Anti-Irish propaganda posing as pro-Republicanism

Rating: 3/10 (11 November 2006)

The press office for THE WIND THAT SHAKES THE BARLEY have done a great job of convincing a gullible media and public that it's anti-English propaganda from a self-hating Englishman, which is an excellent way of luring the Celts to cinemas under false pretences. The truth is it's the most vitriolically anti-Irish film ever made. Had Ian Paisley written the script it couldn't have been more anti-Eirean. And people are sucking it up, especially IMDBers who haven't bothered to see it before flying the green.
First off, this is NOT a film about British policy. It's about what Ken Loach sees as the Irish people's cowardly betrayal of the revolution in the Irish Civil War. Loach's thesis is as simple as it is moronic. The only reason the majority voted for the treaty that divide Ireland was because he thinks they were too stupid and cowardly to see the benefits of socialism. So the only humane solution is to kill everyone who reached a democratic decision because Loach thinks the Irish people were and are simply too stupid to be trusted with the fate of THEIR own country or THEIR own destiny. Better dead than not red, eh, Ken? Oh yes, and the only reason the Free Staters won was because they were pro-British. Believe it or not, Loach even throws in a scene of pro-Treaty forces beating up poor Irish tenants on behalf of absentee English landlords! Subtle it ain't, but Ken doesn't do subtle. His message is clear – the will of the Irish people of the time was completely irrelevant and everyone, everyone at all who believes in democracy must be killed to usher in the socialist utopia that this English director demands Ireland accept against its will.
In the process, he completely disproves his supposed criticism of the invasion of Iraq running through the film – after all, if Loach believes that Socialism should be forced on the Irish people at gunpoint, how can he logically disagree with a nominally socialist British government invading Iraq and forcing then to accept a political system at gunpoint? The only difference is the system: it's okay in his eyes to kill Irish people to impose socialism, but not to kill Iraqis in the name of imposing democracy. Yet both are exactly the same – a patronising outsider justifying the deaths of innocent people to remould a nation in their ideal image.
Bottom line: Englishman Loach thinks the majority of the Irish people were ignorant children who didn't deserve to live and that Eire should never have been given independence. Very anti-British sentiments I don't think. That kind of simplistic racist anti-Irish propaganda floods the while film-making process. We get cardboard cut-out characters shouting political sound bites at each other and even, kid you not, the "God light" beams of glowing saintly lighting he throws on the anti-Treaty forces and the ugly photography he gives the pro-Treaty forces of the evil English imperialist Michael Collins (yeah, his grasp of Irish history IS that totally mixed up).
And what an awful script! Whenever anyone puts the pro-Treaty view, Loach makes sure they are a lone voice easily ridiculed and driven away by a crowd of patriots even though history tells us the majority were pro-Treaty. This is Loach's idea of being even-handed, I guess, by distorting the popular view as a minority. And what arguments. What dialogue. They can be summed up like this – "I think the Treaty and the Irish Free State is a good start.
"That's because you're a coward." "No, it is because I am evil. You can tell because I think Socialism is silly. You had better kill me out of kindness before I invade Iraq." "Right-oh then, bruv." Yes, I'm exaggerating. Paul Laverty's script is not that subtle in its contempt and bile for the Irish people. It's made worse by the pathetic performances. Even the usually excellent Cillian Murphy is no better than a six year old in a nativity play in this one. Trite and insulting racist garbage that only an old school Stalinist communist hard liner could buy into. Plus a bad movie on top of everything else. How this rubbish got the top award at Cannes is anybody's guess. Maybe they thought if they gave him an award after all these years he'd finally go away and stop bothering them.
More fantasy than history, this is just laughable.