The wind that shakes the Barley

The plan was, after a long search and discussion, to see the German/Danish movie Adams æbler (Adam’s Apples) but at the cinema we discovered that there were only french subtitles which wasn’t a problem for me, but for my partner of that evening it was... We had to decide in an eye blink for a different movie, but I wasn’t able to find one that was speaking to me & suggested to go have a drink instead as we were in the center anyway... the proposal was rejected and replaced for the movie The wind that shakes the Barley (Le vent se lève)... A film that gives a (non-objective) look at the Republicans in early 20th century in Ireland.

The movie started horribly. There were two thoughts constantly shooting through my mind:

I) Next time I select the movie!
II) How am I going to get out of this place?

I’m not the kind of lady that is easily frightened by shocking or bloody scenes. At a very young age I always succeeded to sneak underneath the dinning-table (when I should have been in bed) to watch secretly the scary movies that my big bro was watching. But with this movie I even had to turn my head away during the first scenes and even then my stomach was turning from the sounds that remained. After surviving this part, the movie started to get along and became less stirring and hope for a good film to come was there again.


However that hope was dissapointing. There was no actual match between the story that has been told & the images that were shown. In one scene they tell you a big national problem, the next scene they show you a group of local boys who fight against this in their own area, where the scene after that tells you that this has a big positive effect on the national problem, but they never show what... only telling the problems, showing the fights & telling you the solution. And actually writing this it may sound like logic but the way they show it in the movie takes away the logic.

For me it made the film unreliable and not clear which message the writer wanted to bring and from which angle the director was working.The film left me more the impression that I saw a try out film with a draft script. This is a pity because the actors played very well & convincing, putting on strong characters. Also the makers of the film had some amazing shots. It’s sad that a movie with such great, strong material is not brought to its full value.