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.

I usually have a lot to say about movie leaving it whether good or bad but unfortunately for The Wind That Shakes The Barley (TWTSTB) I can't even think of where to start. I just feel "ehh" about this movie as I could not really care for it. Does that mean this was a bad movie? Definitely no. Was this movie great? Definitely not. TWTSTB is in that awkward area of forgettable. Sure the cinematography is great at points and I love the Kurosawa influence on the filmmaking here but at the end of the day I just couldn't care about the movie in general. It had all the stuff you want in a movie like this, the struggle and solid characters to back it off, but the movie comes off as boring the whole time unfortunately.

So this is a short review because I don't have a lot to say. I wouldn't suggest this to anyone really nor would I ever want to watch it again. Its long and tries hard to be a dramatic masterpiece but ultimately falls short of that. I would skip over this film. Hell there were plenty of times throughout the film that the actor messed up their lines but the filmmakers kept it in. Also there were a few times the camera's aperture is changed within one shot and it felt distracting and a little messy. I wanted to enjoy this film, I wanted to find good stuff about it, but at the end of the day i couldn't care for it.

2/4