5 Questions About The Banshees of Inisherin

you're more one Alive's good guys you're more wanna Life's Good Guys hey apart from when you're drunk apart from when you're drunk sometimes the characters in a movie believe something about another character like this you're not Dull you're nice that's what I thought and at first is the viewer you accept that belief at face value but then in hindsight either thinking back over the film later or watching it a second time you end up questioning whether or not the characters were right in that belief ah don't take it like that don't take it like that boring we're on your side the first time I watched the Banshees of Innis Sharon I just kind of accepted products label as nice guy I mean column definitely isn't the nice one but then I watched the film a second time and I was left with a lingering question is podic actually nice is he really the good guy this video is sponsored by mubi go to movie.com thomasflight for your extended 30-day free trial I love the movies that linger with you sometimes it's an emotion sometimes it's an idea sometimes you're left thinking about the story and considering what the movie was trying to say sometimes I encounter a movie where the more I think about it instead of coming to a clearer picture of what is happening in the movie The more I just end up with questions the Banshees of insurance is this way for me it's one of the best acted movies from last year it's well written and shot it's Darkly funny and it presumably is a sort of allegory for the Irish Civil War but I think underneath all this it also explores some of the darkest corners of the human soul and tries to illustrate something that at least to me seems to be haunting many people in modern society but while it engages in this thematic discussion I don't think by the end of the film we're left with a clear answer to the movie's questions instead I think it functions more as a kind of dialectic discussion around a central conflict and so in the spirit of this instead of me saying specifically what I think this movie is saying because I'm not sure exactly I want to present five open questions I have about the banshees of initi sharing I used to think you were the nicest of them [Music] turns out you're just the same as them hey I'm the nicest of them I think while the characters in the movie paint the central conflict in very binary terms where one side is kind of the good guy and the other is kind of the bad meaning I'm not sure the character's actual Behavior really reflects this consider how product is extremely self-involved and obsessed with this conflict to the point where he immediately starts kind of mistreating and ignoring the other people around him nothing for a Sherry oh she like it is it no he holds a double standard for himself and for others and who's going to do the cooking oh that's your first question is it who's going to do the cooking well it wasn't me first question was it but what about me was me first question and seems to make no attempt at genuine sympathy or understanding for what calm or I think almost more poignantly his sister Siobhan is going through that was a book it's sad sad you should read a not sad when Siobhan as you might get sad hmm now I'm not saying calm is the good guy emporic is actually the bad one or that product doesn't ever do nice things all my heart I'll say sorry he loves his animals he says nice things about his sister he offers Dominic a place to stay just the one night mind nice but the movie doesn't allow the characters to be the simple caricatures that the community wants them to be similarly we could ask if Colin is actually mean consider his genuine tenderness and defense of his friend at several moments even after he said he doesn't like him anymore and the passion for music he clearly shares with the people around him he's a character that can't simply be reduced to the absurdity of the ultimatum that he gives to podik I think ultimately all the characters Behavior challenges the labels the characters give themselves and each other um what's it called the Banshees of inner Sharon I was thinking despite the film's title no one even mentions banshees until this conversation quite far into the film where we learn the Banshees of inner Sharon is the title of the song calm is composing but there are no Banshees I know I just like the double sh sounds the most obvious Target for the label of Banshee in the film I think is Mrs McCormick in addition to the direct references to her being a go-to because she's a girl and her generally creepy Vibe she also fits comb's description of a banshee maybe there are banshees too I just don't think that they scream to partend death anymore I think they just sit back amused what are you smiling at and observe she watches the events take place in the film often with a kind of passive amusement and of course in one moment she actually portends the deaths that happened in the movie the Death Shall come true really the only element of a banshee that she doesn't have is the screaming but I think Mrs McCormick might operate as something a little bit more interesting than just a literal Banshee in the film I don't want to talk don't go killing his dog now if we think about the banshees being symbolic for all the characters own pain and despair we then can see how the different