The Wind That Shakes the Barley Reviews

• A brutal, sad, powerful film of the Irish rebellion against the British, and the civil war that followed

  
  By A2GCHG6U8HTVIT on 2007-05-13
  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 On the one hand, there will be an Irish Free State with British troops withdrawn.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.
  
  

• Brother against Brother

  
  By A1TJPMB7N776WS on 2007-03-17
  "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.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

• Disappointing but Admirable Effort

  
  By A3HD7SVBY4JZOW on 2007-09-08
  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.
  
  

• Exceptional and accurate

  
  By APCDR8BOAGSZK on 2007-04-26
  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.
  
  

• 4.5 Stars. One of the best films of 2007 showing us the high price of freedom.

  
  By AN8M401S8Y6DA on 2007-09-07
  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.
  
  
  
• Great as history and somewhat as metaphor
  By AJYGQV81FSFE2 on 2007-04-21
  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.
  
  
• An ambitious, yet earnest, failure
  By A140XH16IKR4B0 on 2007-05-21
  The struggle for Ireland to be free of British control has been going on for an awfully long time. I do not pretend to be conversant or even barely knowledgeable of its twists, turns, reversals and rekindlings. This movie attempts to depict the events from about 1920 to 1922 through the eyes of a small band of IRA men and women.
  
  In truth, the movie is less a historical depiction than a condensation - almost to the point of allegory - of the issues that gripped the country during this period. The film does this by focusing on a pair of brothers - Damien and Teddy Donovan. As the film starts, Damien is planning to travel to England for his medical training. But the brutality of the British "Black and Tans" soon radicalizes him, and he joins with his brother to drive out the English and restore native rule to his land. After the Anglo-Irish treaty of 1921, found unacceptable by some for not completely ridding Ireland of the Brits, the former fighters find themselves fighting each other. Teddy accepts the treaty and joins the Irish homeland army while Damien opposes the treaty, setting the stage for tragedy.
  
  The filmmakers made some interesting, curious, and not altogether successful choices. By focusing on a relatively small part of the country, and a very small number of actors, they made the story more manageable, but also robbed it of its context. We see exactly one starving child and are told (not shown) that there are tens of thousands more. The same family homestead is attacked over and over, almost to the point of ludicrousness. Also, the filmmakers decided to let their actors speak in a brogue so thick that I did not realize that Teddy and Damien were brothers until well into the second half of the film. My teenage son never perceived this crucial fact until after the film was over. The decision to let the actors adlib some of their lines should have lent verisimilitude to the angry exchanges that peppered the film. But listening to the actors stumble over their lines was a distraction, not a way to increase the sense of reality. And unless one was minimally conversant with the personalities and facts around Ireland's struggle for independence, many of the scenes did not make sense.
  
  There was a curious languor about the film - a lack of passion that should have inhabited its core. In an example scene, a priest at Mass is angrily urging his parishioners to accept the peace treaty, threatening excommunication upon those who refuse. Damien "angrily" talks back to his pastor, and walks out of Mass accompanied by a dozen or more of his supporters. But they move away from church like they are on a summer walk, with their fires completely banked, their challenge to the [...] of the Church making barely an emotional ripple. Not enough was done to set a historical context for the existence of British soldiers in Ireland. Sure, the Black and Tans were nasty, but what were they doing in Ireland in the first place?
  
  The film did do some good. For those (like me) who do not understand the Irish war and the origin of the IRA, this film provided basic information and made me somewhat sympathetic to these men and women who wanted to be rid of foreign occupiers. The lighting was superb, capturing the gloomy dankness of a prison cell and the crepuscular lighting of a pre-dawn attack. The violence was especially well-done, almost too much to watch in parts. The film also has to be lauded for attempting to portray the bind that so many Irish found themselves in - conflicted over whether to accept an imperfect peace, or to launch a bloody and unending civil war until compete independence was achieved.
  
