The Wind That Shakes the Barley (film)

For the folksong, see The Wind That Shakes the Barley (song).

The Wind That Shakes The Barley
Directed by	Ken Loach
Written by	Paul Laverty
Produced by	Rebecca O'Brien
Starring	Cillian Murphy Orla Fitzgerald Padraic Delaney Liam Cunningham
Music by	George Fenton
Release dates	18 May, 2006 (premiere at Cannes) 23 June, 2006 07 September, 2006 21 September, 2006 14 March 2007 (limited)
Running time	127 min
Languages	English, Irish

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 is 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. Meanwhile, British interrogators rip out brigade leader Teddy's fingernails when he refuses to name names. Hearing his screams 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 to 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 heartsick 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. Meanwhile, Teddy expresses fear that the British will return and organizes military tribunals to deal with captured IRA men. 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, saying that he killed Chris Reilly for collaborating with the enemies of his cause. Writing a goodbye letter to Sinéad, Damien declares his love for her, adding that he knows what he stands for and that he is not 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 bitterly, 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 is 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

• 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.

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.

The film was attacked by some commentators, some of whom hadn't seen it, including Simon Heffer. 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," 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 would 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.

External links

• Official site (UK)
• Official site (US)
• The Wind That Shakes the Barley at IMDb
• The Wind That Shakes the Barley at Rotten Tomatoes
• The Wind That Shakes the Barley at Metacritic
• The Wind That Shakes the Barley at Box Office Mojo
• The Wind That Shakes the Barley at AllMovie
• Interview with Ken Loach about the film from Socialist Worker, 10th June 2006
• "Wind that Shakes the Barley: A historically accurate film" review in The Militant
• Introduction to The Wind That Shakes the Barley script by Luke Gibbons, see also Gibbons reply to Kevin Myers
• debate about the accuracy and political significance of the film

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