The Banshees Of Inisherin

Did you smash it

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120354657#Comment_120354657

The absurdist comedy I like would range from ace Ventura to the big Lebowski because I thought they were both hilarious.

other absurdist comedy like Get Out and This didn’t do much for me as I didn’t find them funny…I preferred this to Get Out at least.

Man Vs ManUre

This film could have had a better final third, it should have gone bat sh1t crazy instead of its mild conclusion. It should have been the sister dying from tripping over the fingers or something, instead of Jenny, and in parallel to Padraig doing a bloody and violent revenge on Colm there would be the scenes of Dominic killing the father before doing away with himself.

saabsaab

I wondered would there be a Liam MacGabhann moment when Jimmy Kimmel asked Colin Farrell that question!

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120354925#Comment_120354925

The man harming himself didn't make you think of self harm? I don't know what to tell you.

I don't agree with you, for what it's worth. I didn't particularly love the film, but it had nothing to do with me buying a man chopping off his own fingers.

Did you smash it

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120355025#Comment_120355025

I didn’t care, the movie didn’t make me think about anything really. It was well made and well acted. But I didn’t feel sympathetic to any of the characters or even the donkey. Now I look back and think a lad cutting off his fingers to stop another lad talking to him is basically just stupid in my opinion.

Aftersun on the other hand was a film where I could instantly relate to the characters and become deeply invested in them. That’s pretty much all you need from a movie in my opinion: to care about the characters. Once you have that, you have a film worth seeing.

sporina

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120354519#Comment_120354519

for me the chopping off of the fingers served 2 purposes; 1. as a way to exert control over Padraic and 2. "tortured artist" technique.. more pain - more creativity.. and a way to vent his own frustrations.. the energy with which he then used to create his music piece..

but make of it what you will - Martin's work is never x+y = z

The DayDream

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120355020#Comment_120355020

That's why you're not a scriptwriter. Those ideas are crap especially the first one. She trips over the fingers and dies? Yeah that's brilliant.

buried

The whole thing is a brilliant take on rural Ireland. Past and Present. It was never going to win any award ceremony judged by a bunch of gadges from the hills of Hollywood. The fact it didn't win any oscar only solidifies it's brilliance.

saabsaab

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120355269#Comment_120355269

That's a bit harsh.

~Rebel~

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120355249#Comment_120355249

My own interpretation of the fingers was nearly the opposite of your point 2 - that the thing causing him all this angst and, as the film calls it, 'despair', is the pressure he puts on himself to create. That his own knowledge of his potential, and his expectation of himself to leave something great behind, is basically removing the possibility of just being happy. So he creates a situation whereby he's "forced" into losing the ability to create new work. Basically self-sabotage, and as convoluted and nonsensical as it may be, it's a way he can justify to himself to just live in the moment without that continuous pressure. It's kind of backed up by him saying he actually feels relived after he loses the fingers.

I think a lot of artists can relate to this feeling, of gnawing guilt whenever you're not actively producing something, so instead of being happy when you make something, you're just staving off the guilt for a while - but like an addiction it always comes back again (unless you cut your fingers off!).

That's what I liked about the movie though, that it kinda stuck with you and noodled around in your mind to unpick an explanation that makes sense to you.

sporina

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120355368#Comment_120355368

yeah - but he did create his music piece.. but yeah... with no fingers - there was no pressure to create anymore.. good elaboration

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120355310#Comment_120355310

The "gadges from the hills of Hollywood" are the ones who nominated it for so many awards in the first place. The fact it didn't win anything only solidifies the fact that other people got more votes when it was narrowed down to 5(10for BP) options.

The nonsense in this thread since last night is hilarious. Banshees is somehow both a load of overhyped by RTÉ rubbish AND too good to be recognised for its brilliance by the Hollywood elite. Some achievement.

~Rebel~

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120355388#Comment_120355388

Yeah, I felt like it was almost as though he saw that music piece as his creative full-stop, so it was after that was finished that he escalated his threat from "i'll cut them off one by one", to just cutting all the remaining ones off at once. So he got to make his thing, and then removed the possibility - and pressure - of having to make another. Like some sort of 'creative suicide', physically closing a chapter in his life.

buried

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120355390#Comment_120355390

I don't know if you haven't noticed Elmo, but considering the current pathetic output the gadges from the hills of Hollywood are throwing out themselves, there is hardly f**k all output for them to nominate anything from their own houses, hence a German and Asian based film win the most prolific awards.

Banshees of Inisherin is a bone fide look at continuous 20th/21st century modern indigenous Irish culture. And it does it spectacularly. If you have to live here, you will get it, you won't need to be told it.

Beechwoodspark

Banshees is modern paddy whackery served up by an Englishman who thinks he is a wetherspoons Beckett.

Despite all the crazy ott hype - the film is absolute rubbish

CalamariFritti

I suppose the story isn't credible in so many ways unless you assume they're all half mad and thats the way it was.

I mean if you wanted to do more with your life you could just tell your mate 'look let's keep the pub and the mindless talk to the weekends, I want to do other things too'. You wouldn't actually blank him for the rest of your life. And cut your fingers off if he doesn't go with that.