  Taken as a whole, "The Wind that Shakes the Barley" is a noble failure - a film that could not capture the large-scale story and left too much passion out of its small-scale facsimile. But perhaps that's a function of the missing dialog. Skip this in theaters, and either buy it or rent it as long as you can run it with subtitles.
  
  
• BLOOD, TEARS AND NO SWEET
  By A3R2YB0WTTB0IJ on 2007-05-29
  Ken Loach's THE WIND THAT SHAKES THE BARLEY won the Golden Palm of the 2006 Cannes Film Festival and many other distinctions in Europe. This film is another stone added to the cathedral erected to the memory of the thousands of civilians and soldiers killed in Ireland during the last century.
  
  What stroke me the most in this movie, it's the feeling that, during the period described, elementary human rights were put aside because of something bigger than Man and his trivial circumstances. I have the same feeling when I happen to read a book about the French Revolution. How many men of good will have to die before the revolution is over ? Ken Loach manages to render this impression with his usual skill. However I would have liked to hear the British point of view in this tragic demonstration.
  
  A DVD zone History.
  
  
• Tragic, even for a story about Ireland.
  By AJACZ54X687PL on 2007-05-17
  I just came back from seeing it with a friend. It was beautiful and sad. The accents could be a bit difficult to understand sometimes, but it is after all an Irish movie, so it makes sense, and only made it more lovely. Watching it the first time around with subtitles might be a good idea, because while you start to get used to the accents and can understand them better towards the middle of the movie, I did miss some things at the beginning. Personally, I just plan on buying it and watching it over and over.
  
  
• Excellent movie
  By A2OBAC8JIXS4DX on 2007-03-27
  When I was visiting friends and family back home in UK last year I spent some time in Cork and one of the book stores had a big review on this movie and I unfortunately could not fit the book in my back pack (really wanted to buy it). On my plane coming back to the US this happened to be one of the on board movies and was really glad that I was able to watch it. Having been born and breed in Britain of an Irish mother the IRA had always been a big topic growing up. Plus having gone through a number of bomb scares, and growing up in the London commuter belt the IRA bomb threats were a part of life...sadly to say. This movie helped to put another perspective on what happened so many years ago and an insight as to how the British were treating the Irish. It also helped me to understand the plight of my own family back then as they were migrating over from County Cork to the UK and to now realize why they had so much biggitory thrown at them upon arrival in the UK! A wonderful moving movie, and I wish that I could find the DVD over here but I dont seem to be having a lot of luck!
  
  
• The start of the IRA and the parting of two brothers
  By ATXL536YX71TR on 2007-04-07
  The 1920's rebellion that was inspired by true events in Cork County,Ireland makes THE WIND THAT SHAKES THE BARLEY another film on the Irish fight for Independence from Britain.This film showcases two brothers who change in their passions about the struggle against British tyranny.Damien is a peaceloving medical student,while Teddy is already a hellion bent on ousting the Black and Tans (The Brits).When atrocities are committed by The Brits,both brothers swear allegiance to the Irish Republican Army.What essentially occurs is a change in each brother,as Damien becomes passionate about the struggle and Teddy becomes less so,thus putting them finally at odds.The story is quite repetitive and naturally violent.The film is quite dragging and loses alot of steam with the same old fight going on and on.More atrocities are committed and then more retaliation....more blood...more fights...very grim experience.This covers similar ground to the films MICHAEL COLLINS,THE LAST SEPTEMBER as well as other IRA films.Nothing new or different is really learned about the Irish problem if you have seen these other films.It is very testosterone driven,so that may be an appeal to some.Cillian Murphy is a quite accomplished and diverse actor from his roles in RED EYE and BREAKFAST ON PLUTO,but this role was not much for him.The accents are extremely thick and the sound is quite low in places.If you watch it on dvd,subtitles will help tremendously.The title of the movie comes from an old Irish War Ballad denoting the wind (the British) and the barley (the Irish).
  
