An elegy to a missed opportunity for dramatic social change, Ken Loach’s “The Wind That Shakes the Barley” took the Palme d’Or at last year’s Cannes Film Festival, a prize given as much for the movie’s socialist politics as for its filmmaking merit.
That’s not to say Loach’s movie doesn’t make for good drama. It does, though at times its didacticism is a bit wearying. In looking at the IRA’s guerrilla fight against the British and the civil war that erupted following the establishment of the Irish Free State, Loach laments a moment in time when, as he sees it, the Irish accommodated the British and lost the chance to give true power to the people.
The movie takes place in the Irish countryside, 1920, as the locals react to the ruthless tyranny of the British “Black and Tan” soldier squads by forming their own volunteer guerrilla armies. The film’s main characters are brothers, Damien (the great Cillian Murphy, who played the Scarecrow in “Batman Begins”) and Teddy (Pad- raic Delaney), who ultimately find themselves at odds over what constitutes true freedom.
Loach (“Sweet Sixteen”) and his frequent writing collaborator Paul Laverty clearly sympathize with the downtrodden Irish, but remain clear-eyed about the costs of revolution. We see painful scenes of the IRA dealing with their traitors – perceived and otherwise – as mercilessly as they murder the Black and Tans. When they ambush British soldiers, the guerrillas are told not to look at the Brits’ faces to avoid, as Bob Dylan sang in “John Brown,” a recognition of a shared humanity.
Because of all the brutal acts he commits in the name of the cause, Damien blanches when, in 1921, the English offer a collaborative Free State with distinct limitations. The pragmatic Teddy believes it’s a step in the right direction, but Damien believes his brother has sold out his progressive ideals for a whiff of power.
Loach lays out both sides of the argument, but it’s clear, as he lays on some pretty thick symbolism toward the end, that he’s with Damien.
But there’s plenty of misery and bitterness to go around as one war turns into another, countryman against countryman, the resulting tragedies and loss almost unbearable to watch.
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“The Wind That Shakes the Barley”
NOT RATED but with violence|2 hours, 4 minutes|DRAMA|Directed by Ken Loach; starring Cillian Murphy, Padraic Delaney|Opens today at Landmark’s Chez Artiste.
