The Wind That Shakes The Barley MOVIE

This is another EXCELLENT movie set in the early 1900's during Ireland's War of Independence. I'll be posting a clip of it soon in the MOVIES section of the blog.

 

 

County Cork, Ireland, 1920. Dr. Damien O'Donovan (Cillian Murphy) is about to leave his native village to practice medicine in a London hospital. Meanwhile, his brother Teddy (Pádraic Delaney) commands the local flying column of the Irish Republican Army. After a hurling match, Damien witnesses the summary execution of his friend, Micheál Ó Súilleabháin, by British Black and Tans. Although shaken, Damien rebuffs his friends' entreaties to stay in Ireland and join the IRA, saying that the war is unwinnable. As he is leaving town, Damien witnesses the British Army vainly trying to intimidate a railway guard and the train driver for refusing to permit the troops to board. In response, Damien decides to stay and is sworn into Teddy's IRA brigade.
After drilling in the mountains, the column raids the village's Royal Irish Constabulary barracks for revolvers, then uses them to assassinate four Auxiliaries. In the aftermath, Anglo-Irish landowner Sir John Hamilton (Roger Allam) coerces one of his servants, IRA member Chris Reilly (John Crean), into passing information to the British Army's Intelligence Corps. As a result, the entire brigade is taken arrested. In their cell, Damien meets the train driver, Dan (Liam Cunningham), a union official who shares Damien's socialist views. Meanwhile, British officers interrogate Teddy, pulling out his fingernails when he refuses to give names of IRA members. Later, Johnny Gogan (William Ruane), a British soldier of Irish descent, helps all but three of the prisoners escape. After the actions of Sir John and Chris are revealed to the IRA's intelligence network, both are taken hostage. As Teddy is still recovering, Damien is temporarily placed in command. News arrives that the three remaining IRA prisoners have been tortured and shot. Simultaneously, the brigade receives orders to, "Execute the spies." Despite the fact that Chris is a lifelong friend, a shattered Damien shoots both him and Sir John. Later, Damien tells his sweetheart, Cumann na mBan member Sinéad Sullivan (Orla Fitzgerald), about the shame of facing Chris's mother. After the IRA ambushes and wipes out an armed convoy of the Auxiliary Division, another detachment of Auxiliaries loots and burns the farmhouse of Sinéad's family in retaliation. Sinéad is held at gunpoint while her head is shaved. Later, as Damien comforts her, a messenger arrives with news of a formal ceasefire between Britain and the IRA. While the village celebrates, Damien and Sinéad steal away for a romantic interlude.
After the Anglo-Irish Treaty is signed, the brigade learns that a partitioned Ireland will only be granted Dominion status within the British Empire. As a result, the brigade divides over the terms. Teddy and his allies argue that accepting the Treaty will bring peace now while further gains can be made later. Others oppose the Treaty, proposing to continue fighting until a united Irish Republic can be obtained. Dan and Damien further demand the collectivisation of industry and agriculture. Any other course, declares Dan, will change only, "the accents of the powerful and the colour of the flag." Not all Anti-Treaty Republicans are depicted as agreeing, however. Later, the Irish Free State replaces British rule and Teddy and his allies begin patrolling in Irish Army uniforms. Meanwhile, Damien and his allies join the Anti-Treaty IRA. When the civil war begins in Dublin, the Anti-Treaty column commences guerilla tactics against the Free State. As the violence escalates, Teddy expresses fear that the British will invade if the Republicans gain the upper hand. He decrees, "They take one out, we take one back. To hell with the courts."
Ultimately, Dan is killed and Damien is captured during a raid for arms on a Free State barracks commanded by Teddy. Sentenced to death, Damien is held in the same cell where the British Army imprisoned them earlier. Hoping to avoid executing his brother, Teddy pleads with Damien to reveal where the IRA is hiding the stolen rifles, offering him full amnesty, a vision of Ireland at peace, and a life with Sinéad. Damien responds, "I shot Chris Reilly in the heart. I did that. You know why? I am not going to sell out." Devastated, Teddy leaves the cell in tears.
Writing a goodbye letter to Sinéad, Damien declares his love for her, saying that he knows what he stands for and is not afraid. At dawn, Damien is marched before a firing squad. As both brothers fight back tears, Teddy gives the order, the squad fires, and Damien crumples to the ground. That afternoon, Teddy delivers Damien's letter to Sinéad. Enraged and heartbroken, she flails uselessly against Teddy, then orders him to leave. Sinéad falls to her knees mourning Damien, while Teddy mournfully walks away.