  
• Brutal but honest and necessary
  By A1OVZXX1YJ3O9N on 2007-08-17
  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
  
  
• Fine humanist drama set during the Anglo-Irish War (1919-1921)
  By A31ARSC1LGY8WK on 2007-07-15
  "The Wind That Shakes the Barley" is set around the time of the Anglo-Irish War (1919-1921) when Irish republicans fought a guerilla campaign against the British occupiers.
  
  The intelligent script by Paul Laverty explores both the human side of the conflict and the complicated political climate of the time.
  
  The film, beautifully shot, has a real feeling of time and place - as if one were a fly on the wall. The acting is uniformly brilliant.
  
  A fine achievement from the great English humanist film-maker Ken Loach.
  
  
• Ken Loach's masterpiece!!
  By A16CZRQL23NOIW on 2007-08-13
  This brutal dramatis personae turns around the oppressive environment that hovered Ireland in the twenties decade, when the far cries and mournful sorrows of a bloody WW1 still remained in the soul and memories of the rest of Europe.
  
  That unstoppable determination in pursuit of independence and freedom, generated bloody confrontations inside the civil society against occupation forces.
  
  But the truce has come to calm the spirits, that configures two opposite points of view, those who agree with the truce and they who definitively assume this will not solve but on the contrary will lengthen the conflict.
  
  When a brother - seduced by the mermaid's songs of the great and pretended illusion - (the inseparable partnership of politics), forgets and loses above all, his human condition, agrees with a civilized dialogue, against the rage, the crude vision of the horrid reality not masked by treats or pacts, we have two opposed visions of the world; the natural law and the human law, hard to conciliate themselves throughout the history of the humanity.
  
  Ken Loach focuses with admirable crudeness the most little insights into this fratricide fight among citizens born under a same flag, land and tradition; he previously had given us a powerful film about the bloody Spanish Civil War; so, in this sense, that experience eased and even nourished the approach about that sensitive, painful and even not solved issue that many lives has generated.
  
  I would not hesitate to include this bold, brave and incisive film among the five gems of 2006, there' s not a single hole, script, performances, locations, fluid camerawork and wonderful edition process.
  
  Superb performance of Cillian Murphy!
  
  
  
  
• Tragic Ireland
  By A146H6A41B26QT on 2007-08-14
  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.
  
  
  
  
• As Strong as a Pint of Guinness
  By A3EE0H0NWQ9QVL on 2007-05-08
  'The Wind That Shakes the Barley' transports us to its setting like few movies do. Like a taste of Ireland's Guinness Beer, the movie makes a strong impression that leaves a long aftertaste. Screenwriter Paul Laverty and Director Ken Loach take us to Ireland in 1920 when modern tensions met an apex. Brothers Damien (Cillian Murphy) and Paddy (Padriac Delaney) form with others, working with the IRA and political group, Sein Finn, to bring Ireland to independence. From the start a stark contrast is made between the simplicity of decent people living in thatched, stone houses and the palpable brutality of British forces reigning in the resistance of labor unions. Once a young resident is killed for refusing to divulge his name in English, the wheel of violence starts rolling. Underarmed and often divided, the men try to hold their own against the British through clever tactics and ambushes. When they get England's attention, they can broker for peace on certain terms or take advantage for complete Irish sovereignty. The discord amongst the two brothers is a study in the choice for peace and a compromise--or to fight all the way to independence. Some of the best scenes show the Irish people divided, especially the quiet arguing between Damien and Paddy. It's easy to see why with such meager resources and inner squabbling, the Irish resistance didn't succeed as well as Rob Roy or Michael Collins.
  
  With beautiful scenery, desperate violence that make the battle scenes seem all too real, and a fragile comraderie amongst truly wronged people, 'The Wind that Shakes the Barley' harvests a rich viewing experience.
  
