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I'd been meaning to sit down and watch this film in it's entirety for some time now, but had only caught glimpses here and there. My wife was born in Belfast in 1974, very much Irish Catholic, and so her family very much a part of "the troubles" in Northern Ireland, so much so that they moved in the late 70's to the USA to escape it. So I've had an interest in seeing this film set during the Irish War for Independence and the Irish Civil War that occurred shortly afterwards.

The film is about two fictional Courty Cork brothers set in the very real backdrop of those two events in Irish history. It is a story of the guerilla war fought against the British "black and tans," by a people who had had enough. It's a story of loyalty, political struggle, and betrayal, something that was very much a part of that time, when some chose to accept the compromised treaty with Great Britain and some chose to keep fighting for complete independence.

This is an excellent film, and I give it my complete recommendation. It is not an action film. It is a somewhat slow-paced drama, but not entirely so. I thought it was very well paced and acted. It had almost entirely Irish actors, particularly Cillian Murphy and Padraic Delaney who played the principles. A very independent Irish film where Cillian Murphy was the biggest name. Because of this it did not suffer from the "Michael Collins" syndrome. Michael Collins could have been a great film about those events, yet fell short because such a high number of American and English actors trying to pull off roles that really need to be played by Irish actors. I mean what the hell was Julia Roberts doing in that film? Goodness.

One of the most fascinating aspects of the acting in The Wind That Shakes the Barley was the occasional stammering that happened when characters were trying to communicate well chosen words. This was fascinating because I wondered how deliberate it was. This was a people who were at that time largely rural and not terribly educated, many of whom grew up in households that still spoke gaelic, who were trying to communicate as eloquently as they could despite this, and despite heavy accents and a great deal of passion. So it makes sense that it would be deliberate, and it worked. In a strange way it brought even greater focus to what the speaker was trying to say.

A very fine film and nearly perfect. Anybody familiar with the subject matter or just appreciate historical dramas will like it. Oh, and it has my in-laws seal of approval as an authentic Irish movie and portrayal of the events.

4.9/5. 

I only watched this movie initially because I had a huge crush on Roger Allam   :twirl:.  I really enjoyed it but had no luck finding it here in Australia.  After a while I forgot about it and continued purchasing the movies from my list that were available to me.

Yesterday I was in my local DVD merchant and lo and behold a copy was on the shelves!  So I grabbed it for only $13AUD.  I haven't had a chance to watch it again but I'm so happy I actually did a little jump in the store  :teddyr:

Finally somebody responded. I thought I was the only member who had any interest in this "good" film. I do understand that it did much better in Europe than it did in the States, probably because people can relate to the history a bit more there than here. From my understanding, a good portion of Australia's ancestry is Irish, and I've heard that genuine interest in Irish culture is more common there than here, so that makes sense. Here the interest in Irish culture typically shows up when the plastic paddy's rear their ugly heads on St. Pats.

Flick, you can't imagine the huge number of Irish buggers running around my country  :teddyr:  I never met an Irishman I didn't like.  They are huge fun and very welcoming people.  Whilst my background isn't Irish, a large proportion of the country does have some Irish ancestry.  And most of us are very aware of Irish history.

St Patricks Day in this country just goes off.  It's always huge fun  :cheers: