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Deluge of Barley reviews still flooding in

16 March 2007 at 02:28 AM | by Melty_Girl

Cillian Murphy in The Wind That Shakes the Barley
See more Barley production stills

"Social weepie" or thriller?

With The Wind That Shakes the Barley making its first appearance in major North American cities today, the flood of reviews has sped up. For the most part, critics laud the film and seem to grasp director Ken Loach and screenwriter Paul Laverty's layered approach to the political situation, although Time's Richard Corliss attacks it as a "liberal weepie," writing,

Loach's approach ... is anything but evenhanded. The British soldiers are cartoonishly brutal, insulting old ladies, bayoneting men, pulling out a suspect's fingernails with rusty pliers. It's easy to see which of the brothers is to have your sympathy. Murphy, with his sensitive, sensuous features, completely outglams Delaney. And he's the leftmost character in the movie.

But more often, the opinion seems to be like that of The Los Angeles Times' Kenneth Turan, who says,

Both sides have strongly thought-out points of view, the film tips its hand neither one way nor the other, and, given that the consequences of the actions taken have lasted until today, it's all a rather thrilling situation.

Murphy is especially good at playing the zealotry as well as the soul-searching and the regret, at showing us a man who is eaten up alive because he's forced to act in ways that are contrary to his background and his training.

"Sillian" is ferocious

The New York Times's A. O. Scott gives Barley and Cillian a glowing review, so we'll have to forgive him for mispronouncing our fave thesp's name in his "Movie Minutes" video clip, saying,

Sillian [sic] Murphy, who has emerged as one of the most interesting young Irish actors in film today—one of the most interesting actors around, I think—plays Damien ...

Scott writes of Cillian in his review,

Mr. Murphy, fine-boned and ferocious, gives Damien a gentleness and sensitivity that shades toward fanaticism.

And Scott groks that Barley's message is far from simplistic:

The logic of rebellion in The Wind That Shakes the Barley has ... grim implacability. You start out fighting an obvious, odious enemy, and you will end up killing your friends. ... The history presented ... hardly feels like a closed book or a museum display. It is as alive and as troubling as anything on the evening news, though far more thoughtful and beautiful.

I.R.A. musical?

Kyle Smith likes Barley, although he thinks that the world already has enough I.R.A. movies, joking facilely in The New York Post,

The fight for independence by the Irish and the I.R.A. is a story that should be told, must be told, has been told. And retold and re-retold. I count eight major I.R.A. movies since The Crying Game, all of them pro-I.R.A. We have not one but two I.R.A. transvestite dramas, and we can only look forward to the I.R.A. cartoons, musicals and vampire flicks that surely are in development.

Um ... cute, but not quite, Kyle. And have any of the films you cite been set in the 1920s? Not so much.

Lilith is rapidly adding the best of the reviews to our press archive, but you might want to go to The New York Times page while it's still available to check out Ken Loach's narration on the audio slide show.

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Melty_Girl
Posts: 2
Comment
Hi Nancy
Reply #8 on : Sat March 17, 2007, 15:46:12
Not to sully the NYT's good name -- A. O. Scott didn't misspell his name, he mispronounced it in his video review.

Feel free to email us with news tips if you see something interesting that we haven't posted about yet. If we use your tip, we'll thank you on the site!
nancykerrigan
Posts: 6
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Re:
Reply #7 on : Sat March 17, 2007, 14:46:54
Interesting group of reviews. *is laughing at the NYT's misspelling of his name in its review* Come on, New York Times! I thought I knew you better! And interesting point soeone brought up about the freaking out over the fingernail-pulling scene. I have to admit I kinda freaked out a little bit about hearing that at first since I haven't seen the movie yet and didn't hear anyone who saw it mention that scene. But then I thought about the countless violent acts seen on countless other films (like 300, A Clockwork Orange, Sin City, Zodiac, to name a few), I don't think that this would be a problem for me. By the way, I recently posted the NYP review and a similar article in the cillian_daily LJ comm, just to let you know.
celticgrl
Posts: 6
Comment
Re:
Reply #6 on : Fri March 16, 2007, 18:00:09
lol! Tis alright!
Pierspaul
Posts: 6
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Re:
Reply #5 on : Fri March 16, 2007, 14:24:09
celticgrl, I didn't mean to be anonymous.
Anonymous
Posts: 6
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Re:
Reply #4 on : Fri March 16, 2007, 14:22:51
Hello celticgrl!

What would we do without multi-region dvd players.

I'm looking forward to seeing Barley on the big screen again when it finally gets to Ottawa at the end of the month.
celticgrl
Posts: 6
Comment
Re:
Reply #3 on : Fri March 16, 2007, 13:11:50
Pierspaul- you are so right!
I thought the movie was well done. I will warn those who have not seen it and are not use to listening to a Cork accent, you can miss dialogue. I actually saw it last month because I purchased the DVD from England. I had to turn on the sub-titles because my husband kept asking "What did he say??"
Melty_Girl
Posts: 2
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Re:
Reply #2 on : Fri March 16, 2007, 12:34:02
So true!
Pierspaul
Posts: 6
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Re:
Reply #1 on : Fri March 16, 2007, 06:37:58
I'm still amazed at the number of reviewers who mention the pulling out of fingernails with pliers as if it were some bizarre form of torture that exists only in the mind of Ken Loach and has never been used in war.