Ken Loach's 'œfine new film' sparked controversy in Britain, said Kenneth Turan in the Los Angeles Times. It portrays the British occupying force in 1920s Ireland as cruel, bloodthirsty thugs. Pádraic Delaney and Cillian Murphy earn our sympathy as two mistreated Irish brothers gradually drawn into violent resistance. But ultimately The Wind That Shakes the Barley succeeds despite, not because of, its politics. Loach's political sensibility is inseparable from his art, said David Denby in The New Yorker. Earlier in his career, the unrepentant socialist's preaching could be so strident 'œthat you felt abashed if you saw his movies, guilty if you skipped them.' How ironic, then, that such bourgeois traits as plot, characters, and Barry Ackroyd's beautiful cinematography make this one of his best films. The Wind That Shakes the Barley combines the historic sweep of a Hollywood epic with bloody, gritty realism. I've never seen anything quite like it. Sure you have, said Richard Corliss in Time. 'œI call this kind of movie a liberal weepie,' in which a scrappy underdog bravely stands up against an oppressive—well, you know. Loach's film proves the genre can be entertaining. Just don't pretend that it's art—or that you, 'œdear sensitive viewer,' will be less politically complacent once you're done watching it.
Rating: PG-13
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