A group of people came from a distance in the thick fog, the outlines were looming, the singing became clearer and clearer, and behind them were the pale blue sky and the gray-green mountains. They are looking for freedom.
In fact, they don't know that when they are walking on the road like this, they are really enjoying their freedom. Because they tread on their own land, they sing their own songs. But they don't have time to feel this peace, because they are trying to grope and chase the freedom that belongs to an ancient country and a whole nation.
They are farmers, but they have no land to cultivate for themselves; they are workers, but they have no sweat for their families; they are students, but they have no hymn to sing for the motherland. All they want is self-sufficient food, to ensure that children will not starve to death; all they want is equal treatment, to ensure that the elderly do not sleep on the streets. But none of these. That's fine, then we don't want your mercy and alms, we just ask for our freedom back. Because no matter how you squeeze the British Empire, the Irish can still create their own lives with their industrious hands. But it didn't either.
It's not like it is often said that when there is oppression, there will be resistance, but when the oppression is too heavy, there will be resistance. Therefore, the rough hands had to put down the hoe and raised the sickle to harvest, while the slender hands had to put down the book and pick up the tip of the pen to stab. They want to cut off the invaders' heads and poke their hearts. They can only do this. Only by holding the barrel of a gun can they stand up and talk. Only by forming an army can they take back their country.
After watching this movie, it only taught me to feel that the photography is simple, the shots are steady, the editing is calm, the exterior scenes are beautifully shot, and the details such as the training of the militia are very rigorously shot, which is a bit like the feeling of watching "War Day". In today's era of shocking and advocating special effects, this style of insisting on one's own may not be pleasing. But I never wanted to comment on opinions that are almost similar to mine. It seems that good works are always just waiting for those who can see them. As a political-themed work, there are too many emotions and human nature to excavate, and this film is like giving you a shovel. What the camera shows is the part that the shovel can dig out, and the deeper things are under the picture.
No ordinary people are willing to understand and participate in politics. Politics has always forced us to recognize it and confront it. Politics can turn heroes into demons instantly , just because of their political stance. When Damian was arrested for the first time for interrogation, he raised his head very bookly and demanded that the other party treat him as a political prisoner. Unexpectedly, the officer in charge of the interrogation immediately yelled at him: The people you killed participated in the Battle of the Somme. ! They stayed in disgustingly dirty trenches, watching their comrades get blown to pieces right in front of their eyes! Damian was stunned for a moment, and then the officer slammed the door with the words "Take him hard for me". This moment immediately pulled me back to the memory reserve of war movies. The scene of artillery fire and corpses all over the place immediately surfaced in my mind, and my chest trembled. The Battle of the Somme, the most tragic battle of World War I, with countless casualties, but they survived, they are heroes of the country... And these veterans who survived World War I, heroes in some people's hearts are regarded as aggression in the eyes of others who was beaten to death in a bar in the colony. Right and wrong, hero and aggressor, praise and curse, intriguing.
When Damian was ordered to execute the milkman Chris, several of their comrades gathered around, some said God he was still so young, some said he could be exiled, some said: he is a traitor. Sorry guys, this is war, we are fighting . Then everyone was silent. Yes, war, they are soldiers now, they are fighting, and there is no personal friendship and mercy on the battlefield. Damian told the people around him before the execution that he had known Chris since he was five years old, and they were playmates who grew up together. He himself did not want to keep this friend. But the war was ahead and the order was on, so he had to pull the trigger. Then he threw off the pistol in horror and ran away like a frightened child. His slender and weak hands were supposed to be used to hold stethoscopes and scalpels, and to save people. But now he uses it to reload, hold guns, and kill, and kills his closest friends.
The most meaningful discussion in the film should be the debate after the court judgment. The loan shark was pulled away for disobeying the court judgment. Teddy and others saved him on the grounds that the Republican Army needed the funds and connections of these wealthy businessmen. Come and buy weapons, without weapons this army is dead. However, Dan and others strongly opposed it, because this loan shark could almost kill a poor aunt. No matter how helpful he was to the Republican Army, he had to be dealt with by the court. Teddy persuaded everyone that we need guns to fight the enemy. Only in this way can we drive away the invaders. Isn't our purpose to drive them out of this land? For this goal, we can make some sacrifices, and the fines of the judgment can be paid by ourselves. Dan insisted on upholding the court's judgment, emphasizing that this court represents the interests of our government and the public. Our goal is to build a free, independent and equal country, and to ensure that the interests of all the people are guaranteed, so in this matter We must not give in, otherwise what is the difference between us and those aggressors?
Seeing this, I fell into thinking, putting myself in the shoes of which side I would support. And I never thought of the deep meaning behind Dan's claim, I thought he was maintaining order, but in fact he was sticking to principles, the original motivation and purpose of the revolution. What are we fighting against and fighting for through this revolution ? What have we lost and what have we gained? Will we end up becoming the people we once hated and opposed? This is a terrible question with absolutely no answer to mere fantasy, and it is the question that countless revolutions have finally faced. Reminds me of a Pence quote: "No riot can succeed because once they succeed they won't use the name again."
