The Wind That Shakes the Barley

Cannes:-

The Palm d'Or, the highest award at the Cannes Film Festival, was awarded to The Wind That Shakes The Barley. Said film is a tale of Damien, an Irishman, who leaves a successful career and joins his brother, Teddy, in order to fight against the British. It's set in 1919, during the Black and Tans' reign of terror.

Accepting this award, Ken Loach, the director of TWTSTB, said this:

"Our film is a little step, a very little step, in the British confronting their imperialist history, maybe if we tell the truth about the past, maybe we tell the truth about the present.''

Ok, let's start with the Black and Tans. For those of you that don't know, the Black and Tans were Churchill's genius idea for fighting the IRA. It basically ran along the lines of the current war on terror. We'll send in a bunch of brutal soldiers and have a slaughter. Well, it didn't work then and it's not working now. The Black and Tans murdered countless innocents, burned large sections of Cork (and then put burnt corks on their caps) and were generally not very nice. Not only that, but they were very open about their brutality, at least the US Marine Corps know it's a bad thing (and any American saying that we should "evoke the spirit of Churchill" or the like in the War on Terror should have a look at how Churchill handled terorrism and how many British citizens died afterwards). Basically, the Black and tans show us that violence doesn't work. But this is supposed to be about a film.

Now, I have no problem with a film portraying the Black and Tans as the brutal murderers that they were, it needs ot be done, if only to teach the current establishment a lesson about fighting terrorism. However, what i do haev a problem with is the films depiction of the IRA, and the above quote. Now, to my mind, the more than sympathetic depiction of the IRA in this film is a disgrace. There's no mention of the fact that the IRA were just as indiscriminately murderous as the Black and Tans. There's no mention of the fact that, long after the Black and Tans were disbanded, the IRA continued to murder innocents.

I agree with Loach, we shoudl tell the truth about the past. The truth, the whole truth and nothign but the truth. Unfortunately, this film doesn't tell the whole truth. Yes, the Black and Tans were inexcusable, but we shouldn't look with any sympathy on the IRA's past actions either.

Yes, we must face the truth about some of our actions, past and present, but the militant Irish Nationalists shoudl face the truth about theirs.