# The Banshees of Inisherin - See it? Like it? Understand it? (Open Spoilers) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [February 16, 2023, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-banshees-of-inisherin-see-it-like-it-understand-it-open-spoilers/979903 "2023-02-16T18:09:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2023, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-banshees-of-inisherin-see-it-like-it-understand-it-open-spoilers/979903/21 "2023-02-17T01:54:01Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > But it made for a tortured allegory as well, because I don’t see how you can extrapolate the nature of that rupture to historical events. But I don’t know much at all about the Irish Civil War so maybe I’m missing a lot. Although it is certainly possible to find parallels to the brutal and senseless Irish Civil War and probably informs the narrative to a certain extent (particularly the color palette), I don’t think that it was the explicit intention of Martin McDonagh to make a film that was a straight allegory. This is much a commentary on the general human condition of being forced into relationships due to proximity and circumstance rather than affinity, and the extreme efforts people make to try to control these relationships even to great injury to themselves or others, and the setting of a remote and bucolic Irish island is just a convenient (and for McDonagh, familiar) setting for it. Colm is never mean or even rough with Pádraic, and even shows tenderness when he is senselessly beaten by the village cop, but he wants nothing to do with him because he is a symbol of the aimless waste of the precious time that he has left to produce something of value in his life (even though, as Pádraic astutely points out, he’s never going to be remembered as Mozart is). He grievously injures himself even to the point of hobbling his ability to play music in order to ‘punish’ Pádraic, and in the process unintentionally kills the donkey. Siobhánn flees the stilted, pointless existence as much as any conflict. The humor in _The Banshees of Inisherin_ was more subdued than in McDonagh’s other films, but then if you view McDonagh’s films as primarily ‘black comedies’ I think you are missing the point. They have absurdist elements to them that are comedic in their ridiculousness but with the exception of _Seven Psychopaths_ I don’t think any of them are actually intended to be viewed through a comedic frame and are actually centered on very personal and painful tragedies. In the case of _The Banshees of Inisherin_, the trauma is almost entirely self-created but as a response to the unending dullness of isolated island life in a repressive culture in which even the ‘authority’ figures of the cop and priest are amoral and hypocritical characters with no guidance or redemption to offer. McDonagh doesn’t make ‘message’ stories, and in fact I think his clear intent is to offer anything but a clear moral or conclusion. He wants you to leave the film with questions about your own beliefs and ideals rather than to provide you with any pat answers or authoritative principles to live your life by, such as if you shoot a child you should turn the gun on yourself. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2023, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-banshees-of-inisherin-see-it-like-it-understand-it-open-spoilers/979903/22 "2023-02-17T04:13:03Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > McDonagh doesn’t make ‘message’ stories, and in fact I think his clear intent is to offer anything but a clear moral or conclusion. He wants you to leave the film with questions about your own beliefs and ideals rather than to provide you with any pat answers or authoritative principles to live your life by, such as if you shoot a child you should turn the gun on yourself. Great post, but, to be clear, I’m not looking for a moral or principle or anything like that. I’m looking for a theme, or a controlling idea, if you will. I’m fine with being left to question things on my own, but I didn’t see much to question here. This movie did not leave me with deep thoughts. It left me confused. I’ll admit I’m somewhat bothered by films that don’t have a story in the traditional sense. There are some exceptions but usually if I have a problem with a film it’s a failure on the storytelling level. Something in this story was missing for me. Doesn’t mean it can’t have value as a work of art, but it irks me. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2023, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-banshees-of-inisherin-see-it-like-it-understand-it-open-spoilers/979903/23 "2023-02-17T04:38:04Z")
Am I the only one who thinks the sister represents the Irish diaspora? Basically, the only smart person in the village packs up and leaves. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2023, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-banshees-of-inisherin-see-it-like-it-understand-it-open-spoilers/979903/24 "2023-02-17T04:48:37Z")
