War has cost them their innocence... Freedom will cost them their blood.
Overview
In 1920s Ireland young doctor Damien O'Donovan prepares to depart for a new job in a London hospital. As he says his goodbyes at a friend's farm, British Black and Tans arrive, and a young man is killed. Damien joins his brother Teddy in the Irish Republican Army, but political events are soon set in motion that tear the brothers apart.
Cillian Murphy, Pádraic Delaney, Liam Cunningham, Orla Fitzgerald, Mary O'Riordan, Mary Murphy, Laurence Barry, Damien Kearney, Frank Bourke, Myles Horgan, Martin Lucey, Aidan O'Hare, Shane Casey, John Crean, Máirtín de Cógáin, Keith Dunphy, Kieran Hegarty, Gerard Kearney, Shane Nott, Kevin O'Brien
Where to watch
AMC+, Philo, Acorn TV, Sundance Now, Acorn TV Apple TV
Curator Review
Verdict
A fierce, unsentimental anti-colonial war drama that treats revolution as morally costly rather than heroic. It’s strongest as a political tragedy about comradeship, betrayal, and the impossible compromises of liberation.
Best for
Viewers who like politically charged historical dramas
Fans of bleak, grounded war films
People interested in Irish history and anti-imperialist cinema
Audiences who appreciate naturalistic performances and moral ambiguity
Skip if
You want a fast-paced or action-heavy war movie
You prefer clearly heroic, feel-good historical epics
You’re looking for a broad ensemble with lots of comic relief
You dislike films that are openly ideological and confrontational
Overview
Ken Loach turns the Irish War of Independence and Civil War into a painful study of principle under pressure. The film is less interested in battlefield spectacle than in how occupation, retaliation, and factionalism deform ordinary lives and friendships. That restraint makes the violence hit harder when it arrives.
Worth noting
Cillian Murphy gives the story its emotional center, but the film’s real force comes from its refusal to simplify either side into clean righteousness. It understands revolution as a movement that can be both necessary and ruinous, and it keeps asking what freedom means once the fighting starts turning inward.
Bottom line
The result is austere, angry, and deeply human. If you respond to historical dramas that argue as much as they dramatize, this is one of the essential modern political war films.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Darren Carver-Balsiger (4★) · 1811 likes
Revolutions are not clean. The British occupation of Ireland was barbaric and brutal. Whilst The Wind That Shakes the Barley may be exaggerated according to some, it is hard to deny the oppression Ireland faced during centuries of occupation. Irish independence is still a prickly topic, but British actions in the 1920s were wrong and Ken Loach is brave for unequivocally showing that in his film, although it's sad that it does require bravery to highlight anti-imperialist sentiments.
As a… more
maggie (4.5★) · 1671 likes
cillian murphy: yells in irish
me: nods understandingly
han (4★) · 1330 likes
cillian murphy is the wind that shakes my ovaries
Jeremy Corbyn (5★) · 1208 likes
It’s about the horrors and contradictions of the Irish Civil War in 1922.
I remember showing this in a community centre in our constituency, and Ken came to talk to us about how he made the film. Thank you Ken!
Superb performance by Cillian Murphy.
Steven (4.5★) · 1043 likes
irish mfs will be named Caoilfhionn and it's pronounced Craig