So the story just isn't on a reality level at all, I think we can all accept that.

And after that you either accept this as you would accept crazy stuff reading Greek mythology or an absurd play and you go with that and find something in that film that interests you. Go looking for metaphors or whatever. Or just appreciate the acting or the surreality or the cinematography or whatever.

Or else you say this is not for me and possibly 'wtf'.

I think when we're talking about a wide audience it was always mostly going to be the latter and I would include myself in that.

tobefrank321

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120355483#Comment_120355483

Bone fides look at Irish culture? So we all go to the pub at 2pm and spend the day there? We have no jobs but have money to spend in the pub? People living in the heart of the gaeltacht, but no Irish between them. Say feckin in every sentence? Don't understand the background to the civil war. I could go on. Its just inaccurate on almost every count written by a man who seems to know little or nothing factual about Ireland.

Its just Paddy Whackery and high time McDonagh was called out on it. Its no different to the SNL sketch.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120355483#Comment_120355483

"Asian based"?

EEAAO is set in America. Your choice of wording is saying a lot about you, so I'll just leave you to it.

nagel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120355612#Comment_120355612

Had the same view as yourself, another inaccuracy i notices was Padraic feeding continental type cattle, they did not arrive into Ireland until the 60's

Man Vs ManUre

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120355269#Comment_120355269

Well I only came up with the exact manner of the sisters death as I was writing the post, but it would be something to do with Colm or the chopped off fingers. My ending would have been a million times better than the crappy ending McDonagh made. When I win an Oscar for best original screenplay I will remember you in my speech!!

pixelburp

I think people are focused too much on the literalism of the fingers. Maybe had the movie had a more pronounced surreal, heightened visual or tonal palette people would have accepted it quicker as something blatantly absurd or grotesque? The cinematography was quite naturalistic, the tone played fairly grim and contemporary - occasional anachronistic dialogue notwithstanding - and that definitely made the chopping of the fingers a little jarring.

At its core, as I see it: Colm was a man beset by fear of death, fear of leaving nothing, and clearly in a spiral of depression so pronounced and extreme he chose an extreme response. But played within that otherwise mundane, realistic setting it came across overly absurd.

Citizen Six

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120354519#Comment_120354519

You must really not enjoy any of the Fast and the Furious movies so.

Citizen Six

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120355612#Comment_120355612

You may enjoy this short clip, of unemployed men in the pub, from 7am or thereabouts.

https://www.rte.ie/archives/2020/1001/1168735-early-opening-pubs/

Beechwoodspark

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120355612#Comment_120355612

Spot on. Mcdonagh has been getting away with this absolute tripe for years.

this one in particular has a very sloppy script and plot

tobefrank321

So the Americans are stereotyping the Irish as fighting drunks once again.

tobefrank321

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120356483#Comment_120356483

So that clip is a bone fides representation of Ireland then?

Out of interest, what time did you enter the pub yesterday?

Did you smash it

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120356395#Comment_120356395

It’s a fair interpretation

personally the premise of the story just wasn’t for me, it’s a finely made movie but it just didn’t “hit” me as it was an absurd premise IMO and the comedic parts weren’t really funny to me.

Fysh

Man, the state of this thread in the last two days is best summed up as either that Abe Simpson revolving at the door gif, or the Donald Glover darkest timeline pizza gif.

I'd be lying if I said I didn't find talk about the anachronisms interesting, purely because I know nothing much about what island life at the time would have been like (but I do also know that taking non-documentary film or television on the subject literally is misguided). But - perhaps because I don't have an expectation of it being a deeply-researched and pointedly accurate depiction of life at the time - that didn't get in the way of enjoying the film. I think @pixelburp is bang on upthread in saying that the naturalistic presentation style and tone plays against the inherent absurdity of the core plot mechanics and the dark humour and pathos that unspools from there.

I continue to be a bit surprised at the number of people who seem to be profoundly upset not so much that they didn't enjoy the film, so much as at the idea that anyone else did. Ironically feels like a sentiment that would fit perfectly into the version of island life depicted in the film 😅

flasher0030

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120355020#Comment_120355020

That would be brilliant. With dark Bodhran music (and a bit of fiddle and tin whistle) building up to a creshendo as the scenes come to a conclusion. I found the film very interesting, but I feel it did kinda fizzle out weakly. I was expecting something else to happen on the beach before it closed out.

I presume you were half messing with your alternative ending, but it would have been more memorable. I thought the film Aftersun was quite draggy for a lot of it. Not a lot happening except bits of dialogue. But then the few minutes at the end with the dancing over the Queen/David Bowie song just nailed the film, and that has stayed with me since. And, notwithstanding that I did not get a whole lot from the majority of the movie (Aftersun), I still think it was an amazing film because of that scene. Banshees could have been the same if they had something along what you proposed.

Flaneur OBrien

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120356555#Comment_120356555

Careful now, it's Cheltenham week 😂

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

I find it interesting that people think the sister dying would have been a better third act than her leaving and the donkey dying.

