The Wind That Shakes The Barley

Sometimes, you wonder where they come up with the names for movies? From some imaginary land where they just pluck letters out of a hat and then plop them all together?

Names like "THe wind that shakes the barley" comes to mind.

But making fun of such a name would probably do a disservice to the movie. (In case you're wondering, the name comes from a haunting song sung at a funeral)

This movie is set in the backdrop of the 1920s when Ireland is coming to grips with the brutal mastery enforced by the English Empire. When things go abit too far, and people die because of the iron hand that is gripping the Irish Republic, people turn sour and rebellious.

When a man is killed for speaking Irish and refusing to speak English as demanded by some English soldiers, a doctor is persuaded to join the Irish Republic Army (IRA) to fight for the freedom of the people.

Things are rosy for a while before things turn sour. Ireland is to be granted freedom, of a sort. They get to make their own policies, have their own army, but ultimately, they have to bow down to the English Empire once again and swear fealty to the King of England.

This rips the rebellion apart as father fights against son and brother against brother as different viewpoints threaten to tear the country apart. Atrocities are commited, brother orders the excecution of his own brother. Tears are shed.

This movie has terrific acting from the young and English cast and they got the Irish accent down pat, to the extent that I didn't understand about 30% of what they were saying, even though it was in English. I was really wishing for subtitles at a certain point in time.

The movie was also interesting to me as it brought to me attention a little part of history that I am not particularly familiar with and gives me a better insight to the aims of the IRA. I don't condone them, but I think I can see what they are trying to fight for.

Also it raises interesting questions. How much freedom is there? How much is it worth? Is an illusion of freedom better then no freedom? Is there such a thing as taking things slowly on the way to freedom?