The Wind That Shakes the Barley

I want to start out by saying that this movie was very powerful and emotionally gripping. It was well shot and the director certainly knew what he/she was doing throughout the entire film. An aspect of the movie all the people that watched it with me were talking about was the soldiers in the beginning of the film. It was interesting to us that despite the fact that the soldiers were both English and Irish, they still treated the Irish so terribly. The scene where the red-haired soldier helped the Irish out of jail was one that caused some cheers from all of us watching. The fact that the soldier could not be a part of the men being killed was a thought that I hoped more characters in the movie would echo. Unfortunately that was not the case, as we continued to see more brutal acts being carried out throughout the film. The scene in which Sinead has her hair (and some scalp) cut off is one that sticks out in my mind as being particularly brutal and nearly impossible to watch. The second half of the movie is interesting as it pits the Irish against themselves and, more importantly for the purpose of the film, O' Donovan versus O' Donovan. This sets up a similar dichotomy as we saw in the earlier parts of the film, although on a much smaller scope. This portion of the film is particularly emotionally gripping because of the family feuding that occurs.