I like Ken Loach, I do, but he don’t half like tragedy. Looking for a Loach film with a happy ending is like searching for an original idea in the head of a horror film producer. And whilst happy endings aren’t very realistic, and often soft soap serious issues – FOR FUCK SAKE LOACH LIGHTEN UP.
So therefore I present a slightly happier, less hackneyed (and equally less true)version of his new film The Wind That Shakes The Barley: The Windy Shakey Barley.
IRELAND 1920: Workers from field and country unite to form volunteer guerrilla armies to face the ruthless ‘Black and Tan’ squads that are being shipped from Britain to block Ireland’s bid for independence. Driven by a deep sense of duty and a love for his country, Damien abandons his burgeoning career as a doctor and joins his brother, Teddy, in a dangerous and violent fight for freedom. He also falls in love in the process with Sinead, the beautiful but feisty local organiser for the IRA.
As the freedom fighters’ bold tactics bring the British to breaking point, both sides finally agree to a treaty to end the bloodshed. But despite the apparent victory, civil war erupts between the Free Irish, and their brothers who want complete freedom from the British with a socialist state and freedom for all.
With Teddy on the side of the Free Irish, and Damien pursuing the more noble but seemingly doomed socialist cause, a showdown is forced between brothers. Sentenced to death by his own brother, Damien writes a letter to Sinead to say goodbye. She then breaks him out of prison, and the loving couple breathlessly speed to Dublin with Teddy in pursuit. Gaining entry to the Dáil the seek an audience with Michael Collins who is too busy being in another film – thus leaving the stage set for a final showdown between the brothers. After a frenzied battle, the tearful Sinead looking on, the brothers realise the unity of their cause, joining together to form the first truly socialist state, setting the stage for all the other successful socialist states in the rest of the world. Damien and Sinead have twelve children, Teddy becomes the Chairman Taoiseach, and the world lives happily and in a socially egalitarian ever after.