I’m going to go along with the “confused” side of the critical views here. I know _Banshees_ has rave reviews and high ratings, but not from me. It just seemed pointless. I know I saw _In Bruges_ and though I don’t remember much of it, I seem to recall not much liking it, either. So I guess I’m not much of a Martin McDonagh fan. I did think that _Three Billboards Outside Ebbings, Missouri_ was excellent, so there’s that, but it was considerably helped along by the usual fine work of well-deserved Oscar winner Frances McDormand. ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2023, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-banshees-of-inisherin-see-it-like-it-understand-it-open-spoilers/979903/25 "2023-04-09T18:53:36Z")
The policeman is the British. His sins are so horrific that nobody could possibly stand the sight of him, and yet he is tolerated for his power and (relative) wealth. The shopkeeper is the international press, pushing for information, but too horrified to report the truth of it. She was unwilling to accept the information she received. Padraig is the political side of the Irish resistance, and Colm is the IRA. Its not that they particularly disagree on any one thing, it’s that the tediousness that the one can walk through the other can not. Colm needs things to move faster, to mean something, to achieve greatness. And he is willing to maim himself to achieve it. Padraig is content to move slowly, keeping everybody calm and comfortable. But he won’t be quiet about Padraig’s crimes and he won’t pretend that Colm’s violence is sane. There comes a moment though, when Colm has crossed a line that can’t be uncrossed, and he will never again contemplate friendship with Colm. For the sake of peace, Colm has to go. And poor Dominic is the Irish poor. He’s just hoping for something and someone to believe in. Wishing for a clean side to support, and a safe haven. He never finds it. And the Banshee knew he wouldn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2023, 10:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-banshees-of-inisherin-see-it-like-it-understand-it-open-spoilers/979903/26 "2023-04-10T10:07:40Z")
I enjoyed **The Banshees of Inisherin** quite a bit. I wish more films were like it. Whether an intended theme or not, I think it highlights well the sociological and psychological effects of a small society being sequestered on a remote island, which diverges greatly from the norms of society at large (mainlanders). What we consider odd behavior, they consider business as usual. It’s how their particular village society evolved over time in relative isolation. Forming close, sometimes unhealthy bonds with others (e.g. an older intellectual paired with a young simpleton; an overly-close co-dependent bond between a brother and sister, forming a tight relationship with a donkey, etc) seems common and accepted on this island, though it seems odd to us. Odd behavior, like cutting off your fingers to make a point, though doing so prevents you from doing what you love (making music), makes no sense to us (we film-watching mainlanders), but it obviously makes sense to them, for reasons unknown. In this way, TBoI reminds me of the 1972 version of The Wicker Man. That film portrayed a small society of villagers sequestered on a remote Scottish Island that evolved in even odder ways (regression to a feudal, pagan society). I enjoyed that film, too, and found it believable. It’s similar to how species that become cut off from the _rest of the pack_ due to plate tectonics onto islands evolve into completely new species, with often vastly different morphologies and behaviors from the original species. This of course occurs over millions of years. It’s not enough time for biological evolution to have an effect on humans cloistered on an island, but certainly enough time for psychological evolution to have an effect. Keep those islanders in isolation for a million years, and they would probably transmogrify into a new species, too (no doubt tinier and odder still). This is how I viewed TBoI, and doing so added to my enjoyment. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2023, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-banshees-of-inisherin-see-it-like-it-understand-it-open-spoilers/979903/27 "2023-04-11T00:03:03Z")
Interesting perspective, thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2023, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-banshees-of-inisherin-see-it-like-it-understand-it-open-spoilers/979903/28 "2023-04-11T01:10:24Z")
It’s been a few months since I saw it but I’d say that there are a few different messages: 1. Extremism is self-defeating 2. Being friends who push at the other to improve where they’re weak and to mellow out where they’re crazy just makes the world a better place. 3. Being a good person is good and hard for others to ignore. ---
**Author:** ![mozchron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c2a13f/32.png) [@mozchron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mozchron)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2023, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-banshees-of-inisherin-see-it-like-it-understand-it-open-spoilers/979903/29 "2023-04-11T11:36:34Z")
I was expecting something in the line of In Bruges (that’s how it was sold to me). I was legit angry after watching this. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-banshees-of-inisherin-see-it-like-it-understand-it-open-spoilers/979903.md?page=1)