  (The recent peace agreement among the Nationalists and Loyalists in Ireland is certainly heartening--the day after I saw this movie--even if the conflict in the movie is between the Irish and English.)
  
  
• Beautiful scenery, poor acting, thin story
  By AR1T36GLLAFFX on 2007-05-05
  If you are familiar with Irish history, good, because you are going to need it to place this movie in proper perspective. Otherwise, the story doesn't really work as a set piece.
  
  Most disturbingly, the acting was poor. The woman who played the love interest of Damien was particularly poor. These actors/actresses looked as though they wouldn't be cast for a high school play, they were that bad. Several times, they stumbled over their lines.
  
  I've been to Ireland several times, have visited Northern Ireland in the 1970s, and experienced at bit of the politics (being quite careful not to talk about it too much). I was hoping to learn a bit more about the history of the country and the relationship with the British. I didn't learn anything in the film, and I was disappointed by that.
  
  The movie didn't really make sense unless you realize the IRA were Marxists, and wanted to appropriate the lands of the 'rich'. (BTW this leftist attitude was and is well-known, and even a brief bit of research will point this out).
  
  I was bored and uninterested in this movie. It's too bad, because it seems like a rich subject. An opportunity missed.
  
  
• Excellent, just wonderful
  By A34IBL8HGXPJ0N on 2007-06-25
  If there's a movie about the Irish revolution and civil war, I've seen it. This is by far the best one I've seen. While being very modern in feel, it addresses many of the issues during the revolution and remains authentic to the time-setting. Just bring your tissues for this one.
  
  Note: This is a decidedly Republican movie and should your sympathies lie in a more Unionist direction, you may not enjoy this one quite so much as I.
  
  
• A powerful, passionate film as unapologetic as its protagonist
  By A31IEQM3U9COYM on 2007-11-12
  I knew Ken Loach primarily from his razor-sharp Spanish Civil War drama Land and Freedom, which stands as one of the best and most unapologetic films on the subject I've ever seen. It's saying something when the most memorable scene in a film is an extended debate over collectivization - and I don't mean that as a slight! The Wind That Shakes the Barley works in the same relentlessly political and breathlessly energetic mode, but with even deeper humanity and depth of feeling.
  
  Cillian Murphy is Damien, a promising but relatively apolitical medical student who gets swept up in the tide of history, becoming a devoted member of the Irish Republican Army during the country's tumultuous early 1920s. (The Last King of Scotland slightly echoes the setup here, although Murphy's and McAvoy's characters end up on very different sides of the proceedings.) The central thrust of the story is Damien's personal transformation: we meet him as a doctor-to-be, keeping his head down in the hope that he can escape the growing turmoil around him, and we watch as he grows into a soldier of unshakable conviction, for whom compromise with the powers that radicalized him is never an option.
  
  Much like Land and Freedom, The Wind That Shakes the Barley uses the events it chronicles as a prism through which Loach can depict the machinery of class warfare and the transformation of radicalism into repression. To attack Loach's films for being partisan seems almost naive; what makes him a great filmmaker is the way he renders his own politics in such detailed and (most importantly) human terms. As Damien's involvement with the IRA deepens, Loach never apologizes for him, instead allowing his actions to unfold in all their tormenting fatalism. The result is a film that's never sermonizing but simply impassioned, where political struggle is human drama first and dogma second (consider Damien's words to his brother toward the end of the film).
  
  Which is also why the film provides a tiny snapshot of a much wider struggle. Critics may snipe at the brutality on display in the film (perhaps hoping for a more nuanced picture of the conflict), but history - Irish and otherwise - is littered with just this kind of polarized viciousness and animosity. And Loach's characters aren't simply righteous zealots caught up in dialectical confrontation: they're people, whose actions have as many personal dimensions as political ones. He's helped along greatly by his actors - especially Murphy, who's pitch-perfect from start to finish.
  
