(Credits: Searchlight Pictures)
In a film culture where enormous studios throw out flashy visuals at an almost alarming rate with over-excessive editing and tremendous budgets, any project that centres a naturalistic narrative and recruits a minimalistic yet powerful style to execute it is appreciated. This compelling manifesto is the case forThe Banshees of Inisherin, Martin McDonagh’s sentimental and spectacular drama about a fractured friendship between Colin Farrell’s Pádraic and Brian Gleeson’s Colm, a touching and tragic artwork from its opening to end.
The film received eight nominations at the 95th Academy Awards thanks to its dynamic performances, exquisite Irish setting, challenging historical backdrop of the early 20th-century Civil war and expressive story.The Banshees of Inisherin’sending blends all these factors, situating the exterior context of the war in 1923 against the interior plot point of Colm suddenly freezing his lifelong friend out of his life.
Following Pádraic’s persistence to keep his best friend in his life, feeling unsatisfied with Colm’s reasoning of feeling as though he is too “dull”, Gleeson’s character is pushed to his limits, stating that he will cut off a finger for every time Pádraic bothers him. What follows is the final nail in the coffin for the pair’s relationship, unravelling this lifelong bond for good in a sudden horrific way that shifts the whole tone of the film.
Pádraic burns Colm’s house down in a bid for revenge after his beloved donkey was killed after the animal choked on his former friend’s dismembered fingers, not caring if Colm is inside. The next day Pádraic, having rescued Colm’s dog, Sammy, spots him beside his burnt-out house on the beach. Colm immediately apologises for the donkey’s death and proposes that destroying the house has ended their feud, but Pádraic informs him that staying inside the house would have been the only way to end it.
When Colm asks if the Civil war has ended, Pádraic replies that it may be appropriate that people cannot move on from some events. As Pádraic leaves for good, Colm thanks him for looking after Sammy, and Pádraic responds he’ll do it “anytime”. Unbeknownst to them, Mrs McCormick, a local elder, is watching them from afar by Colm’s burned cottage.
McDonagh’s ending connotates a dire and chilling sense of hopelessness, elevated by both the film’s context and plot.The Banshees of Inisherincan be perceived as a parallel to the Irish Civil war, which tore the land apart due to a conflict between once close civilians, fracturing friendships and destroying blood bonds.
This factor mirrors the state of the characters’ destroyed company as Pádraic’s pet dies due to his former friend’s morbid and extreme methods of keeping him away, triggering a point of no return. Farrell’s character burning the house down out of revenge is a remote echoing of the turbulent and detrimental effects of the war, progressing the film’s incubated plot to a saddening conclusion. Pádraic’s cold and bitter attitude towards Colm illustrates how their friendship is irreversibly tarnished, proving how far such a sweet and loveable character has been pushed, conveyed in his line that moving on sometimes isn’t possible.
“The starting point was to capture the sadness of a breakup, be it a love breakup or a friendship one,” McDonagh told Indiewire, explaining: “Being on both sides of that is an equally horrible position. To treat the sadness of both sides as truthfully as possible was the main thing I wanted to get right with this.”
The Banshees of Inisherinexplores the tragedy of fractured relationships and the generational feud that can spark through cynicism and petty squabbling. The film’s conclusion is sour, elevated by the backdrop of the war working alongside the closed story of a deteriorating friendship. It’s emotional, heartbreaking and harrowing until the end.
