War in various forms is a terrifying event that takes many people’s lives. The Wind That Shakes the Barley film represents one side of the Irish War of Independence and the subsequent Irish Civil War. The plot focuses on the O’Donovan brothers, who initially fight together in the Irish Republican Army and then are divided on opposing sides of the fight. The film reveals the features of resistance and the conflicts accompanying it. Even though resistance usually begins with the goal of population protection, its participants’ opinions are not always similar, leading to adverse consequences.
The film does not represent resistance as only a positive or negative phenomenon but emphasizes the complexity and evil of war. On the one hand, the Irish opposition sought to get rid of oppression, save its people, achieve freedom and justice. On the other hand, the resistance process is so complex and demanding that the goal of justice is forgotten. One of the examples in the film confirming this assumption is a trial under the auspices of the Irish Republican Army. At the trial, the debt of a peasant woman for a local entrepreneur, who establishes a large percentage, is decided. The court rules a fair decision for the woman, but part of the resistance takes the entrepreneur’s side, as his money helps buy weapons (Loach 1:01 – 1:03). As a result, the opposition faces a dilemma of efficiency and fairness.
The film is filled with similar dilemmas that cause disagreements in the resistance ranks, which later leads to civil war. The different visions of freedom made some former resistance representatives become the same oppressors of their people against whom they previously fought. These contradictions are reflected in a letter from the character Damien O’Donovan written before his death: “It is easy to know what you are against, but quite another to know what you are for” (Loach 1:57). Thus, the film presents resistance as a complex phenomenon without only positive or only negative aspects.
Work Cited
The Wind That Shakes the Barley. Directed by Ken Loach, Pathé Distribution, 2006.