The Wind That Shakes The Barley

If we can assume that complexity of narrative in a movie is real, why can’t we believe in the real complexity of life? After all, movies are based on real life human interaction. 

Personification is the closest term to which I can describe how I derive everything I learned from the movies, instead of criticising on the accuracy of the story in each movie I watch, I prefer to turn myself into positive stance where I can learn everything from the movie in real life, the bad thing and the good thing. Therefore, those kind of movies will always provide essential lesson to learn from the typical obstacle of life that might have never happen in our life. So why should we limit the role of movies? shouldn’t we learn it as a lesson? Instead of only letting movies role as an entertainment, I prefer to use movies as the basis of life. In that, it means that I tend to focus more on the person’s conduct and its meaning instead of the plot. 

As usual, I just finished watching a movie called ‘The Wind That Shakes The Barley’. The story is based on the perspective of an Irishmen whose name is Damien along with his older brother Teddy. Both Damien and Teddy took part during the Irish War of Independence. Although the story actually focuses more on Damien as the title ‘The Wind That Shakes The Barley’ referred to him, his brother, Teddy, instead caught my attention more because of his personality. Therefore, I will balance the important of both character. 

They are very different, the difference lies very much on both character as Teddy is the patriotic one as he was the leader of local IRA group, whereas Damien started off as a pessimist believing that guerrilla war against British occupation is unwinnable. As I already stated about the personification, the movie’s meaning for me will go beyond the typical story of a chronology on fighting independence, it will, however, revolve more heavily on how the personality of the brothers change throughout the movie.

The movie is absolutely connected to the way I think, especially when the second half of the movie starts, which was when the war took its side to the Irish and the Irish gained its independence. However, the independence was not the one which gives the Irish complete freedom, instead, based on the Anglo-Irish Treaty, the newly-created Irish Free State will have its independence on economic and society system. However, Irish Free State would keep its allegiance to the British throne. 

This reason should be noted as a very reasonable conduct that was taken by the British for the Irish. To input the realist view here, it was happen after the First World War and can be interpreted as the British would still need the forces of Irishmen as part of them in the alliance against any future war. In the British perspective, they already gambled their own security by giving the Irish a chance to separate from them and moreover, from their perspective it was the modest behaviour they will ever be.

However, of course it should be looked over from Irish point of view as well, for a very long time they have been under occupation or influence or whatever it is, from the British. The fact that the British occupation is unwanted has always been their fight for independence. Therefore, after the Anglo-Irish Treaty, the IRA was divided between Pro-Treaty and Anti-Treaty. This separation is how the director Ken Loach will be able to make us understand the division through the character of the brothers. 

Moreover, the meaning of the movie in the end impressed me the most because of how Teddy changed. But not in a good way. I find Teddy’s character very ironic as he ‘licked his own spit’. The fact that he become the people he hated the most, British occupiers, is just a small reminder how people can change once power has been wield. Instead of focusing more on Damien, I would focus more on Teddy. He started off as the leader of IRA in their own district. He showed off a great attitude on being a true patriotic for Ireland, however, he confused what he is aiming for and what is good for his own people. The scene where he wouldn’t even betray his own followers by keeping his mouth shut and his nail got pulled off when he was interrogated by the British contradicted to what he became after the Anglo-Irish treaty. After the treaty, he became politician and a soldier as well. Now that he become someone with authority, the power he achieve will come with a great price. In the end he had to shoot off his own brother for doing just like what he did when he was interrogated —keeping his mouth shut—

It is very ironic, but as seen from my own eyes as a Political Science student, it is very typical of someone who had power. Power comes with a big price such as a sacrifice as nothing comes cheap. But it also shows how power corrupt people’s heart. This is why Teddy’s character is a great reminder to all of us regardless of our occupation.

Damien in another way is just a typical protagonist hero in a movie war. Aiming for good. Damien character, as I said, is like typical anti-hero movie. He becomes the hero which no one expects from the start. As a typical protagonist, throughout the movie he started to becoming a brave man and a patriotic one for Ireland. I have nothing bad to say about Damien as his character suited the most to the protagonist standard of Hollywood. Even, in my own view, his character becomes boring if it wasn't for two very important things that occurred to him. 

The first thing was his connection with Dan, a socialist, when they shared similar view in which both of them believed that unless there is a revolution is social system, the capitalist system of British would never leave their land. If it wasn't for his shared view on socialism, I believe he would be the most boring protagonist ever. 

However, thank god, Ken Loach put in some kind of conviction and a sense into Damien's character. 

On the other hand, the second thing that supposedly makes his character interested would be the reference of the title to his own love story. A complete explanation of the title as a poem would be provided in following paragraph, however, in a simple way, the real meaning of the title is about the sacrifice of old love over a new love. In the movie, Damien chose to sacrifice his own life in order to protect his own Anti-Treaty fellows, leaving his own woman alone. In my opinion, however, this plot was demonstrated very weak yet a very tragic fate.  

Going back again, the main point of the story is a change and it should be noted how Damien changed his life is the opposite way of how Teddy changed. The former changed from bad to good, whereas the latter changed from good to bad. To be more specific, Damien was not keen to get involve in the independence since he was pessimist about it while Teddy was already a leader of independence fighters. However, when the wind changes everything, it turned out the opposite. Damien realised what they were fighting for was not anymore a nationalist cause, but more into a social revolution in which to turned over the current system of feudalism and capitalism at the time where the British were the only rich class where Irish were poor and suffering under the occupation. Teddy, on the other hand, confused the fact that the freedom he was fighting for  wouldn’t change the structure of the very own system that destroy them the most.