characters interact with their own repressed pain based on how they interact with Mrs McCormick Park tries to hide from it column sits and stews in his despair it beckons for Siobhan but she resists and it happens off screen but Dominic left without hope seems to give in so who or what are the Banshees Mrs McCormick is a constant presence for these characters but is the movie suggesting she is literally the Banshee or is it using her to represent the way the Banshees are really present in each of the characters [Music] you can't just all of a sudden stop being friends with a fella why can't I why can't you because it isn't nice whose side is Siobhan really on on the surface we see her defending Park but I think in the subtext of her Arc as a character end in Kerry condon's incredible performance there is a lot more going on with her character the first time I watched this moment for a bit of Peace in my heart like you can understand that can't you my interpretation was that Siobhan was so fed up with column that she kind of storms off in disbelief can't you but while I think Siobhan is angry and fed up with the absurdity of calm's antics there's something else happening here that we can see on her face I think Siobhan unlike parg actually understands calm's Despair and the sort of existential dread he's facing it's a moment when she says this to comb would you live on an island off the coast of Ireland call him what the hell are you open for like that I think she realizes she herself is in the same predicament and it sets off her own existential spiral well is it crucify him you're leaving hey no one's leaving when calm says this don't worry sometimes just entertaining myself might I Stave off the inevitable don't you no I don't I think she really does understand yeah you do it's immediately after this that she makes the decision to leave while she doesn't support what column is doing she ultimately does decide she needs to separate herself from the environment she's in which includes parg something that calm is sort of trying to do in his own Twisted way I think Siobhan sides with Paddock But ultimately I think it might be calm's position that she better understands the most interesting it's ever been I think I like him again now what is really going on with column is he just behaving absurdly are you coming out to the pub come did he just wake up one day and choose chaos there is a fundamental absurdity to his position but I think trying to understand what's going on with this character underneath this absurdity is Central to understanding the conflict at the heart of the movie for some reason calm doesn't seem to mind Park when he's being more aggressive and mean but why is this is calm just masochistic well maybe a little bit but I didn't understand this part of the character until I understood the connection between calm and Siobhan and the similarities between the two maybe he just doesn't like you no more just don't like you no more at one point Mrs McCormick says this I wasn't trying to be nice I was trying to be accurate and when I first heard it I thought it was kind of a puzzling statement why our niceness and accuracy at odds well if calm sin is being not nice then Park sin is denial you do like me we see his denial and how he treats Combs ultimatum he seems to think he can just continue to talk to calm without consequences even after doing so has led to them once I finish my party I'll bring it back to him but I think most importantly he doesn't seem to want to recognize any of the negative emotions and pain that anyone around him is experiencing maybe he's just embraced that's what I was thinking that he's depressed and if he is you could at least keep it to himself like you know push it down like the rest of us it's not just that calm doesn't want to be around somebody who's nice it's that parg's idea of niceness contains an element of ignoring the reality of other people's emotional pain but she's a ninja and pretending that everything is fine parig doesn't want to rock the boat he doesn't want to acknowledge sadness or loneliness or despair where they exist what's the matter with you not no matter what we forgot he's conflating his own niceness with happiness they're nice that's what I thought you know happy lad and I think it's Park's denial of what column sees as an accurate but painful truth about life that causes the rift pain and hurt is something I find in my experience of culture almost never goes directly talked about there is some deep impulse at least in a lot of Western culture but I think other places as well to repress our own feelings of pain instead of expressing them perhaps because revealing your pain is often seen as a kind of weakness something society looks down upon or perhaps because we often feel shame about our pain as if it reveals some deep personal inadequacy how's that despair despair often isn't seen as a symptom but something to confess in Secrets or perhaps we don't talk about our pain do you never get lonely Parikh because others react poorly when we do I go what lonely do I never get lonely what's the matter with everybody we don't want to feel like we're burdening those around us perhaps we don't believe that our pain deserves expression my work on this video was delayed by three full days because of several migraines I had something I deal with