  By that same token, The Wind That Shakes the Barley one-ups Land and Freedom in the tragedy sweepstakes. While Land and Freedom's tragic finish turned on Stalinist betrayal (albeit with a considerable human element), the pathos here is a lot more personal. In that, it also reflects the way we in the US (still!) view these conflicts, with the Spanish Civil War as an international cause celebre and Irish independence as a more parochial issue - unless you're Irish.
  
  In the end, it's another great work by a director that too many have ignored and will probably continue to ignore because of his socialist leanings. But Loach's films stand out for much the same reason that Orwell's writings do: they're concerned with fundamental human problems as much as specific events, with the way power warps us as much as the particularities of history. And they're worth watching again.
  
  
• Wonderful and Sad
  By A2L2RQM47XCVTU on 2007-03-24
  What a wonderful film Ken Loach has made! Loach is a man of the left and makes no secrets about it--but no matter what your politics, this movie will haunt you. Loach's attention to detail (even to making sure the actors mastered the Cork accent) is breathtaking. If anything he is too easy on the Black and Tans who were even more savage than he depicts them. The struggle between the brothers is heartbreaking and Loach's sympathies lie with the brother Damien and all those who fought for a United Ireland during the tragic civil war that followed the partition. The irony is that Lloyd George privately confessed that had the Irish delegation called his bluff he would not have fired another shot. While it is true that the treaty had wide support among the people and clergy, it is also true that except for the Orange Lodges no one would have much objected to a United Ireland. Dangerfield's book "That Damnable Question" is an excellent resource for anyone wishing more detail. Other reviewers have been elequent and detailed so--enough said.
  
  
• Visualizing the stories
  By A2M8RJC04LQHEC on 2007-12-26
  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.
  
  
• Mesmerizing
  By AYSV126R7WTWT on 2007-03-21
  I just came back from seeing this movie and i'm still speechless. I walked out of that theater unable to discuss anything with all the emotions I was feeling. The movie is well made, the acting is superb. The relationship between the two brothers is heart wrenching and beautifully acted by Cillian Murphy and Padriac Delaney. I love how mistakes made in the speeches by the actors are kept in the film it gives it more realism. I can't image too many Americans having the attention span or having the historical knowledge to sit through this movie. If you want to see a well made, well acted movie of substance then go see The Wind That Shakes the Barley. This is one movie I will definitly be buying on DVD.
  
  
• A Powerful movie
  By A3EX8ZFNVDHGPM on 2007-09-08
  A story description has been written about this movie. I just wanted to add my 2 cents. This movie was recommended to me by an Irish lady while touring Scotland and Ireland. I have waited almost 2 years for it to show up here in the USA. A powerful and strong story of the fight for freedom in Ireland not unlike our own fight for freedom. The landscapes are beautiful and the characters ring true.
  
  
• The Birth of a Nation
  By A19ZXK9HHVRV1X on 2007-09-30
  Ken Loach`s "The Wind That Shakes the Barley" is a stirring, beautifully realized film that chronicles Ireland's struggle for independence from English rule. The story is set in 1920, four years after the Easter Uprising, in which the citizens of this British-ruled isle unilaterally declared themselves to be a sovereign nation. To make that assertion a reality, bands of armed volunteers, calling themselves the Irish Republican Army, began fighting against the English troops who were suppressing, terrorizing and executing many Irish citizens during the time depicted in the movie. This war lasted from 1919-1921, resulting finally in a partitioned Ireland, consisting of an independent nation called the Irish Republic in the South and an area still voluntarily subject to British rule in the North.
  
  However, "The Wind That Shakes the Barley" (which takes its title from an old Irish folk song) is less concerned with the politics of the situation than with the human cost of war. The events of the story are seen mainly through the eyes of a promising young doctor named Damien (played by the fine actor, Cillian Murphy), who is at first reluctant to join the guerillas, believing the British army to be just too well armed and too well manned to be successfully overcome by such a piddling, homegrown force as the IRA. However, after witnessing some particularly brutal treatment of his people by English soldiers, Damien gives up his promising career as a doctor to become a passionate, full-time warrior in the cause of independence and freedom.
  