Then the Irish signed a peace treaty at the negotiating table with Britain, which was heartening news for both the radical and the conservative, and it was the result of their blood and tears. But after a brief revelry, some felt betrayed that the treaty was not what they had hoped for, and some radical Irish were determined to build on it; others chose to put it away Edge to avoid further aggression, save the fire to fight for the benefit when the time comes. In this way, the people in the original trench were divided into two opposing forces. Unfortunately, the former brothers and relatives belonged to these two forces. Teddy becomes the leader of the Dominion Army, and Damian is determined to continue the revolution, which leads to growing divisions.
The Irish are devout Catholics, but radicals are disappointed in the church when they see the bishop supporting conservative forces. Outside the church, the older brother tried to dissuade the younger brother who had made up his mind, promising him: I swear, when we are strong enough, we will break the treaty. The younger brother responded to him: This treaty has already made you wrap the Union Jack around your body like a butcher's apron. During the brothers' argument, the younger brother expressed his heart: I have seen too many families without food, and one out of every four people in this country is unemployed, and we are fighting for this! The elder brother obviously did not have equal words to parry, because he knew that this was the truth.
Damian was once invited by a peasant woman to see her son, and he was also regarded as the last god by the peasant woman, because Damian reassured the peasant woman that the child would be well. Then Dan whispered to the peasant woman after he turned to leave: Is this child really all right? Damian sat on the edge of the bed and sighed deeply, and replied: He was starving to death. At that time, I could see the seriousness of the disease from Damian's hesitation, and I was still wondering what kind of appalling disease he would say, but I didn't expect it to be just "I'm going to starve to death"... Yes, I'm going to starve to death. . No matter what century you are in or even today, this sentence has an unparalleled sense of powerlessness. Because this kind of death is not because of profit or belief, but because the oldest and most basic human instinct has been deprived.
The serious differences in political opinions made the former brothers have to be reduced to the situation of raising guns against each other. The last moment they were comrades in arms who fought side by side to death. Damian was later arrested and imprisoned for participating in the robbery of the arsenal, and he also lost his best comrade-in-arms Dan in the operation. He was very quiet in prison, because his heart was completely dead, and he couldn't believe that his former comrade would shoot several times at the compatriot who put down his weapon. For this reason, his eyes widened in disbelief in horror, and he shouted hoarsely. Yelling over and over again...but it's no use, even if you don't believe it, these fellow Irish do exactly the same things as the British once did.
Teddy was ordered to interrogate Damian to find out the whereabouts of the weapon. He came to his brother's cell and first expressed his unspoken thanks to him. Because it was in the same cell that the younger brother did not hesitate to tell the enemy that he was Teddy in order to protect his older brother, the leader of the Republican Army. But that was when they were comrades-in-arms and comrades after all, and now the two are dramatically on opposite sides. Teddy said to Damian, I've never begged anyone, this time a brother was begging his brother to tell me the whereabouts of the weapon. Damian tells about his execution of Chris, whether Chris was made a traitor for telling his comrade's hideout, or whether he was killed by me, so I won't tell you anything. Teddy put his head in his arms, silent, while Damian looked at him with contempt with the pride of a victor, even though he knew he was waiting for a shooting. Damian wrote in his suicide note: I once didn't want to get involved in this war, but now I can't get out of it. Also mentioned what Dan said: It is easy to know what you are against, but difficult to know what you are after ... This is what countless revolutionaries have been looking for throughout the ages. Damian is dead, but he's found what he's after.
In the end, Teddy came to Sydney's residence alone and brought her Damian's suicide note and token. Sydney struggled frantically and didn't want to believe it, but she never said any malicious words, just seemed to have exhausted her last strength to say Out of the sentence that seems familiar: you go. I don't want to see you again. Everything was exactly the same as when Damian went to bring the news of her son's death to Chris' mother, when Chris's mother made dinner and waited for her son and his friends to return, but it was a man and A handful of dirt. A mother's last love and grief are condensed in these words: you go. I don't want to see you again.
The elder brother personally ordered the execution of the younger brother. It's not an antithesis of beliefs, because their beliefs are all about freedom and liberation. This is not a conflict of positions either, because their purpose is to make this ravaged country better... You can say that they are both right, one is fiery, the other is calm, one is passionate and the other is deep, and the other has to chase after victory and fight to the end. One wants to save the tinder to find the light. It's just a nuanced difference between radical and conservative, so small that the chasm between the two must be filled with life. But what you should not say wrong is only this era, because this is the most helpless and numb language, this is the word that only weak people will say without hesitation, no matter whether they are in a peaceful era or not, and this will definitely be said by the two brothers. Common refutation of ideas. What they get at the price of family affection and love should never be to judge the right or wrong of an era, because any era has the same predicament that we cannot overcome .
I thought of a comment under the "British Showdown" with the same political background that I read a few days ago: No matter what the purpose or the appeal, as long as innocent civilians are attacked, that is terrorism, and it should be Killing them all is not worthy of sympathy. Of course, I also hate terrorists and terrorist attacks, but I just don't think it's fair to use today's standards to condemn atrocities that have done the same things in the past.
The landscape of Ireland remains so clean and clear to this day. The endless fields and the coast where the water and the sky meet have recorded too much and forgotten too much. The tears that once dripped in the soil have blossomed into pure flowers, and the blood thrown in the wind has faded to bright red. But when the breeze blows through the golden wheat waves, and experience this refreshing beauty, even the owner of tears and blood will smile.
View more about The Wind that Shakes the Barley reviews
