The Wind That Shakes the Barley Gently Blows

March 14th, 2007 in Awards, Drama, Movies

The Wind that Shakes the Barley was a bit of a shock win at least year’s Cannes Film Festival. Shot on a tiny budget, about the rural reaction to the Irish civil war which broke out in the 1920’s, you just don’t see a winner in this. However, the film must have absorbed the luck of the Irish, as it swept the box office in Ireland, as well as making its mark in Europe.

The film focuses on the character of Damien, a good country lad whose ambition is to attend medical school. But before he can head off to London to complete his studies, he bears witness to several atrocities committed by British soldiers in order to prevent any rebel activity (like breaking up a hurling game, curse them). Damien makes the difficult choice in joining his brother, Teddy, already a rebel leader, in the guerrilla fight for Irish independence. But things get complicated when Irish civil war breaks out, as Damien and Teddy find themselves on opposite sides.

Director Ken Loach blatantly portrays the tragedy of the political situation by filming the brutality bestowed upon by the British in the very same light when it’s ‘Irishman Versus Fellow Irishman’ later in the film. Many of the English critics felt the film was flawed for its one-sided portrayal of the English. I can’t say that opinion is entirely justified, as they cannot deny that the acts shown in the film ever happened. It’s pretty much accepted that the English did even worse. Plus, there is some space given to sympathise with the enemy. At one stage, a desperate English soldier screams how he doesn’t want to be in Ireland either, that he and his fellow men are recovering from the Great War, and long for a peaceful existence in England. It’s more than what you’ll get in terms of understanding the German soldier mentality in the average WWII film.

I must admit that Loach did seem to capture a distinctly Irish quality to such events. The training scenes are centuries away from the modern war movie’s hardened scenes accompanied by quick cuts and screaming drill sergeants. Watching the young Irish crawl over hills with twigs in their hands, their leader with cap on head and hurley in hand, I was somehow reminded of the benevolent barking of my physical education teacher in school. Living in Ireland, I witnessed the reaction of those around me who had relatives involved in the civil war. The public verdict in the country is that The Wind that Shakes the Barley is a powerful film. However, this reaction is only due to the connection the domestic audience has with the true events. For if we are to judge a film, we must abstract our personal involvement and see the film for its own qualities.

And what we get in the end is a mildly affecting drama. The problem is that while the plot has the making of a familial tragedy (two brothers torn apart by war), something Loach usually excels at doing, he employs a distancing method of filming. As if a Brechtian film, performances are muted, sometimes improvised, and often shot from a distance, taking in the landscape more than the characters. The romance between Damien and Sinead is brief and forgettable. This all aims to push emotional response away from the events, forcing the viewer to understand the film on a political scale. But this makes for very dissatisfying viewing, without the emotion, the film feels more like a technical documentary than a drama.

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