Movie: The Wind that Shakes the Barley

[Heretik]

Have you seen this movie?

I've worked in a cinema last year and I was showing this movie.
An excellent portrait of the Irish fight for freedom and english brutality. After the movie was over the crowd stood still for about 5 minutes, some in tears, some in shock.
Absolutely brilliant.


I know this might not be a theme for this sub-forum but the theme is for this.

[Errigal]

I have not seen the film myself but I suppose I eventually will. Where did you see the film? I am curious about the crowd reaction you described.

[Heretik]

It was a small cinema in my city. I was showing subtitles because they didn't have the time to create them (I actually don't know the term in english. We here call it "welding").

Croatian crowd is always sensible to/for sufferings of all the nations fighting for their freedom. IE, we also have played a movie about palestinian suicide bombers and their fight against Israel and people were touched. It had a bit of comedy so it wasn't like The wind that shakes the barley but nevertheless.

[Errigal]

Originally Posted by Katera

It was a small cinema in my city. I was showing subtitles because they didn't have the time to create them (I actually don't know the term in english. We here call it "welding").

We call it to "super" the text from "superimpose".

Originally Posted by Katera

Croatian crowd is always sensible to/for sufferings of all the nations fighting for their freedom. IE, we also have played a movie about palestinian suicide bombers and their fight against Israel and people were touched. It had a bit of comedy so it wasn't like The wind that shakes the barley but nevertheless.

They talk about this film over at the Irish-nationalism.net site:

The wind that shakes the barley. - Irish Nationalism

I don't think I'd like it much myself; it was made by an English far-Lefty for one thing. Anyway, a civil war is essentially a difference of opinion which gets violent, so it's not surprising that a movie on this period in history would fail to be loved by all Irishmen.

[Lucas Corso]

I've seen it, great movie really a punch in the stomach...
It is a bit on the same path of another film of Ken Loach called "Land and Freedom"

[Errigal]

Originally Posted by Lucas Corso

I've seen it, great movie really a punch in the stomach...
It is a bit on the same path of another film of Ken Loach called "Land and Freedom"

Here's a story summary of "Land and Freedom" from Wikipedia:

The film's narrative unfolds in a long flashback. David Carr has died at an old age and his granddaughter discovers old letters, newspapers and other documents in his room: what we see in the film is what he had lived.
Persuaded of the necessity of helping the Spanish Republicans in their fight against the fascist Nationalist insurgence, Carr, a young unemployed worker and member of the Communist Party, leaves Liverpool and travels to Spain to join the International Brigades. He crosses the Catalan border and casually ends up enlisted in a POUM militia commanded by Lawrence, in the Aragon front. In this company, as in all POUM militias, men and women — such as the young and enthusiastic Maite — fight together. In the following weeks and months he becomes friends with other foreign volunteers, like the French Bernard, and he falls in love with Blanca, a member of POUM, who is also the ideologue of his group.
After being wounded and recovering in a hospital in Barcelona, he finally joins — in accordance with his original plan and against the opinion of Blanca — the government-backed International Brigades, and he witnesses first-hand the Stalinist propaganda and repression against POUM members and anarchists; he then returns to his old company, only to see them rounded up by a government unit requiring their surrender: in a brief clash Blanca is killed. After her funeral he returns to Great Britain with a red neckerchief full of Spanish earth.
Finally the film comes back to the present, and we see Carr's funeral, in which his granddaughter throws the Spanish earth into his grave after speaking lines from a poem by William Morris. Afterwards she and the other family members perform a Socialist style salute suggesting that Carr may have passed his beliefs to his family.

source

[Milesian]

Originally Posted by AFAS

They talk about this film over at the Irish-nationalism.net site:

The wind that shakes the barley. - Irish Nationalism

I don't think I'd like it much myself; it was made by an English far-Lefty for one thing. Anyway, a civil war is essentially a difference of opinion which gets violent, so it's not surprising that a movie on this period in history would fail to be loved by all Irishmen.

I believe that it was well-recieved on Irish-Nationalism, despite the one or two leftist nods in the film. People from traditionally Pro and Anti Treaty backgrounds seemed to think it was a pretty good portrayl (if a little simplistic - but you'll always get that with a film).

[Heretik]

Originally Posted by Errigal

We call it to "super" the text from "superimpose".