pretty regularly and even now I'm hesitant to bring up what is a relevant example from my own life because talking about my own pain here feels like Crossing some kind of boundary I'm already feeling the need to clarify that I'm not bringing this up to illicit sympathy and there's an immediate impulse to minimize my own experience of pain because there's others out there who I know are dealing with more than I do but nonetheless those three days where I wanted to work but couldn't really do anything due to my physical condition really sucked and even mentioning that here feels deeply personal almost inappropriate for a video essay but this is my whole point the reality of the pain we experience is something we often go to Great Lengths to hide from the public or the community at large and sometimes even from those who are closest to us and of course I think it's nice and good to not want to be overly negative and complaining all the time and it's necessary to consider when it is and isn't appropriate to talk about your own pain and consider your own experience in the context of what other people are experiencing and not burden others unnecessarily with your pain but it's also possible for these kinds of nice considerations to become a sort of pathological denial to get around the discomfort we have with discussing negative emotions and pain openly we often turn to art here we can find expressions of strong emotions both positive and negative in a space where the artist feels safe to express them this is one of the things that just draws me to all kinds of art because it's a space where strong intense feelings that often get ignored in our day-to-day lives or the entertainment we consume get expressed and it's here I realize that I've written myself into a little bit of a corner because even though I cringe every time I hear this corny line from the Nicole Kidman AMC intro heartbreak feels good in a place like this I have to admit that it's kind of a little bit true watching movies we carve out a space to explore not just heartbreak but all kinds of painful emotions safely contained within an externalized narrative the artist feeling safe to express their intense feelings through the remove of Art and the viewer identifying with those experiences and perhaps feeling less alone seeing someone Express a painful experience that they recognize the problem with unacknowledged pain is that it tends to Fester like an untreated wound denial of this pain doesn't make it go away it simply postpones facing up to it when denial of our own hurt is chronic and widespread it boils over as conflict looked here whatever it is you're fighting about openly acknowledging our hurt and emotional pain isn't a Panacea that immediately solves everything but it can be a first step towards actually being able to deal with the underlying problems and understanding and relating to each other on in a Sharon Paddock isn't the only one in denial none of the characters really seem to be able to truly face their struggles head on if Siobhan were able to acknowledge to Parikh how lonely and sad she feels and if colem could communicate his despair directly instead of having to threaten to chop off his fingers to get his point across and people treated Dominic's abuse as something more than a bit of Gossip to be spread around and everyone including parig was able to bravely face this hurt and be nice and kind to each other not due to an absence of the hurt but in spite of it would the community be able to tend to each other's needs and care for each other and heal some of these hurts and perhaps reduce them by the end of the movie the characters have changed column seems willing to talk to patik again I think this is because Colin recognizes the meaning and value of true kindness that's in Paris when potix saves his dog instead of retaliating for Jenny because padig is saving the dog not because he's ignoring his own hurt but in spite of it and podig sees the value of recognizing hurt for what it is instead of denying it and Siobhan has recognized how toxic this environment was for her and took action to make her life better but I'm still left with questions are those things a suggestion of growth in these characters or is this story itself an absurd tragedy of unnecessary conflict one that we're supposed to sit back and watch amused the Banshees of initi Sharon was one of my favorite films from last year and another one of my favorite films decision to leave by Park Chan wook is available exclusively on mubi my sponsor for this video movie is a hand curated online streaming Cinema with an amazing catalog of films from all around the world you can get an extended 30-day free trial when you go to mubi.com thomasflight in the US they also recently added to the collection another great Korean film The Host by bonjun ho the catalog is always expanding and I love their focus on curation and recommendation which makes mubi a great place to discover something new to watch check out my recommendations or just explore the catalog when you sign up at movie.com thomasflight again that's mubi.com thomasflight for your extended 30-day free trial foreign [Music]

Channel: Thomas Flight

Views: 314,894

Keywords: Video Essay, Thomas Flight

Id: yBd1eH6DAAY

Length: 18min 22sec (1102 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 23 2023