The Wind That Shakes the Barley (***)

The latest from British director Ken Loach, master of social realism, looks at the Irish war for independence. Working with his recent writing collaborator Paul Laverty (Bread and Roses, Sweet Sixteen), Loach begins the story in 1920 (four years after the Easter Rising), when even a rural field hockey match could arouse the fury of the English soldiers who occupied the Emerald Isle. Cillian Murphy stars as a charismatic doctor who decides to join the local resistance when he sees the casual brutality about him.

Elements of the story may be confusing to people unfamiliar with Irish history, but at its best the movie illuminates the kinds of ethical and practical questions common to any revolutionary struggle. In one of the more compelling scenes, a debate rages over whether the law should go easy on an unscrupulous moneylender who’d given money to the cause. Elsewhere we see the guerilla tactics used to oppose the more powerful English. Loach’s movies always take the view of the downtrodden in society, but they don’t become tedious, or abstract, because he doesn’t set out to mythologize his characters. The last half, when opposition to the occupation gives way to infighting about whether to compromise or press for full independence, is thus the most universal part of the story. In a way, it’s a parallel to Bread and Roses, where Los Angeles maids must decide how much personal sacrifice is justified by their desire to unionize and improve their working conditions.

As an American, I would have liked a prologue and epilogue to put the story in a larger context, and in a few places I’d have liked subtitles. The story is stronger than the characters, though it could be tightened up in the middle. And, to be petty, the title sounds boring. The actual movie is grittier and gripping.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0460989/