  Writer Paul Laverty has constructed a simple, straightforward narrative that shows what life is like in a wartime setting. Damien understands that the cause he believes in so passionately is requiring him to commit acts he would never even dream of doing in a time of peace, including executing a boyhood friend of his for betraying him and his fellow fighters to the enemy. A war of freedom requires fortitude, sacrifice and courage from its participants, to be sure, but it also demands a part of their humanity as well. Damien soon learns that one often has to compromise one set of values in order to fulfill another. Laverty makes it plain that no one on either side of such a conflict will ever be able to live entirely at ease with his conscience even if the goal he is fighting for is eventually achieved. This is brought out with particular vividness in the second half of the film, after a treaty has been signed between England and Ireland, granting "independence" to the latter, though with many unsavory strings attached. It is at this point that the rebel forces spilt into two diametrically opposed factions and engage in a civil war, with men who were just recently allies suddenly turning their weapons against one another. Indeed, the pro-treaty fighters begin utilizing the same tactics of torture and terror against the anti-treaty fighters that the British forces had once used against them. This leads to a heartrending and shattering conclusion that exemplifies the horrifying personal cost of just such a conflict.
  
  Through the character of Damien, Laverty and Loach turn what could have been a fascinating, if dry, history lesson into a deeply moving human drama that reminds us of the high price that often must be paid if future generations are to live in freedom. In its own subtle, understated way, "The Wind That Shakes the Barley" shows us the birth pangs of a nation.
  
  
• Mild representation of brutal British colonial oppression of Ireland is parable of British American imperial occupation of Iraq
  By A1FDV3WPOHREY9 on 2007-10-16
  Except here the occupied are Catholic rather than Muslim, and agricultural products for hungry London is the object rather than petroleum.
  
  If the official Church documents and proclamations cannot convince you, this movie alone demonstrates clearly, if rather more gently than the actual brutal history, why no Catholic can now ally themselves in any way with British imperial interests in Iraq.
  
  And yet we find reviews here which find this movie both too slow and too violent. Turn on the excellent commentary to accompany you if you find it builds slowly (that opening hurling match is slow?); read your history. The truth was far more brutal, the torture of the Irish by the British over centuries, the sacking of the homes, the murder and mutilation of millions, the destruction of language, culture, religion, a nation.
  
  For us Catholics, we are invited to compare and contrast the spectrum of pastoral care presented in this film with historical accuracy. One priest who gives the boys the Sacraments in a hidden barn is an old hedgerow priest from the days when the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass could only be celebrated in hidden ditches because of the brutal religious oppression and the blood of many unknown martyrs for our Faith from the time of Oliver Cromwell (who slaughtered us in the name of his Lord) until one hundred years ago (and still in the unfree Orangeman county of Belfast).
  
  Another priest, under the auspices of the British Empire, bedecked in historically accurate liturgical robes, in a gleamingly appointed Church, etc., scolds and roars at his congregation to swear allegiance to the British crown which oppresses them, under the pain of excommunication, making the Church "irrelevant" and even enemy of their real lives under imperial oppression, allying the heirarchy with the Empire which starves, tortures, mutilates, masacres and robs them. Such dichotomy in pastoral theology remains in force throughout our Church, although the beloved and blessed hedgerow priests grow fewer and harder to find, and their memory more dear.
  
  Think of Iraq and realize what our media reveals is indeed very mild compared to the reality on the ground of our colonialist military occupation. And realize what a horror our participation in that British imperialist aggression must be for our American founders who fought for our freedom from the same British colonial oppression.
  
  And for our Irish grandfathers.
  
