Hearts of darkness

It’s been a heady week as Ireland celebrated a record 14 Oscar nominations.

The Banshees of Inisherin broke the record for most nominations for an Irish film while Colm Bairéad’s ‘An Cailín Ciúin’ (The Quiet Girl) has been nominated for ‘Best International Film’ at the Academy Awards.

Kildare actor, Paul Mescal, has been selected in ‘Best Actor’ category for his performance in Charlotte Wells’s ‘Aftersun’.

I’ll reserve judgement on An Cailín Ciúin and Aftersun, as I haven’t watched them yet.

However, not once, but twice, and hopefully again, I will enjoy Martin McDonagh’s classic, ‘The Banshees of Inisherin’.

It is a disturbing movie with dark humour and stunning cinematic takes. Not wanting to give the game away, on first watch I struggled to see beyond the trauma and madness that so portrays this country.

Five days later, I paid another visit, and as my old departed friend Ernie C used say, “You can’t hear till you can hear, and you can’t see till you can see.”

The humour is fabulous, and the dynamics between the characters is remarkable. McDonagh nails it. It’s a movie that’s likely to provide a great injection to the Aran islands tourism industry.

However ‘Banshees…’ is marmite and lost on many.

One lad suggested to me it is ‘sh*te’; hardly an intelligent response to a work of art. If a student of English Literate wrote MacBeth is sh*te’, I suspect the tutor would scrawl in the margin; ‘Explain!’.

A review from lecturer Dr Jenny Farrell, is scathing as among other things she accused McDonagh of using the Irish Civil War as a backdrop, but, omitting any ‘discussions about the Treaty terms, which had such a momentous impact on post-Independence Irish history…’

There is no such thing as a view from nowhere, and, armed with our experiences, we look through our own lens and see the same things differently. This hack was blown away by the movie which was more about the personal than political, with a few bangs portraying the civil war on the Irish mainland as symbolism for the conflict between life-long friends Padraic (Colin Farrell) and Colm (Brendan Gleeson).

It is a local conflict that draws in other folk with shocking results.

It is a strange phenomenon that many laugh at the most frightening actions of a disturbed person on screen, whereas if it were real life one would be appalled.

Two other movies come to mind; ‘Joker’ and ‘The Butcher Boy’.

The 2019 movie Joker depicts Arthur Fleck, a part-time clown and aspiring comedian, who leads an impoverished life with his ailing mother. However, when society shuns him and brands him as a freak, he descends into mental illness and nihilism, inspiring a violent counter-cultural revolution against the prosperous in a decaying Gotham City.

Childhood reflections of abuse and abandonment add to his rage. Lead actor, Joaquin Phoenix is hilarious and got an Oscar for his performance.

If you haven’t seen this movie, I guess you aren’t going to, so (*spoiler alert) when he whacks three privileged students who are kicking him on the floor of a subway train, it’s hard not to retain sympathy for him.

Chat-show host, Murray Franklin was Joker’s hero, but on live TV he scoffed at the Joker’s dreadful comedy act. An awful betrayal.

By this stage, our man is totally out of control and enraged.

After admitting on live TV to killing the three guys on the subway, he tells the audience a tasteless ‘knock-knock’ joke (too sick for this column!).

He then attempts to tell another one while Murray shouts him down, ‘I think we’ve heard enough of your jokes!’

Face painted, Joker’s voice gets ever louder as he retorts, ‘What do you get when you cross a mentally ill loner with a society that abandons him and treats him like thrash?!’

“Call the police”, the host pleads, before Joker pulls out a revolver and delivers the punch-line, “I’ll tell you what you get, you get what you f*****g deserve!” Bang! Bang!’

It’s horrifying but at the same time difficult not to empathise with the underdog… it’s the movies after all!

Francie Brady, (played by Eamonn Owens), in the 1997 film ‘The Butcher Boy’ is another lost soul. A masterpiece written by Patrick McCabe, it is the story of a 12-year-old boy who retreats into a violent fantasy world to escape the reality of his dysfunctional family.

As his circumstances worsen, his sanity deteriorates and he begins acting out, with increasing brutality

With Catholic 1960’s Ireland thrown into the mix and apparitions from Our Lady (played by Sinead O’Connor), it’s another crazy, shocking and hilarious trip.

To make a long story very short, Francy hates Mrs Nugent and despatches her with a gun used for killing pigs before disposing of her in bits, in a hill of food waste behind a barn.

When caught, he asks the Gardai whether he will get the death penalty for his crime. On being told, the death penalty has been abolished, young Francie replies, ‘No death penalty! What is the world coming to?!’

Believe me, it is funny!

It’s not everyone’s cup of tea. I recall telling friend Fr Walsh in the Bronx that the book had been sent to me… and with a shake of his head, he said, ‘No’.

However, it is a widely-acclaimed novel and film.

Perhaps there is a Colm Doherty, Joker or Francie Brady in us all.