Last night we watched "The Wind That Shakes The Barley," a film by one of my favourite directors, Ken Loach. Like many of Loach's films, this is about a people's struggle for independence and freedom, in this case the Irish fight to overthrow British rule. It won the Palme d'Or at Cannes last year, and was probably Loach's most popular movie to date.
Although I have no ancestral connection to Ireland, I was obsessed with Ireland and Irish history for a good 15 years. The fascination abated when we finally went to Ireland in 2001, an ordinary trip for some, perhaps, but a dream for me. So a Ken Loach movie about Ireland is a natural for me.
You could say my recommendation is as one-sided as the film. Loach isn't there to give you so-called balance. As the infamous Black and Tans - the mercenaries the British hired to terrorize and control the Irish population - break into homes, humiliate families, destroy property, torture and kill, it was obvious Loach made this movie at this time for a very specific reason.
Pick your parallel - US to Iraq, Israel to Palestinians - it's impossible to miss the similarities. What is an insurgent? Who is a terrorist, and who a freedom fighter? Is it possible for ordinary working people to fight a mighty empire without resorting to violence? Is violence sometimes justified, and necessary? "The Wind That Shakes The Barley" leaves little doubt as to how the writer and director answer those questions, and I have to say I agree with their answers.
Screenwriter Paul Laverty is very adept at teasing out various political stances without having characters make stilted speeches. A political meeting seems very natural and unforced; I learned a few more things about the battle for Irish independence.
Loach is not one to offer Hollywood platitudes, and the film's ending is heart-wrenching. But the Irish people won their battle. Northern Ireland, obviously, remained a terrible flashpoint. But for centuries, a free and independent nation of Ireland was only a dream. Now it exists.
2 comments:
I became pretty interested in Irish history myself in the run-up to getting my Irish citizenship a few years ago. It really is an incredible story... a lot of savagery from all quarters.
But I can barely believe how things have turned around in just the past handful of years. The IRA dumped its weapons and declared itself out of existence. Last spring Ian Paisley sat down with former IRA men and formed a government that, utterly against every cynical expectation I had, seems like to still be in existence at the beginning of next year. Ironically it may be the death knell for any united Ireland in the political sense... but given that the people on both sides, Ireland and the UK, can move to, live in, work in, and vote in each other's countries (even without the EU assurances), it might fairly be said that Ireland's practically reunited already now that real peace seems to have finally taken root. God bless them all and more power to them.
As for the movie, I'm in complete accord with you. I think the moment for this movie as one instructive to Ireland and of what happens in it is past... if only just. Its REAL value is what it tells us of the mindsets of people in other struggles currently going on around the world. And it's important to tell it from the Nationalists' point of view because invariably, we in the West find ourselves in the role of the Black and Tans. Our national struggles are long over; we are now the oppressors. The cries of "Why do they hate us?" went up, not just in the US but elsewhere in the West at the end of 2001. The Wind that Shakes the Barley offers answers, ones that we can understand if we see ourselves as others do, if we'll only stop pretending we're angels and our every troop a flaming sword of rigthteousness made flesh. When you brutalize someone, they hate you for it. Your reasons for doing so hardly matter to your victim.
I think the movie is important in another aspect, too. In demonstrating that the Irish sovereigntists were not of a mind and wholly united, we're reminded that our own "enemies" today are not all foaming maniacs either. They're human beings with needs, desires, hopes for the future, strung out along a political spectrum. Some of them will be more sympathetic to us than others, more willing to reach accord with us than others. We need to start listening instead of shouting loudly that we already KNOW what they think and believe. We almost never do.
Thank you, my friend. Thank you for this.
Post a Comment