The Wind That Shakes The Barley

Historical dramas have such a potential for disaster that they're almost not worth it anymore. The emotional elements of change inevitably give way to monolouges that seemed designed for oscar clips. Smart filmmmakers though know to just let the events unfold and play out as naturally as possible. Take 'The Wind That Shakes The Barley' for instance. Ken Loach is smart enough to make those moments belong to the actors. They stutter, they start sentences over, and they give us the feeling that they're making they're minds up as they're going along. Simply put, Loach succeeds at letting us feel that these are ordinary people who were forced to act under extraordinary circumstances.
I was impressed by how small and personal the film played out considering the size of the movement. No swelling crowds or giant political figures struggling to swallow their pride. Just this small group of young men who refused to let their small world disappear and forgive the terrible and senseless violence of their oppressors. The rooms are lit only by the weak daylight coming through the windows and the (inevitable) strings are low key and saved only for the moments of reflection or aftermath. As the film's lead and the only recognizeable international star, Cillian Murphy could have put on his Sean Penn shoes and chewed up the scenery with a lot of yelling and such. Instead he spends much of his time sitting back and watching his costars. He acts subtly and with such little vanity that the star disappears into the character.
The movie doesn't really give us much in the way of a history lesson. We're not given a good sense of location in the beginning and less a sense of legacy in the end. What we do feel though, throughout every frame, is the struggle and pride of a people coping with a seemingly hopeless oppression.