Pauric had already lost his friend, and his sister, indirectly because of Colm, and it was made clear how much he loved Jenny, and she was all he had left at that point. It was a final blow that pushed him over the edge. It wasn't just because the donkey ate a finger that he went and set Colm's house on fire.

Pauric's arc throughout is one of the few things that felt crystal clear in how it was written and how it played out.

nix

I would encourage any who had trouble understanding what the movie was saying under neath to watch the video below, it might help people understand what the director was trying to do, i do think the finger chopping was OTT and the wrong way to go, he could have done something different to that im sure to get the same point across. But ah well..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74KPJ--cb7Q

Hungry Burger

I enjoyed the film in the cinema, wouldn’t say it’s my favourite ever or anything. The family watched it at Christmas on the telly and absolutely hated it, said that nothing really happened in the whole film and were perplexed by the finger chopping. I think it really lends itself to the big screen, the scenery shots for example weren’t anywhere near as good as in the cinema. I can kind of see where they were coming from on it and when I explained the civil war allegory they kind of just shrugged and said “yeah but that’s still not a good reason to watch two hours of nothing and an auld fella mutilating himself”

blue note

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120355020#Comment_120355020

That's a bit of a Hollywood ending by comparison. It would give a lot less ambiguity towards Padraig, everyone would accept his actions (in a film by the way, not if someone did this down the road!) if he was avenging his sister. Whereas what we were shown was perhaps that it wasn't necessarily his nature just to be nice, but it just worked for him. When it stopped working for him he resorted to something much darker. If his actions had been justifiable in a way, he'd have been more of a straightforward hero. The way it was, we were left with conflicting feelings towards him.

Similarly Dominic killing the father would have been a satisfying comeuppance for the father and the suicide would have pulled at the heartstrings. It not being dealt with is a far more powerful statement. An institution (the gardaí) abusing a boy and the town turning a blind eye to it, even after it being exposed... that sounds familiar. And the boy committing suicide, partly I'm sure because of the shame of it and the town calling it an accident.... yep, that sounds familiar.

The film touches on a lot of very real issues. In some ways it's subtle and in some it exaggerates them for effect. Not everything in the film needs to be taken literally and to be honest, to enjoy film in general I think that's a rule to go by.

Hungry Burger

I agree that the sister dying somehow by the actions of the Brendan Gleason character would have been a way better ending but I don’t know how they could of done it without it being ridiculous.

saabsaab

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120358422#Comment_120358422

She arrives at home, opens the gate seeing, then reaching down and picking up a strange object, realizes in horror what it is, she screams and stumbles backwards hitting her head on a stone.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

There's only one feckin woman in the whole feckin thing and you're wanting to feckin kill her off like. Feck sake

ejmaztec

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120358996#Comment_120358996

She would have deserved it after shooting Ray Donovan. 😛

saabsaab

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120358996#Comment_120358996

No room for women on the island!

Man Vs ManUre

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120358996#Comment_120358996

The banshee is a very fine mature worldly woman with a great brain!!

Citizen Six

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120356555#Comment_120356555

It's a representation of Ireland in the past. What age are you, that you can't understand that alcohol, and the pub, played a different role in society than it does today?

sporina

lovve it... so thought provoking.. must rewatch it (for the 4th time) to have a good look at the props.. a mate was telling me about the masks in Colin's house.. missed them on previous viewings..

Fysh

Good news, everyone - there's a videogame adaptation! 😁

megaten

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120358422#Comment_120358422

Wouldn't have worked, the whole thing with the sister is to underline the futility and stupidity of the feud. That it is possible to just up and leave.

Fysh

I must admit, the idea of Siobhan dying as somehow being an improvement to the film's third act seems bonkers to me. It's not so much that it's a trope, as that it's a particularly lazy simplification of the actual situation. Ditto the thing with the garda and Dominic - having that turn into a violent "and then he killed his da" story is a lazy fantasy version, and while it might be an easy way to let the audience not have to think about why a community might tolerate institutional abuse, I don't think that's what the film is interested in.

Her leaving is a loss to both Pairic and Colm, with the latter having only realised when confronted by Pairic in the pub that actually, Siobhan is probably the closest thing he had on the island to a kindred spirit (i.e. that if he'd bothered looking beyond the end of his own nose before then he might have had more fulfilling friendships). And as megaten says, the entire point is that her solution to the frustration of island life is the only one with a decent chance of working.

Furze99

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120356821#Comment_120356821

It was worth watching to see what the hype was about.. but really it's a heap of sh*te served up as a story for the Yanks.

saabsaab

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120359879#Comment_120359879

Still does at least around here.

JP Liz V1

Do we know if Dominic killed himself or fell in drunk to the lake?

Fysh

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120400094#Comment_120400094

IIRC it's not made explicit in the film but given the conversation he has with Siobhan by the lake before she leaves, I read it as him killing himself because he couldn't see any hope in his future.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120401947#Comment_120401947

Pauric revealing he wasn't as nice as Dominic had thought he was contributed too, I think. It was like all the "good" things he was clinging to were taken away, similar to what happened to Pauric in a way. But Pauric was too busy worrying about his own relationship that he didn't realise he was an important person to Dominic.