Hi and Ken Loach
Hello, I, er, haven’t posted here for ages. I post so rarely now, that I feel I ought to re-introduce myself every time I do. Anyway, I’m still at Sussex , but I’m back in Cambridge at the moment, working.
I just saw the film, “The Wind That Shakes the Barley.� I won’t attempt to write a review here (for more information see here), but I’d just like to make one point. I liked that the film puts even some of the extremely harsh actions of the Irish republicans in context. The film is not a straightforward glorification of the republicans. It shows, that the old IRA did some fairly unpleasant things (for instance, the killing of someone who really only informed on them out of fear). However, these things are not shown to be simple atrocities. We see why the characters think that these actions are necessary, in the context of a war against the British. The film starts with a young man being beaten to death by the Black and Tans for refusing to say his name in English. The characters feel that they must be brutal against an enemy like that. Although I am certainly not a pacifist, I dislike that kind of brutality (even if the killing of the rather frightened and repentant informer helped them tactically, it still would not be justified, in my view), but it was good to see it contextualised.
I do have more to say about this film, but I will need to do a bit more research first. I intend to post more frequently now that I’m not studying.
One comment
Leave a comment
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
Hi Rachel,
someone directed me to this blog - nice to see other people in Cambridge ‘at it’.
Out of vanity I’ll direct you to my review of Wind That Shakes the Barley HERE which I saw at the Arts Cinema. It really is an excellent film - but I did worry about certain aspects of it…
Comment by JimJay @ 7/14/2006 9:50 am