The Wind That Shakes The Barley

April 4, 2007

It’s time again for another Irish history lesson. Ten years back director Neil Jordan brought us Michael Collins, a film about one of the leaders in the Irish War of Independence that took place in the early 1900s. Now there is a new film by acclaimed director Ken Loach that covers the same period from a different perspective, and it’s called The Wind That Shakes the Barley.

The year is 1920, and the Irish are battling to get out from under British domination. The army has pulled back and the so-called “Black and Tan” mercenaries have been sent in to try and keep order with brutal force, fear and intimidation. Two young brothers, Teddy and Damien O’Donovan, get caught up in the struggle for independence. Damien is studying to become a doctor, and he is about to go to London to continue his education. The thugs come to his village, round up all the lads and end up killing his friend Michael solely because he purposefully spoke Gaelic to the goons instead of English. Then, once Damien sees the goons beat the engineer of the train that is supposed to take him to the boat that will get him to England, he has seen enough, and he joins with his brother Teddy and friends in the IRA. They both become leaders within the movement as they take up arms in the guerilla warfare against the oppressor. Along the way they get ratted out by an informant, they get captured, one of the brothers is subjected to brutal torture before they escape, and one falls in love with a local lass who hides guns in her mother’s house. Eventually, after meeting out justice against the goons and the informant, word arrives that a truce has been agreed to. Teddy wants to keep on fighting, and Damien insists that they let the Irish Provisional Government call the shots. But when the treaty is officially signed, there is outrage among part of the IRA because they will have to swear allegiance to the Crown and will not have total independence. One of the brothers says that the struggle for complete freedom must continue, and one says that they must abide by the treaty because it is the best offer available to them, thereby pitting sibling against sibling in an unforeseen battle that no one can win.

Never one to surrender to the lure of Hollywood, iconoclastic director Loach, director of other gems such as the gritty working-class send-up Riff-Raff and the political thriller Hidden Agenda, has created a powerful tour de force here with a cast of relatively unknown but excellent Irish actors. The film won the Golden Palm award at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival, and it should get some attention for an Oscar nomination in 2007.       

The title of The Wind That Shakes the Barley comes from a traditional Irish folk song from the 18th century and seeing this film will more then barely shake you to bottom of your soul. 

Nashville

December 13, 2000

After seeing the film High Fidelity recently I was inspired to take a look at my own little top ten list, the one I made many years back for my favorite films. It was obvious to me that it was well past time for a recount of my votes, since I had not updated it in about 10 years. Yet there was one movie on the list that caught my interest, and I wondered if it still stood the test of time – 25 years, to be exact. So off to the video store I went to take a trip back to Nashville.

Nashville is Robert Altman's gleaming montage with a political backdrop that takes place over the course of a few days in America's country music capital. Politics, music, racism – they are all served up on director Altman's palette. There is a cast of 24 colorful characters, many of whom interact with each other, with wonderful performances by all. Keith Carradine, Karen Black, Henry Gibson, and Ronee Blakley play established country singers; Michael Murphy is a sleazy political hack who lies to everyone he meets; Jeff Goldblum and Shelly Duvall are wackos living on the fringe; Barbara Harris and Gwen Wells are marvelous as singer wannabees; and Geraldine Chaplin is delightfully irrepressible as "Opal from the BBC." Some of the actors – Gibson, Blakley, and Carradine – wrote some of the songs they sang in the film. Carradine's tune, "I'm Easy," won an Oscar for Best Song, and its hilarious when he sings it in Nashville, as there are four women in the audience who think the song is being sung to them.

Director Robert Altman – who has given us such classics as M*A*S*H, McCabe and Mrs. Miller, and Short Cuts – released Nashville in 1975, and even at 159 minutes the film just flows right along. There is great editing in the recording session and bar scenes, and the musical performances -- especially Blakley and Gibson's parodies of famous country artists -- are right on target. Eerily, Hal Walker – the ominous Replacement Party candidate whose voice you hear throughout the film but whose character you never see -- has one promise in his platform that everyone would agree with today. He says, "I think we should remove all the lawyers from congress."  Too bad he wasn't running in the year 2000.

If you are as big a fan of Nashville as I am and you yearn for more info about this unforgettable film, there is a new book called The Nashville Chronicles: The Making of Robert Altman's Masterpiece by Newsday film critic Jan Stuart. Movies are often made from books, but rare is the time when a book is written about a movie. Any way you look at it, Nashville is well worth the visit.