The Wind That Shakes the Barley

I am going to be absolutely diligent this year about this blog. I think the main mistake I made last year was approaching it as a way to review movies, instead of a way to actually chronicle how many films I saw. The result was I have no idea how many movies I saw in 2007 because I gave up on keeping track after not even a month. Then I made a lame attempt to try and compensate with those last few '07 posts, but that was really like shooting fish in a barrel. I easily saw over 100 movies last year if not more, only a fraction of which made it onto the blog. So, now I will write at least something about every movie I see. The posts may be long or short depending on how inspired I am to write about them. I will include all films, be they DVD/Blu-Ray, theater or cable. I will even throw in films I have already seen, just to keep the count straight.

Ok, so The Wind That Shakes the Barley was the first movie of the year on January 1st, 2008. Set in 1920, it tells of the Irish struggle for independence against Britain, which was desperately trying to keep the Empire together. From my history classes, the Brits were probably embroiled in the Boer Wars in South Africa around that same time, and were also dealing with Egypt and India to boot. Therefore, keeping Ireland in line was probably of utmost importance to the Crown, lest it risk losing the loyalties of its other imperial conquests.

Told from the Irish perspective, the film chronicles how two brothers struggle for Irish independence, but ultimately fall on different sides of the conflict when one accepts an truce with Britain while the other continues his armed resistance. Good film, visually pleasing to me at least with all the green Irish landscapes. The accents are a bit tough at times, especially when the actors occasionally venture into Gaelic (although this certainly adds an extra level of authenticity to the film). Overall, I really enjoyed it, but it probably won't appeal to a wide audience due its theme and art house feel. The cast is all Irish, with the only recognizable actor being Cillian Murphy of Batman Begins fame.