Nice photography, poor cinema

Rating: 2/10 (19 March 2007)

This gets 2/10 from me for the nice shots of the Irish countryside, and that's about what it is worth. As a film, they need to go back to the drawing-board. The acting is juvenile. The story is trite, and tritely written. And the film's direction does nothing to alleviate these flaws. As has been said on this board, the characterization in this film is superficial, one-dimensional, and stereotypical. The British in Ireland are portrayed as nasty and malicious, and no doubt they were, but they are portrayed stereotypically so, and one thinks that there must have been more to them than that. And the Irish are portrayed with a kind of inverted condescension.
Anyway, it was clear to this viewer that The Wind That Shakes the Barley is rather lacking in historical and social depth. I realize that historically-set films must necessarily simplify and compress historical events for the sake of time-action continuity and are allowed a certain artistic licence with historical facts, but TWTSTB oversimplifies and guts necessary historical facts, and embellishes the hell out of those that remain, making the whole film shallow and tediously biased. Indeed, all I can say is that this film is rather lacking all round, except for some good shots of the countryside, as I have said. In short, it is a case of nice photography, but poor cinema.