. Teddy and his allies argue that accepting the Treaty will bring peace now while further gains can be made later. Others within the Brigade oppose the Treaty, proposing to continue the war until complete full independence can be obtained. Dan and Damien further argue in favor of the collectivisation of industry and agriculture. Any other course, declares Dan, will change only, "the accents of the powerful and the color of the flag." Not all Anti-Treaty Republicans are depicted as agreeing, however.
Later, as the new Irish Free State replaces British rule, Teddy and his allies begin patrolling in Irish Army uniforms. Meanwhile, Damien and his Anti-Treaty comrades feel betrayed and join the Anti-Treaty IRA.
After the Irish Civil War breaks out, Damien and Dan's column begins a guerilla war against the new Irish Army. Meanwhile, Teddy expresses fear that the British will return if the Free State fails to solve the problem on its own. As a result, he decrees, "They take one, we take one back. To hell with the courts."
Ultimately, Dan is killed and Damien is captured during a raid for arms on a Free State barracks commanded by Teddy. Sentenced to death, Damien is held in the same cell where the British Army imprisoned them earlier.
Hoping to avoid executing his little brother, Teddy pleads with Damien to reveal where the IRA is hiding the stolen rifles, offering him full amnesty and the vision of a happy family life with Sinéad. Damien refuses, however, implying that he killed Chris for being an informer. Writing a goodbye letter to Sinéad, Damien declares his love for her, saying that he knows what he stands for and is not afraid. At dawn, Damien is marched before a firing squad. As both brothers fight back tears, Teddy gives the order, the squad fires, and Damien crumples to the ground. That afternoon, Teddy delivers Damien's letter to Sinéad. Enraged and heartbroken, she physically attacks Teddy and shouts that she never wants to see him again. She then falls to her knees screaming for Damien.
Production
The film stars mostly Irish actors and was made by British director Loach. It is an international co-production between companies in Ireland, the UK, Germany, Italy, Spain and France.
The title derives from the song of the same name, "The Wind That Shakes the Barley," by 19th century author Robert Dwyer Joyce. The song made the phrase "the wind that shakes the barley" a motif in Irish Republican song and poetry. University College Cork historian Donal O Drisceoil was Loach's historical adviser on the film.
The film was shot in various towns within County Cork during 2005, including Ballyvorney and Timoleague.[3] Some filming took place in Bandon, County Cork: a scene was shot along North Main Street and outside a building next to the Court House.[3] The ambush scene was shot on the mountains around Ballyvorney while the farmhouse scenes were filmed in Coolea. Damien's execution scene was shot at Cork City Gaol.[4]
Many of the extras in the film were drawn from local Scout groups,[5] including Bandon, Togher and Macroom with veteran Scouter Martin Thompson in an important role. Many of the British Soldiers seen in the film were played by members of the Irish Army Reserve, from local units.
Among the songs on the film's soundtrack is "Oró Sé do Bheatha 'Bhaile", a 17th century Irish Jacobite song whose lyrics the nationalist leader Pádraig Pearse changed to focus upon Republican themes.[citation needed]
Cast
- Cillian Murphy - Damien O'Donovan
- Pádraic Delaney - Teddy O'Donovan
- Liam Cunningham - Dan
- Orla Fitzgerald - Sinead Ó Súillebheán
- Laurence Barry - Micheail Ó Súillebheán
- Mary Murphy - Bernadette
- Mary O'Riordan - Peggy
- Myles Horgan - Rory
- Martin Lucey - Congo
- Roger Allam - Sir John Hamilton
- John Crean - Chris Reilly
- Damien Kearney - Finbar
- Frank Bourke - Leo
- Aidan O'Hare - Steady Boy
- Shane Casey - Kevin
- Máirtín de Cógáin - Sean
- William Ruane - Johnny Gogan
- Fiona Lawton - Lily
- Sean McGinley - Father Denis
- Denis Conway - Priest
Distribution
The commercial interest expressed in the United Kingdom was initially much lower than in other European countries and only 30 prints of the film were planned for distribution in the UK, compared with 300 in France. However, after the Palme d'Or award the film appeared on 105 screens in the UK.
