The Smackdown. With people worldwide celebrating the Irish today (St. Patrick's Day) by wearing shamrocks, marching in parades, even drinking green beer. It can be a ton of fun, to be sure, but the Ireland of fairly recent history was a very serious place where political battles were decided in revolution and civil war. Our Irish Movie Smackdown pays tribute to those days by putting a couple of films in the ring together that tell the story. These two classic films of Irish-rebellion -- "The Wind That Shakes the Barley" and "Michael Collins" -- were made a decade apart. Back in the Clinton years, Liam Neeson starred in the title role as Irish rebel turned Free Stater, "Michael Collins," and a few days before St. Patrick's Day in 2007, Cillian Murphy played a rebel on the other side of the bloody Irish Civil War in "The Wind That Shakes the Barley." They each tell stories about the years when Irish eyes were definitely not smiling...
Two powerful directors face off here, too: Neil Jordan for the first, and Ken Loach for the second. Both of their films attempt to make the Irish drive for freedom both understandable and dramatic for a film audience. Let's assume -- for the sake of our argument -- that you've got the patience for one film to enlighten you about Irish political history and the time to watch it before St. Patrick's Day 2010. Which movie will give you the best understanding, and the best film experience?
PERSONAL DETOUR: My family spent two weeks in Ireland a few summers ago where we saw The Rolling Stones play before 70,000 Irish partygoers in the fields outside Slane Castle just north of Dublin. I guess the idea of tens of thousands of rowdy Irish cheering a band of Brits shows just how much healing has gone on during the past century (and even in the decades since Bloody Sunday).
HISTORICAL SIDEBAR: I make no claim to deep understanding of Irish politics, but the recent visit and watching these two fine films has given me a sense of the basics. Mostly, it seems, the Irish never, ever wanted to be part of the United Kingdom or British Empire. They wanted to be their own country. Period.
They revolted numerous times, but the one that took began in 1916. Initially, it ended in disaster with the ringleaders rounded up by the British and executed. My son and I visited Kilmainham Gaol on our trip, the place where the revolutionaries of the 1916 Easter uprising were stood up before firing squads and executed. It affected me deeply. It reminded me that if my own country had tried and failed, the British would have similarly lined up Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Adams, Henry and the entire gang and killed them, too.
This deadly response to the rebellion not only inflamed and united the country of Ireland, but it caused the Irish Republican Army to adopt new guerilla style tactics. From 1919 through 1922, the Irish fought the British with everything they had. This was their War for Independence (i.e. USA, think 1776). A treaty was agreed upon where they would be an Irish Free State but still part of the dominion, like Canada, and Northern Ireland would be split off and remain a part of Great Britain. This split the Irish into two factions: those who thought it was better than nothing and wanted to move ahead under the treaty, and those who said half a loaf of bread was no loaf at all. They fought a bloody Civil War (i.e. USA, think 1865).
Now, having said all this, we return to our Smackdown...
Continue reading "The Wind That Shakes the Barley (2007) -vs- Michael Collins (1996)" »















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