5/5 The divisions of war
  by Edmonson (Canada)
"The Wind that Shakes the Barley"(2006) is a powerful film about the British oppression of the Irish people shortly after WWI. The film begins in 1920, and follows the people of a small town and the two brothers who eventually find themselves fighting the same battle but from different sides.

Damien O'Donovan (Cillian Murphy) is a young doctor about to leave for England, but upon seeing the beating of a railway guard he decides to stay and join the resistance. His brother Teddy (Padraic Delaney) commands the local flying column of the Irish Republican Army. After the treaty with England Damien and Teddy find themselves on opposite sides. Damien joins the Anti-Treaty IRA and Teddy joins the Irish Army as the Irish Civil War begins.

This is a heartfelt and beautifully shot film dealing with the difficult choices that people make, and how people with even the same goals in sight see differing means to that end, and how this can lead to devastating decisions.

4/5 "T'was hard the woeful words to frame; to break the ties that bound us."
  by J. H. Minde (Boca Raton, Florida and Brooklyn, New York)
The history of Ireland is a long and lamentable catalogue of abuses against the indigenous population by an occupying power, a catalogue which includes rapine, pillage, exploitation, expropriation, and the denuding of the culture, religion, and language of the Irish by their English rulers. THE WIND THAT SHAKES THE BARLEY takes place during the later days of the Irish Rebellion of 1916-1921, when the British adopted (or readopted) their time-tested policy to utterly subjugate the Irish. Gaelic publications were suppressed; meetings (of any sort) were banned; half-trained criminal mercenaries recruited from British jails were given khaki uniforms and black berets, truncheons and guns, and let loose with little restriction, becoming known as the infamous Black and Tans.

Damien (Cillian Murphy) is a young Irish doctor headed to London to complete his medical education. His life's course is changed when he becomes witness to anti-Irish atrocities. Putting aside his plans, he joins the Irish Republican cause.

THE WIND THAT SHAKES THE BARLEY captures its era and atmosphere perfectly. Having been raised by one who was there, I will attest to its accuracy. The glorious beauty of the Irish countryside is (as it was) a jarringly incongruous backdrop to the horrors depicted onscreen.

This film is a searing chronicle. Young Irish men of good breeding and kindly ways are transformed into the denizens of a partisan army that gives no quarter and asks none.

This film pulls no punches in its realism. Particularly grotesque is a sequence in which the Black and Tans yank out a young rebel's fingernails with a rusty pliers. Other sequences are less graphic but more troubling, as when the rebel force has to execute one of its own for inadvertently disclosing their plans to the British authorities. The heartbreak of the act is palpable.

Worst of all is the schism that develops between the Free State forces and the Anti-Treaty forces in 1921. Ireland was partitioned into north and south. The south (the "Free State") was granted a limited form of self-government under the British Crown, while the north remained (and still remains) an integral part of the United Kingdom.

The issue of whether to accept the Free State and partition or to continue fighting for a fully free unified Ireland split the country, and caused a bitter rift between people who had been fighting alongside each other only days before. Brothers and bloodsworn friends become each others' mutual murderers in the dark days of the Irish Civil War (1922-1923) which grew directly out of the War of Independence. Anti-Treaty advocates were hunted down and executed. The Irish Church excommunicated them. Many were forced to leave Ireland or face ostracism (at the least). Damien is caught up in this vortex, a storm which was ridden out by the Free State (the Republicans laid down their arms but never surrendered or formally renounced their goals).

This exemplary film captures a moment in time in a crystal and preserves it with all its roiling emotion, joy, terror, sorrow and grandness.


4/5 The Birth of the "Troubles" in Ireland
  by R. Crane (Washington, DC United States)
"The Wind that Shakes the Barley"--the title is derived from an Irish folksong heard during a funeral at the beginning of the film--depicts the naissance of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) back in the early 1920s. It is a tale told on two levels: the political dimensions of what was happening in Ireland at that time under British rule; and the personal--the impact on individuals and their families.

The personal aspect focuses on two brothers who organize a ragbag guerilla group to launch terrorist attacks on the British army in retaliation for their brutality to the Irish. Ultimately Britain and Ireland reach an accord which is not acceptable to many of the Irish as it does not grant them independence. The Irish who had been united against the British now found themselves turning against each other, some willing to accept the treaty--peace at almost any price--while others believed that the treaty was a sellout to the British. The consequences in human terms were tragic and devastating.

The film is quite extraordinary and winner of the 2007 Palme d'Or. The movie is so realistic and absorbing that you forget that you are watching a movie.


4/5 Best IRA Film
  by Terence Cole
This is the best film I have ever seen dealing with the Irish rebellion in the 1920's. Well cast and well presented with the facts pretty well in line with what I have read about this period of Irish history.

5/5 An Accurate Portrayal
  by M. Mahoney
The film makers went at lengths to make this an accurate portrayal of what life was like circa the 1922 treaty. This film has a lot of heart and feeling. It has its violence as to be expected, but the makers did not glorify it to try and sell the movie. It was done with tact and their point made. The commentary is great as they explain a lot of history through an unabated story.