Everything about The Wind That Shakes The Barley Film totally explained
The Wind That Shakes the Barley is a 2006
Ken Loach film set during the
Irish War of Independence (1919–21) and the
Irish Civil War (1922–3). 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
Great Britain.
Widely praised, the film won the
Palme d'Or at the
2006 Cannes Film Festival. Loach's biggest box office success to date, the film did well around the world and set a record in
Ireland as the highest-grossing Irish-made
independent film ever.
Plot
It is
1920, and Damien O'Donovan (Murphy), a young doctor, is about to leave
Ireland to work in a
London hospital. Meanwhile, his brother Teddy (Delaney) commands the local
flying column of the
Irish Republican Army. After a
hurling match, Damien witnesses the fatal bayoneting of his friend, Micheaíl Ó Súillebheán, by British
paramilitaries. Although shaken, Damien rebuffs his friends' entreaties to stay in Ireland and fight for independence, saying that the IRA is too outnumbered to win. However, as he's boarding a train, Damien witnesses the
British Army assaulting a railway official for refusing to allow the troops to board and the subsequent resistance of the train driver, and he changes his plans. He is sworn into the IRA and joins Teddy in a
guerrilla war against the British.
Determined to retaliate for Micheail's murder, Damien and his IRA brigade raid the local
police barracks and steal guns. Then they ambush the Auxiliaries, gunning down four of them in a pub. Later, wealthy
Anglo-Irish landowner Sir John Hamilton (
Roger Allam) coerces one of his servants, IRA member Chris Reilly (
John Crean), into informing. As a result, the entire brigade is arrested by the British Army. In their cell, Damien meets up with the train driver, Dan (
Liam Cunningham), and learns that the union activist shares his
socialist opinions. The British interrogators rip out brigade leader Teddy's fingernails when he refuses to name names. Hearing his cries from their nearby cells, Damien and the other prisoners sing
the Irish national anthem to distract Teddy from his pain. A young British soldier of Irish descent soon helps all but three of the prisoners escape.
After the involvement of Sir John and Chris is revealed to the IRA, both are taken hostage and marched to a cottage in the mountains. As Teddy is still recovering, Damien is temporarily placed in command. After the torture and execution of the three IRA prisoners, the Brigade receives orders to "execute the spies." Despite the fact that Chris Reilly is a lifelong friend, a rattled Damien shoots both hostages with a revolver. Later, he tells his sweetheart,
Cuman na mBan message runner Sinéad Sullivan (
Orla Fitzgerald), about the shame of facing Chris Reilly's mother, concluding, "I can't feel anything."
After Damien and Teddy's unit ambushes and defeats an armed convoy of the
Auxiliary Division, another detachment of "Auxies" attacks and burns the farmhouse of Sinéad's family. Sinéad is held at gunpoint while her head is shaved and bloodied with sheep shears. Low on ammunition, Damien is restrained by Teddy and can only watch. Later, as Damien comforts Sinéad, a messenger arrives with news of a formal
ceasefire between Britain and the IRA. During a village celebration, 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. Teddy argues for the Treaty and peace, asserting that
David Lloyd George, the British
Prime Minister, risked his political career by offering the terms he did. Damien opposes the Treaty for failing to deliver full independence from Britain. Dan further argues that the Treaty will only change "the accents of the powerful and colour of the flag." As the Free State grows stronger, Damien and his Anti-Treaty comrades feel a sense of alienation. When Teddy arrives in his new
Irish Army officer's uniform, one of Damien's friends dubs him a "
gombeen man." Later, when the village priest preaches in favor of the Free State, Damien interrupts his sermon, denounces the Treaty, and storms out followed by half the congregation. He affiliates himself with the
Anti-Treaty IRA and begins training teen-aged recruits in
guerrilla warfare.
On the verge of war with his own brother, Teddy reaches out to Damien and asserts that the farmers and businessmen of the district are scared of the socialist rhetoric in his Anti-Treaty pamphlets. Damien responds by saying that the poor are being mistreated and that only
socialism can stem the tide of emigration. Teddy asserts that the Free State will "tear up the Treaty as soon as we're strong enough..." Damien responds that by accepting the Treaty and swearing an oath of allegiance to King
George V of England, Teddy has wrapped himself in the
Union Jack, "the Butcher's Apron."
After the
first battle of the
Irish Civil War breaks out in Dublin, Damien and his men commence hit-and-run tactics against the new
Irish Army. Soon after, Damien is captured during a raid for arms on a Free State barracks and is sentenced to death. As he awaits the firing squad in the same cell where the British had imprisoned them earlier, Teddy pays him a visit. He tells Damien of his dream of building a free Ireland where they can both raise families in peace. Teddy pleads with Damien to reveal where the IRA is hiding the stolen arms, offering him full
amnesty for the information. Damien refuses to become an informer, saying that he killed Chris Reilly for the same offense. Writing a goodbye letter to Sinéad, Damien declares his love for her, adding that he knows what he stands for and that he isn't afraid.
At dawn, Damien is marched before a
firing squad. Teddy, the squad's commander, tells him, "It's still not too late, Damien." Damien mutters, "For you or for me?" At Teddy's orders, the squad fires and Damien crumples to the ground. Weeping, Teddy unties the body and cradles his brother in his arms. When Teddy delivers Damien's final letter to Sinéad, she angrily orders him to leave, then screams and sobs as she reads.
Production
Although it's focused on Irish history and identity and stars mostly Irish actors, the film was made by
British director Loach and was 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.
National University of Ireland, 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. 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 (it was from Lee’s Hotel in Bandon (now the Munster Arms) on
August 22,
1922. This choice of location may be significant, as
Michael Collins set off on the fateful journey that ended in his death at the hands of
Anti-Treaty IRA at
Béal na mBláth ('The Pass of the Flowers'), about 8 miles away. The ambush scene was shot on the mountains around Ballyvorney while the farmhouse scenes were filmed in Coolea.
Many of the extras in the film were drawn from local
Scout groups, 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.
Amongst 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.
Cast
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.
Reception
The reaction from film critics has generally been positive. As of
5 January, 2008, the review aggregator
Rotten Tomatoes reported that 88% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 102 reviews.
Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 82 out of 100, based on 30 reviews.
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". A
Times film critic said that the film showed Loach "at his creative and inflammatory best", 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."
Michael Sragow of
The Baltimore Sun named it the 5th best film of 2007, and Stephen Hunter of
The Washington Post named it the 7th best film of 2007. 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's no other self-respecting course," and attacked his career in an article containing inaccuracies. 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'd never see it "because I can't stand its sheer predictability." 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. Yet George Monbiot revealed on 6 June, also in
The Guardian, that the production company had no record of Luckhurst having attended a critic's screening of the as-yet unreleased film, and Luckhurst refused to comment. 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.
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. The film has also re-generated debate on rival versions of Irish history.
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