THE FUTILITY OF ‘FALLING OUT’

 

THE FUTILITY OF ‘FALLING OUT’

The budget was $20 million to make The Banshees of Inisherin. The film made $49.3 million. What was the attraction?  I felt uncomfortable with it from the beginning. It fitted no categories. There was no plot, no adventure, no romance. None of the characters were ‘attractive’ except maybe Siobhan who fled the community. What was it all about and why did 80% of viewers approve of it?

It is the story of two friends living on a small island off the west coast of Ireland during the civil war in the 1920s, who fall out. Colm finds Padraic dull and meeting him every day for a drink numbs his creative spirit. He refuses to join Padraic at the pub. He is trying to compose a new song for the fiddle. Padraic becomes obsessed with a desire to mend the relationship and go back to where they were before. Colm becomes more and more irritated and threatens to cut off the very fingers he plays the fiddle with. Padraic doesn’t believe him and the whole issue escalates.

I was glad when it was over. It was a horror film and I could see nothing attractive in it. Then I consulted Mr Google:

‘As a study of male loneliness and swallowed anger it is weirdly compelling and often very funny’.

‘What begins as a doleful, anecdotal narrative becomes something closer to mythic in its rage and resonance: McDonagh (the director) has long fixated on the most visceral, vengeful extremes of human behaviour, but never has he formed something this sorely heartbroken from that fascination.’

I realised I had missed the point. The film is a glimpse into the deeper darker horror of which human beings are capable.  A friend wrote, ‘I LOVED the movie.... I found it funny, moving and thought provoking by turns. I thought it was beautifully shot, superbly acted and captured the LACK of romance in a tiny island community... starved of news... bored... with an intense familiarity among the islanders to the point of claustrophobic desperation... loneliness. But the main thing I got from it was the futility of “falling out” over perceived differences ... drawing huge parallels with brother fighting brother on the mainland.’

I should stop here but am tempted to underline that phrase, ‘the futility of “falling out” over perceived differences.’ This is an apt comment in our civic environment as we approach elections.

9 July 2023    Sunday 14 A     Zech 9:9-10    Rom 8:9-13          Mt 11;25-30