The Wind That Shakes The Barley

One of the funny things about being a movie maniac in my opinion is that I never once thought that I would reach a point in my life where there would be too many movies to watch. Then as I grew older and I learned more about film, I realized that there are times when there are too many movies to choose from at times. Some movies I want to watch to study the history of cinema, some movies I want to watch to enjoy, and other movies I take a chance on to see if they are any good. So as I came across The Wind That Shakes The Barley I thought I might give the movie a chance and see if its any good. I only know that it won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival so it has to be somewhat good. I also saw that it was directed by Kes director Ken Loach so I know that the film was in good hands. So what could go wrong?

The Wind That Shakes The Barley follows the relationship between Damien O'Donovan (Cillian Murphy) and Teddy O'Donovan (Padraic Delaney) during the early 20th Century rebellion of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) against the British Empire. The film explores the bloody and tyrannical rule the Brits had over the nation of Ireland. The two brothers decide to take an oath with the IRA and begin fighting back slowly through guerrilla warfare. As the time passes and the Irish begin to have victories, the two brothers see different views of the future for Ireland. Damien more of the democratic type wants absolute freedom for Ireland while Teddy is more militaristic and is willing to somewhat compromise for any freedom. As tensions rise in the conflict and the brothers deepen their lives into the fight for freedom, the war splits these brothers apart and leads to an unfortunate end.

Fruitvale Station

It seems that a lot of things we learn in life pile on. For example if you learn about human trafficking you might see a movie about it in the same week or hear about it in news stories for the next month. While the truth is that stuff like that has been happening your whole life, you finally are acquainted with it's presence and begin to become fully aware of its impact on the world. While this might be getting deep for a movie review, I feel like something like this has been happening to me recently. See I grew up in middle class suburbia and was taught that policemen are honest, good working people that have the best intentions for protecting civilians. Over the past year though my eyes have been slowly opened to the falsity of this idea. While certainly not every policeman is corrupt, I am becoming aware that there are bad cops out there who have done some horrible atrocities over the years. It all started with my Criminology class that showed me how many innocent people were set up and how huge corporations get away with mass murders yearly. Then two movies I saw recently helped me grasp a personal perspective on this corruption, first In The Name Of The Father and now recently Fruitvale Station.

Fruitvale Station follows Oscar Grant (Michael B. Jordan) a young 22 year old in Oakland, California who is just trying to find a stable job while making his girlfriend, mom, and most importantly daughter happy and give them the life they deserve. Oscar may not be perfect and has a troubled past, but he is trying to get his life back together and have an optimistic future. On the night of New Years Eve 2009, Oscar heads out with his girlfriend to enjoy the night and party in the new year. As they try to head back home, Oscar comes face to face with people from his past and one thing leads to another putting him and his future at risk.

End Of Watch

Suggesting films is a tough thing because you can't just tell people to go see movies that you enjoyed. For example, I really enjoyed Lars Von Trier's Anti-Christ but I will rarely suggest that to people because its a unique film to say the least. You got to make sure that you know the tastes of the person you are talking to and see if the film your talking about will fit those tastes. Its complicated when you really think about it but once you get used to a person's tastes you can find a good exchange of films that you can suggest to them. For me I love hearing what people suggest because it will tell me more about a person than most conversations will. So what does all of this have to do with End Of Watch? Well one of my fellow film aficionados whose knows my tastes pretty well highly suggested this to me saying that it was great film and wasn't getting enough credit. While I certainly was not going to pay to go see it, I was definitely interested in watching this on Netflix or maybe Redbox. Why was I interested? Who knows maybe I was willing to give Jake Gyllenhaal a chance. End Of Watch taught me a very important lesson, no matter how well some one knows you sometimes they will misread you.

 End Of Watch follows two young patrol cops Brian Taylor (Jake Gyllenhall) and Mike Zavala (Michael Peña) as they travel the streets in South Central LA. Along the way they must deal with the clashing personalities of their fellow officers and the constant danger of criminals. They handle everything from hand to hand brawls to discovering drug cartel houses. Besides patrolling the streets they also deal with their personal life, Taylor dealing with young love and Zavala dealing with his pregnant wife. Unfortunately as the cops start to pile up victories against the drug cartels, they get hits put on their heads. The partners must find a way to protect civilians against Big Evil and his gang while also protecting themselves to go back to their families.