The Wind That Shakes the Barley

The Wind That Shakes the Barley
Studio: IFC
Rated: NONE
WorkNameSort: Wind That Shakes the Barley, The

Ken Loach is asking a lot for audiences to accept the Irish Republican Army as misunderstood freedom fighters. It’s not that he leaves us in the dust while forming our sympathies in The Wind That Shakes the Barley‘s opening scenes, when a carefree game of field hockey is interrupted by thuggish British ‘Black and Tanâ?� soldiers who murder a player for refusing to give his name in anything but Gaelic. That’s the catalyst for gentle young doctor Damien (Cillian Murphy) to start thinking about whether it’s enough to heal his countrymen when it’s the country that’s truly in distress. The next time he’s carrying a field hockey stick, it’s as a mock rifle while rehearsing military drills on bucolic hillsides. But our empathy evaporates quickly as the ugly reality of what guerrilla soldiers are really called to do surfaces. If the delicate and azure-eyed Murphy weren’t cast as the lead, would we as easily forgive the explosions, executions, hostages and other assorted mayhem our protagonist undertakes on the path to Irish independence?

Luckily, Loach skillfully tempers the easy patriotism of the early scenes with a dawning realization of war’s futility and the human cost to be paid when idealistic struggles collapse under their own weight. While he’s got a weakness for scenes full of unnecessary shouting and wrestling, his vision for this movie matures once the film’s key turning points and moral conclusions become as subtle as the moody cinematography. Murphy ‘ who has excelled at playing well-mannered sociopaths in Red Eye and Batman Begins ‘ is a less seductive onscreen presence in a heroic role, but he’s still compelling.

Even though Loach has been making films for four decades in Britain and has won many accolades (including the Palme D’Or at Cannes for The Wind That Shakes the Barley) his work, unlike U.K. compatriots Danny Boyle or Stephen Frears, isn’t often released stateside. For American viewers unfamiliar with either Loach’s résumé or the historical events informing the movie’s plot, the DVD includes a well-crafted featurette overview of Loach’s career as well as a commentary track by Loach and the film’s historical advisor Donal O’Driscoll. These extras add another layer of comprehension to a war film that’s uniquely devoid of battlefield glamour and grand conclusions, acknowledging instead that the hairline separating meaningful and meaningless sacrifice wavers at a whim.

This article appears in Sep 5-11, 2007.