Moreover, the more I analyse how the movie plot works, the more I am impressed on how the director balance the reason of each side in other for us to understand. Each side had their own rational reason to be fight for. For example, Damien as a doctor tends to be more compassionate and after treating a starved child in a rural countryside, understand that what he wants is not merely a change of a government, but instead a social revolution in a way he wants a socialist state, after having an insight of how poverty ruined Irish population. 

On the other hand, Teddy has always been the brave fighter and in some way he is clearly seen a realist in a political view. For example, he tried to undermine the Irish court’s decision on giving a fine to an Irish businessman in order to be able to let the businessman helped him buying weapons for the war cause. From this action, it can be interpreted enough that Teddy is a realist in which he will justify any means in order to win the war. 

However, it can also be interpreted that his realist behaviour will always make him justify anything that should be done in order to achieve his own interest. Therefore, in a political way, he always take the opportunity where it is needed. 

Referring back again to the title, the director, Ken Loach is charmingly able to merge the poem of 'The Wind That Shakes The Barley' to a war movie. Not only that, he is also able to balance the historical accuracy story that is based on real Irish history with the poem. Moreover, the story of the movie is very beautiful in its own way as it is able to demonstrate how different ideology between Irishmen led to their own division and turning into a civil war. But this demonstration is not constructed on a kind of big-budget war movie, instead, he showed us from a very personal point of view. It is really refreshing how he merged the poem and the division of political war into a very simple yet personal story. It can be seen from how the director put the two brother who fight the independence war together and then divided by ideology after the independence that led both of them fighting against each other in the Irish civil war. While also trying to input the story of a man who chooses to fight for his own country’s independence over keeping his love for the women of his life. 

To be more exact, however, Ken Loach borrowed its title from Robert Dwyer Joyce, an Irish Poet. The reference to the title is a tough decision to make, where he is sacrificing his old love to a new love. To make a personal understanding, here is the real poem of ’the wind that shakes the barley’;

I sat within a valley green,

I sat there with my true love,

My sad heart strove the two between,

The old love and the new love, -

The old for her, the new that made

Me think of Ireland dearly,

While soft the wind blew down the glade

And shook the golden barley.

Twas hard the woeful words to frame

To break the ties that bound us

Twas harder still to bear the shame

Of foreign chains around us

And so I said, "The mountain glen

I'll seek next morning early

And join the brave United Men!”

While soft winds shook the barley.

While sad I kissed away her tears,

My fond arms 'round her flinging,

The foeman's shot burst on our ears,

From out the wildwood ringing, -

A bullet pierced my true love's side,

In life's young spring so early,

And on my breast in blood she died

While soft winds shook the barley!

I bore her to the wildwood screen,

And many a summer blossom

I placed with branches thick and green

Above her gore-stain'd bosom:-

I wept and kissed her pale, pale cheek,

Then rushed o'er vale and far lea,

My vengeance on the foe to wreak,

While soft winds shook the barley!

But blood for blood without remorse,

I've ta'en at Oulart Hollow!

And placed my true love's clay-cold corpse

Where I full soon will follow;

And round her grave I wander drear,

Noon, night and morning early,

With breaking heart whene'er I hear

The wind that shakes the barley!

Here is the real meaning of the poem;

“The song is written from the perspective of a doomed young Wexford rebel who is about to sacrifice his relationship with his loved one and plunge into the cauldron of violence associated with the 1798 rebellion in Ireland. The references to barley in the song derive from the fact that the rebels often carried barley or oats in their pockets as provisions for when on the march. This gave rise to the post-rebellion phenomenon of barley growing and marking the “croppy-holes," mass unmarked graves into which slain rebels were thrown, symbolizing the regenerative nature of Irish resistance to British rule. As the barley will grow every year in the Spring time of the year this is said to symbolize Irish resistance to British oppression and that Ireland will never yield and will always oppose British rule on the island.”

Move over to political view, in my own view, the meaning of it has different interpretation. For example, the wind here has a role as an agent of force. It has a very strong meaning though, knowing the fact that a wind can move anything as the source of force but still how it moves, depends on how strong it is. It also can be reflected on how British Empire at the time was the most powerful Empire in the world that swept over entire the world with their force.

However, does wind always shakes everything in a bad way? No. In a very different context, a wind can be a good thing as it can be understood, in a very simple way, to give a new fresh air. In this stance, it doesn’t change the meaning of the wind in any other way. But to put it simply, the wind has its role as the force of change, no matter if it is in a bad way or a good way, it is depended upon the perspectives of each person. In the end, we are all strive for a change, however, not everyone does it in a good way.

According to director Ken Loach, the film attempts to explore the extent that the Irish revolution was a social revolution as opposed to a nationalist revolution. He said, 

“Every time a colony wants independence, the questions on the agenda are: a) how do you get the imperialists out, and b) what kind of society do you build? There are usually the bourgeois nationalists who say, 'Let's just change the flag and keep everything as it was.' Then there are the revolutionaries who say, 'Let's change the property laws.' It's always a critical moment.”

------

One quote from the movie however caught me the most,

"It's easy to know what you're against, quite another to know what you're for"

After just reading the quote, my mind stopped thinking for a while as I realised my own circumstances is very much connected to the quote in the exact moment. In this very state I’m writing this essay, I feel like I do not lose my motivation, but I lost direction.

I know exactly what I am against in my own conscience, it has been established since I turned my life around, like I said before, however, as I digging too deep into my own interest, I somehow could not understand what I am looking for. As I said before, I never lose my motivation, but by going too quick, my own self cannot even keep up with my own motivation. I very much know my own principles and consciences, these are revolving around anything that connect to being Anti-War. 

August 10th, 2018