The RESPECT political party, of which Ken Loach is on the national council, called for people to watch the film on its first weekend in order to persuade the film industry to show the film in more cinemas.[6]
Themes
According to director Ken Loach, the film attempts to explore the extent that the Irish revolution was a social revolution as opposed to a nationalist revolution. Mr. Loach commented on this theme in an interview with Toronto’s Eye Weekly (March 15, 2007):
"Every time a colony wants independence, the questions on the agenda are: a) how do you get the imperialists out, and b) what kind of society do you build? There are usually the bourgeois nationalists who say, 'Let's just change the flag and keep everything as it was.' Then there are the revolutionaries who say, 'Let's change the property laws.' It's always a critical moment."[7]
According to Rebecca O'Brien, producer of the film and a longtime Loach collaborator,
"It's about the civil war in microcosm... It's not a story like Michael Collins. It's not seeking that sort of biographical accuracy, but rather will express the themes of the period. This is the core of the later Troubles, which is why it's so fascinating to make."[8]
In an internet review written for About.com, Marcy Dermansky praised the film, saying,
"Loach explores big questions. How does killing a man in cold blood change a person? (Answer: not for the better.) Do the means justify the ends, even when it means killing your friends and family in the name of liberation? (Answer: there is no easy answer.) War is hell, and in no way does The Wind That Shakes the Barley glorify it."[9]
Reception
The film got a positive reaction from film critics. As of 5 January 2008, the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 88% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 102 reviews.[10] Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 82 out of 100, based on 30 reviews.[11]
The Daily Telegraph's film critic described it as a "brave, gripping drama" and said that director Loach was "part of a noble and very English tradition of dissent"[12]. A Times film critic said that the film showed Loach "at his creative and inflammatory best"[13], and rated it as 4 out of 5. The Daily Record of Scotland gave it a positive review (4 out of 5), describing it as "a dramatic, thought-provoking, gripping tale that, at the very least, encourages audiences to question what has been passed down in dusty history books."[14]
Michael Sragow of The Baltimore Sun named it the 5th best film of 2007,[15] and Stephen Hunter of The Washington Post named it the 7th best film of 2007.[15]
The film was attacked by some commentators, some of whom had not seen it, including Simon Heffer.[16] Following the Cannes prize announcement, Irish historian Ruth Dudley Edwards wrote in the Daily Mail on 30 May 2006 that Loach's political viewpoint "requires the portrayal of the British as sadists and the Irish as romantic, idealistic resistance fighters who take to violence only because there is no other self-respecting course,"[17] and attacked his career in an article that Loach criticized as inaccurate.[18] The following week, Edwards continued her attack in The Guardian, admitting that her first article was written without seeing the film (which at that stage had only been shown at Cannes), and asserting that she would never see it "because I can't stand its sheer predictability."[19] One day after Edwards' initial article appeared, Tim Luckhurst of The Times called the movie a "poisonously anti-British corruption of the history of the war of Irish independence" and went so far as to compare Loach to Nazi propagandist director Leni Riefenstahl.[20] Yet George Monbiot revealed on 6 June, also in The Guardian, that the production company had no record of Luckhurst having attended a critics' screening of the as-yet unreleased film, and Luckhurst refused to comment.[21] In a generally positive review, the Irish historian Brian Hanley suggested that the film might have dealt with the IRA's relationship with the Protestant community.[22]
One strain of commentary in Ireland examined the Irish War of Independence as a socialist or class-based conflict, as well as a nationalist uprising.[23] The film has also re-generated debate on rival interpretations of Irish history.[22][24]
References
- ^ News from the UK Film Council UKFilmCouncil.org.uk, 23 April 2007
- ^ "Loach Film Sets New Money Mark" RTE.ie, 8 August 2006
- ^ a b "Filming Locations". IMDb. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0460989/locations. Retrieved 2008-11-23.
- ^ "Kilmainham Gaol". goireland.com. http://www.goireland.com/BLOG/article/Kilmainham-Gaol.html. Retrieved 2008-11-23.
- ^ BandOnScouts.com
- ^ "The Wind that Shakes the Barley" RespectCoalition.org, 10 June 2006
- ^ Quoted at http://www.pslweb.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=6647&news_iv_ctrl=1861
- ^ [1]
- ^ http://worldfilm.about.com/od/irishfilms/fr/windshakebarley.htm
- ^ "The Wind That Shakes the Barley - Rotten Tomatoes". Rotten Tomatoes. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_wind_that_shakes_the_barley/. Retrieved 2008-01-05.
- ^ "Wind That Shakes the Barley, The (2007): Reviews". Metacritic. http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/windthatshakesthebarley. Retrieved 2008-01-05.
- ^ "Powerful - but never preachy" The Daily Telegraph, 23 June 2006
- ^ "The Wind that Shakes the Barley" The Times, 22 June 2006
- ^ "Troubles and Strife" The Daily Record, 23 June 2006
- ^ a b "Metacritic: 2007 Film Critic Top Ten Lists". Metacritic. http://www.metacritic.com/film/awards/2007/toptens.shtml. Retrieved 2008-01-05.
- ^ "Come out fighting" The Guardian, 16 June 2006
- ^ "Why does Ken Loach loathe his country so much?" The Daily Mail, 30 May 2006
- ^ "Ken Loach hits back at English tabloids" Indymedia Ireland, 1 June 2006
- ^ "What about making Black and Tans: the movie?" The Guardian, 6 June 2006
- ^ "Director in a class of his own" The Times, 31 May 2006
- ^ "If we knew more about Ireland, we might never have invaded Iraq" The Guardian, 6 June 2006
- ^ a b "The Wind That Shakes the Barley Sends Revisionists Yapping at History's Heels: Ireland's Freedom Struggle and the Foster School of Falsification" Counterpunch.org, 11/12 November 2006
- ^ "Film Review: The Wind That Shakes The Barley" indymedia Ireland, 2 July 2006
- ^ "Cork Examiner, June 26, 2006: Sectarian Wind Up - a defence of The Wind that Shakes the Barley"
External links
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The Save the Children Fund Film (1971) · Family Life (1971) · The Price of Coal (1977) · Black Jack (1979)
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