Saturday 25 May
 
 

The Burning

It speaks to the strength of The Burning’s reputation among cult-film fans that what’s most memorable about the 1981 slasher is not that it was written by the Weinstein brothers, nor that it represents early appearances of the likes of Jason Alexander, Holly Hunter and Fisher Stevens. It’s that its Cropsy is just a damned good villain.
05/24/2013 | Comments 0

Dexter: The Seventh Season

There's no way to discuss the seventh and penultimate season of Showtime's hit Dexter without acknowledging how the previous year ended. Therefore, if you haven't finished the sixth season, stop reading now. You've got work to do.
05/21/2013 | Comments 0

Nightfall

As Simon Lam gets older, he gets better. The veteran actor has appeared in such in seminal HK action films of the 1990s as Once Upon a Time in China (opposite Jet Li) and Bullet in the Head (directed by John Woo); in the aughts, he graced audience and critical favorites Election and Ip Man.
05/20/2013 | Comments 0

Grand Duel

Lee Van Cleef enjoyed a secondary career in Italy cranking out spaghetti Westerns, with little regard to quality. However, 1972’s Grand Duel — aka The Big Showdown — is deserving of its Grand label. No wonder Quentin Tarantino borrowed its sweeping theme song by Luis Bacalov for Kill Bill; you'll recognize it in two notes.
05/20/2013 | Comments 0

The Last Stand

Early in The Last Stand, the small-town sheriff played by Arnold Schwarzenegger says, "It's my day off. Should be a quiet weekend." That's the new way of saying, "I've got one week to retirement," because it signals — with flashing neon and everything — that life is going to royally upend those plans.
05/17/2013 | Comments 0
Home · Articles · Movies · Drama · The Wind That Shakes the Barley
Drama

The Wind That Shakes the Barley


None May 24th, 2007

The-Wind-That-Shakes-the-Ba

Reviewer's grade: A

The British/Irish "troubles" of 1916-21 and the civil war that followed the peace treaty provide the backdrop to this tale of the loss of humanity war requires. Cillian Murphy stars as Damien, a young Irishman who joins the guerilla movement to chase the English back to their own country and never realizes that what he calls love of liberty drains him of mercy and decency.

 

The movie can be tough at times, as the fighting is realistically filmed "” that means it isn't made palatable just because it's for a good cause. Traitors to the cause are executed and captured guerillas are tortured for a variety of reasons: to gain information, out of revenge, and just because it has been authorized from above.

 

If any of this reminds you of a more recent conflict that escalated into a civil war, I doubt the similarities occurred  by accident. Winner of the Palme d'Or at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival. The film is unrated in the U.S., but surely would get an R. Not rated

 

- Doug Bentin

 
  • Currently 3.5/5 Stars.
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