  Certainly we may point to slight quarrels with the acting, slightly weak at points, and at the mild representation of what in reality occurred, but this movie must be seen by every American as a parable to our present times and what we ourselves have become: mercenaries of the Empire.
  
  See this great film. Know your history. Work for peace and true freedom. Sure there are some plot holes you could drive a lorry through: A boy from Cork going to London to study medicine in the times of the oppression and after the Great War? Did the squadron of British troops assigned to Ireland after the Great War ever get on that train? Wouldn't the troops have raped that young woman instead of just giving her a haircut (but think of the British wrtier and director and production here and their own slant)? In any case this movie must be seen.
  
  
  
• The British Scorsese meets Michael Moore
  By A2QXHF0ATTLDP1 on 2007-10-29
  Ken Loach is officially the British Scorsese meets Michael Moore. I doubt you'll ever have the same views about the IRA after watching this film -- let alone American independence by comparison. The poetry of this film lays in the opening and closing scenes, in which the persecuted have been divided and made to commit the same atrocities against their fellow patriots. The oath that the rebels swear to protect their country is almost verbatim the oath that Americans take as members of the Armed Forces. So, for an American viewing this film, I think it becomes easy to associate our country with the rebels, as we basically exercise the freedoms that the IRA demands for Ireland. For this reason, I think it becomes much easier for people struggling for independence at varying levels to identify with this film, which Loach manages to portray as if he's recovered reels of documentary footage packed with all of the intensity and emotional intimacy that comes with really being there -- a monumental achievement for a filmmaker. (9/10)
  
  
• A tale of a man and his country
  By A3AVJCB1ZD6ZY5 on 2007-11-13
  "The Wind that Shakes the Barley" is the tale of one man and his love for his family and his nation--and what happens when both are tested.
  
  Damien Delaney (Cillian Murphy) is headed for London to go to medical school when he witnesses the first atrocities by the British, Black and Tans. Damien forsakes his future for that of his country and chooses to fight alongside his brother, Teddy (Padriac Delaney) to gain Irish independence. He's so dedicated he even claims to be his brother when the British come to extract information via torture. This unselfish act ruins Damien's chances at the career he's dreamed of.
  
  The story continues on with the peace treaty and the following Irish Civil War.
  
  War films are generally not my interest, but this is an exceptional movie and I would sincerely recommend it to students of English-Irish History. The research behind the film is extensive and the film attempted to create as realistic historical tale as possible. All in all, "Wind that Shakes the Barley" is an excellent effort and well worth the time and cost.
  
  
• Good, informative film about Irish War of Independence
  By A2SLA0SXRQV8M0 on 2007-04-06
  A movie about the Anglo-Irish war and the subsequent Irish Civil War told from a strongly pro-republican point of view. Cillian Murphy plays Damien, an apolitical Irish student, planning to become a doctor in London, who after witnessing the English brutal repression of Irish independence, decides to join his brother in the armed struggle to liberate Ireland from the English yoke. Director Ken Loach is certainly not among the most fluid of filmmakers, his movie is sometimes didactic, but is also consistently informative and interesting (it certainly lead me to look more information about this historical period on the Internet). The beautiful actress Orla Fitzgerald, playing Murphy's girlfriend, adds to the movie's appeal. The movie ends in a sad note: when the terms of the peace fails to conform the more belligerent Irish republicans (who particularly objected to the required oath to the King), the civil war erupts, and it ends up putting (literally) brother against brother. All in all, a highly recommended film.
  
  
• Nebulous but Picturesque Look at Irish Struggle for Independence & Identity.
  By A3UPYGJKZ0XTU4 on 2007-09-16
  Director Ken Loach trains his signature "social realism" on the Republic of Ireland's turbulent formative years in "The Wind that Shakes the Barley", which follows the Irish War of Independence and subsequent Civil War in the early 1920s through the experiences of two brothers, Damien and Teddy. Damien (Cillian Murphy) is a medical student looking forward to completing his studies in London. Teddy (Padraic Delaney) is committed to the Irish Republican Army's fight for Ireland's independence from British rule. When a young friend is murdered by the brutal "Black and Tan" military police, Damien decides he must stay and fight. He joins Teddy in one of the IRA's flying column guerilla units, immersing himself in a very dirty war.
  
