This Palme D'or winner is not necessarily biased if the audience can think independently

Rating: Null/10 (10 September 2007)

A good film draws the audience into it in such a way that starting as a detached bystander, they gradually become part of it. A very good film can do this even when the audience starts out knowing very little about the background and the issues. Ken Loach's 2006 Cannes Palme D'or winner "The wind that shakes the barley" is just such a film.
I know no more about the IRA than an average global citizen who pays an average amount of attention following global news does, and still less about its history in the early 20th century. But despite struggling a little during the first 15 minutes with the difficult Irish accent, I was soon fully absorbed in the film. Unlike Brad Pitt in the Hollywood melodrama The Devil's Own (1997), Cillian Murphy's character is humanly realistic under Ken Loach's no-nonsense, brutally effective direction of a straightforward IRA story.
The repeated, escalating actions of senseless violence and atrocity during the first half of the film have a reason for being shown. As you will see during the later part, these establishing scenes help the audience to appreciate the subsequent actions of the characters. Quite a few comments suggest that the film slants towards the Republican's point of view. To those who have seen the film, this verdict is all too obvious. But then it will be a problem only to those in the audience who lack the capacity to think, assess and judge independently. While showing mostly the atrocities of the British (especially the sadistic military "Black and Tans") will likely gain some (deserved) sympathy for the IRA, it will not make the audience forget their senseless terrorism victimizing so many innocent people, just as watching "Paradise now" will not make you forget the innocent victims of Palestinian terrorism.
Telling of the story of the two brothers in "The wind that shakes the barley", however, does make you understand more. Leading a cast of talented Irish actors not generally known to the global movie audience, Cillian Murphy demonstrates once again his versatility, particular if his most recent movie you have watched in "Breakfast on Pluto", as is in my case. The Emerald Isle under Barry Ackroyd's superb cinematography is mesmerizing.