They talk about this film over at the Irish-nationalism.net site:

The wind that shakes the barley. - Irish Nationalism

I don't think I'd like it much myself; it was made by an English far-Lefty for one thing. Anyway, a civil war is essentially a difference of opinion which gets violent, so it's not surprising that a movie on this period in history would fail to be loved by all Irishmen.

Yes, Milesian told me that the director is a brit socialist but I find this film brilliant.
Actually I think that the director must have a pint or two of Irish blood or else he wouldn't have made this film.

[Errigal]

Originally Posted by Katera

Yes, Milesian told me that the director is a brit socialist but I find this film brilliant.
Actually I think that the director must have a pint or two of Irish blood or else he wouldn't have made this film.

No Ken Loach comes from that big pool of chippy Lefties from the north of England who worship Oliver Cromwell. The thing he likes about the Irish is that they sometimes shoot at his fellow Englishmen and the thing he likes about Pakistanis and Jamaicans immigrants is that they transform the face of England. He and his crowd are always cheering on the other team. People like Loach come from a sick subculture that have had traitor's hearts ever since their beloved Cromwell's bones were dragged through the street and the monarchy was rightly restored. Apart from that they're lovely people.

[Milesian]

Originally Posted by Errigal

No Ken Loach comes from that big pool of chippy Lefties from the north of England who worship Oliver Cromwell.

We can do without those kinds of Republicans

The thing he likes about the Irish is that they sometimes shoot at his fellow Englishmen

Who can blame him?

and the thing he likes about Pakistanis and Jamaicans immigrants is that they transform the face of England. He and his crowd are always cheering on the other team. People like Loach come from a sick subculture that have had traitor's hearts ever since their beloved Cromwell's bones were dragged through the street and the monarchy was rightly restored. Apart from that they're lovely people.

Well, that is probably quite true.
His mirror-image types exist in Ireland, as I'm sure you know.
The number of British apologists and Neo-Unionist journalists and academics seem to grow daily. I personally blame MI5's bloated budget in light of the recent "War on Terror" and the defeat of PIRA in the north.

Someone on I-N did make a similar comment to you - that it's a warped world when we have to rely on another country's Reds to vindicate us, whilst our own are busy trashing us. Works both ways, I guess.

[Errigal]

"The Magdalene Sisters" would be an example of the traitorous instinct at work on Irish institutions. It is partly the 68er mentality that it is the duty of right thinking people to smash existing structures. Mary Robinson and Bono's "little Black babies" fetish is part of this. They look around Ireland and think it is not nearly modern enough; it could do with a lick of paint and few thousand Nigerians to jolly up the place a bit. I admit I have a strong streak of West Brit in me, but not of the new variety. Anyway, I think I prefer having France rather than England as "the other country".

[Milesian]

Originally Posted by Errigal

"The Magdalene Sisters" would be an example of the traitorous instinct at work on Irish institutions. It is partly the 68er mentality that it is the duty of right thinking people to smash existing structures.
Mary Robinson and Bono's "little Black babies" fetish is part of this. They look around Ireland and think it is not nearly modern enough; it could do with a lick of paint and few thousand Nigerians to jolly up the place a bit.

Yes, that sums it up pretty well.

I admit I have a strong streak of West Brit in me,

Get thee to a confessional!

but not of the new variety.

Thank God for that

Anyway, I think I prefer having France rather than England as "the other country".

Remember Fontenoy

[Heretik]

Originally Posted by Errigal

No Ken Loach comes from that big pool of chippy Lefties from the north of England who worship Oliver Cromwell. The thing he likes about the Irish is that they sometimes shoot at his fellow Englishmen and the thing he likes about Pakistanis and Jamaicans immigrants is that they transform the face of England. He and his crowd are always cheering on the other team. People like Loach come from a sick subculture that have had traitor's hearts ever since their beloved Cromwell's bones were dragged through the street and the monarchy was rightly restored. Apart from that they're lovely people.

Nothing wrong with few dead englishmen.
Some of the croats would also like to spill some english blood (if you don't know, the english army surrendered parts of croatian army to partisans at the end of wwII, and of course, a huge number of them was killed).

[Blood Axis]

I loved this film. It goes to the top of my list of all-time favorites.

I don't give a living damn that it was made by a Trotskyist director. I appreciate art for what it is and that was a shockingly brilliant movie.

I am so passionate about Irish culture that it nearly broke my stomach.

And yes, the reaction of the crowd was similar to the Croatian one. I saw quite a few people crying and I shed a couple of tears myself.
Greeks can sympathize with tormented nations just as well...