Analyse of the Wind That Shakes the Barley
The Wind That Shakes the Barley The wind that shakes the barley is a film made of Ken Loach, the film are made in 2006 Setting: “The wind that shakes the barley” takes place in Ireland, during the Irish War of Independence (1919-1921) and the Irish Civil War (1922-1923) and it is a real story. After World war 1. Put a stopper for the home rule bill in Ireland there came English soldiers into Ireland and treated the Irish people really bad. Then some of the Irish people got upset and began to fight back. Resume:
The film takes place in the Northern Ireland in the twenties, during IRA’s fight against the British invasion of Ireland. The brothers Damien and Teddy O’Donovan join a rebel movement with some friends, after Damien’s failed attempt to escape to London to become a doctor, and after British soldiers killed a very good friend of his. The group is the start of the Irish peoples rise against the British invasion, and many people starts joining groups just like theirs. They get caught by the British, and Teddy gets tortured by pulling out his nails, to make him say names, but he doesn’t reveal his secrets to anyone.
Afterwards they fetch Damien in. The “boss” threatens to kill Damien if he does not tell him about who helps them, but Damien is silent and gets thrown back into the cell. The young soldier who were supposed to shoot Damien helps them escape, but since he has no key to the last cell, three of the captives get left behind. The others escape in a horse drawn carriage and stay in a small house while Teddy recovers. When Teddy is ready to travel again, they go to some reliable friends to live for a while.
Here they find out that one of Damien’s oldest friends Chris Reilly, a young guy who worked on a British farm to earn money to his family, was the one telling on them, and got them sent to jail. They receive orders to kill both Chris and Sir John, and Damien shoots them. Later he talks to his sweetheart, Sinead ni Shuilleabhain, about the shame in facing Chris’ mother. After IRA’s defeat on a British convoy, another detachment sets fire to Sinead’s house as payback, and shaves her head while pointing a gun at her. Damien and the others see it all from behind a hill, but there are nothing they can do about it.
The British are too many. When the British leave, Sinead is still deeply in shock, and while Damien comforts her, a messenger arrives with the message of a formal ceasefire between Britain and the IRA. The whole village celebrates, but not for long, because they find out about the Anglo-Irish treaty, and the IRA divides in two groups. Teddy is done fighting and accepts the treaty. He and his allies start patrolling in Irish Army-uniforms. Damien and his friends will not accept the treaty and joins the Anti-treaty IRA.
Damien gets caught and his Anti-treaty friend Dan was killed in their attempt of stealing weapons from the British army. Characters Damien is a newly graduated doctor from college. You can see he is a recent graduate because in the film he is relatively young, and refers to himself as: Medical graduate from college. His brother named Teddy. Individually, they represent a position in relation to how Ireland should be free – Damien will fight through political means, and Teddy will struggle with violence. Which is typical in societies with war, there will always be different opinions on how to solve the conflict.