  Barry Ackroyd's photography of the lovely Irish countryside makes a strong impression. The rest of the film is superficial in comparison. It doesn't delve into political complexities. The circumstances are what they are at any given moment, and characters react accordingly. But we never get to know the characters enough to understand their motives. Why does someone give up a comfortable life with a person he loves to oppose the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921, when neither he nor his family are personally threatened by it? There must be a reason. These characters are distant and elusive. The script seems insufficient to support the implied gravity. But I think the greater fault lies in a directing style that continually creates separation between the viewer and the characters. "The Wind that Shakes the Barley" isn't a bad film, but it's inconsequential.
  
  The DVD (IFC 2007): There is a theatrical trailer, a featurette about Ken Loach, and an audio commentary. "Carry On Ken: A Look at the Work of Director Ken Loach" (48 min) discusses Ken Loach's directing style, humor, character, and career through interviews with the director himself and many artists who have worked with him. The audio commentary is by Ken Loach and historical advisor Donal O'Driscoll. The commentary is not continuous and does not provide a background or great detail of the Irish-British conflict. But it does add some useful explanations, and Loach contributes his recollections about filming the movie. Subtitles are available for the film in English SDH and Spanish.
  
  
• Can't A Girl Catch a Break Around Here?
  By A3RNP5X8ZGZIEI on 2007-09-23
  British director Ken Loach's "The Wind That Shakes the Barley," was "un succes fou," (a mad success) at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival, winning its highest honor, the "Palme d'Or." It also racked up 18 further award nominations, and five wins, elsewhere. It's a historical drama, a sympathetic look at the early 20th century Irish Republic, one of the stages of the Irish revolution, written by Paul Laverty. It's said to be fairly accurate historically, and was filmed in the gorgeous green countryside of County Cork.
  
  The film stars Cillian Murphy as Damien, a doctor, and Padraic Delaney as his brother Teddy, who get caught up in the struggle for Irish independence, and are driven apart by it, as was not uncommon at the time. The look of the landscape is accurate, as are the set dressings, the vehicles, and the weapons. So is the look and sound of the people: they've got good "crac,"or wit, say most.
  
  Historians say that history is written by the victors, and, in the Irish revolution, a long and bloody one, the Irish eventually came out on top, though they don't always admit it. Thus, it comes down to us that the Black and Tans, a mercenary paramilitary organization, adjunct to the regular British Army, recruited from demobbing British World War I solders, paid better than the regular army, and all over Ireland in this war, were a gang of brutal thugs. Quite likely, they were. At any rate, we see a lot of brutality in this tragedy-infused film, that can achieve powerful moments.
  
  "The Wind" begins and ends during that long Irish war, not yet quite settled, and if you're not already familiar with its history, you'll find the movie hard to follow. The general audience may have further difficulty with the film's pacing: it opens on a hysterical note of murderous violence by the Black and Tans, and never once gives us a substantial break from it, aside from a brief "ceili,"a scene of song and dance. The young Murphy, playing a doctor here, gets but one brief doctoring scene. Among the film industry's new male stars, he'd have to be considered one of the easiest on the eyes, but you'd never guess that from this film: he gets only a few brief, mild, romantic scenes. In fact, if like some of us, you might be thinking of seeing this movie just for the sake of seeing him, forget it. This movie might well be described as agit-prop, shrill and one-sided in outlook, and it preaches largely to the converted, those who already agree with its point of view on the Hibernian wars.
  
  

• Michael Collins
• The Field
• Bloody Sunday
• Black Book
• In the Name of the Father