THE WIND THAT SHAKES THE BARLEY

Continuing my mini blog series on films overlooked by the Academy Awards....

THE WIND THAT SHAKES THE BARLEY
Directed by Ken Loach

Perhaps there is no more underrated director in the world than Ken Loach. This, despite the fact that he garnered the Golden Palm Award at last year's Cannes Film Festival for his crowning achievement, THE WIND THAT SHAKES THE BARLEY. Even the top directorial prize in the world hasn't been able given him the wide acclaim he so richly deserves. He continues to rile critics and the public alike, if not for his incendiary subjects but for his blunt and unforgiving pursuit of the truth.

Loach, like his British countryman Mike Leigh, has an innate ability to capture the times and travails of the common man. He finds truth and passion in the seemingly uninspired and mundane, and throughout his career, he has captured the veracity of middle class struggle with panache and unparalleled skill. His films MY NAME IS JOE, HIDDEN AGENDA and FAMILY LIFE take a documentary / journalistic approach to fiction, a convention that is only applied with equal skill by the magnificent Dardenne Brothers of Belgium in their films ROSETTA, LE FILS and L'ENFANT.

It seems appropriate then that Loach's latest film be about the origins and rise of the Irish Republican Army and Ireland's fight for independence. Loach has taken a tremendous amount of flak from British media and public who claim his film as being anti-British, but in reality he abides to the journalistic adage that he is simply telling the truth. After viewing THE WIND THAT SHAKES THE BARLEY and reading up on the conflict, I take Loach's word and respect him tremendously for it.

In 1920, Ireland was being ravaged by violence enacted upon locals by the Blacks and Tans, which was a Royal Irish Constabulary Reserve Force designated by the British Parliament to suppress revolutionaries in Ireland. Two brothers, Damien (a career defining performance by Cillian Murphy) and Teddy (Liam Cunningham) set aside their ideological differences to take arms against the British and fight for their country's independence. Once a peace treaty is agreed upon, the brothers are pitted against one another in a second ideological battle, one that divides the brothers just as the people of Ireland are divided in the Irish Civil War.

Upon viewing this film I realized I was watching something urgent and rare. It was a feeling I can only lay claim to three times before in my history of watching films, when I saw Gillo Pontecorvo's THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS, Roland Joffe's THE KILLING FIELDS, and Anurag Kashyap's BLACK FRIDAY (which I will write about in a later entry in this blog series). These films all tackled sociopolitical issues that were relevant to the successes and caveats to war and nation building, and are invaluable documents that must be viewed by a voting public. Loach's film (and Anurag's film) is no different, and its importance to the American and British public is paramount in regards to the future direction of the undeclared civil war in Iraq.

After the peace accord in Ireland was signed, Ireland split into two factions, the Irish Free State Army and the anti-treaty Irish Republican Army. These were brothers in blood, and yet their ideological divide led to the destruction of their country, the killings of innocents, and ultimately one of the bloodiest conflicts in world history. Loach and screenwriter Paul Laverty's decision to use the brothers Damien and Teddy as a metaphor for the divide is a wise choice, as it imparts a humanity and a point of reference for all, for there is perhaps no greater savagery than blood killing blood. Because we emotionally relate to the characters, the ideological battle is one we invest in, and its outcome bears the weight of tragedy that goes beyond simple filmmaking.

Loach's cinematographer Barry Ackroyd facilitates all of this, his camera drinking the beauty and terror of the Irish landscape. The camera absorbs the emotion, and along with Loach's subtle direction the actors are free to explore onscreen, they are allowed to improvise and snub lines, and they are truly in the moment. The choices made by Cillian Murphy in particular are outstanding, as he deftly toes the line between loyalist, pragmatist and survivor. Murphy utilises his entire body in his performance, and every twitch, convulsion and hesitation tells volumes. it is one of the best performances of the year, and a cementing of Murphy's place in the pantheon of the world's best actors.

Detractors of the film claim that it serves no other purpose than to inflame old conflicts, to rabble rouse and possibly jeopardise the peace in the region today by reigniting anger from wounds recently healed. This is the furthest thing from the truth, as films like THE WIND THAT SHAKES THE BARLEY and BLACK FRIDAY are meant to provide criticism and foresight to TODAY's conflicts, as it is no longer a surprise that history indeed repeats itself.

Iraq has spiralled into sectarian violence, a civil war between Sunni and Shiite that is divided upon lines of ideology and political representation. After the US and British armies declared victory with the dethroning of Saddam Hussein, they ill calculated the troubled fraternal relationship of the religious sects. These are the ghosts of Ireland, of Algeria, of Chile and India, and is the current reality of not just Iraq but also Sri Lanka, Palestine, and much of Africa. We need reminders, no matter how blunt or incendiary, of the wrongs of our past. It is naive to think that George Bush or Tony Blair would see a film like THE WIND THAT SHAKES THE BARLEY, but it is a more realistic hope that the public that votes for these leaders would see them. It takes effort, it takes an open mind and an educated base for this to happen. I have faith that it can, if the right people step up and support it unequivocally.

THE WIND THAT SHAKES THE BARLEY is not a flawless film, but it is direly important. It is moving, touching, powerfully acted and impeccably crafted, and that alone makes it one of the best films of the year. It is its message that makes it one of the most important films of recent memory.

Snubbed Oscar Nominations: Best Picture / Best Foreign Film, Best Director (Ken Loach), Best Actor (Cillian Murphy) and Best Cinematography (Barry Ackroyd)

NOTE: This film will be released soon in the US, it is currently only available though Region 2 DVD.