WHY DID COLM CUT OFF HIS FINGERS?? The Banshees of Inisherin (2022) / THE ULTIMATE ANALYSIS

[Music] the real reasons why comb cut his fingers off a deep dive into the Banshees of initial in one of the best movies of 2022 [Music] one can say that this story is a metaphor for the Irish Civil War as the conflict between friends comb and poric might present parallels with that period with themes related to conflict separation treaties suffering and death but it might also offer other layers of meaning so here is my take on it when the Story begins we don't have much information about comb and his past so we have to speculate based on what we see and hear from what the story shows us and Intuit deduce from it his friend poric also seems to not know much about him only externalizations note the scenes where he observes Through the Windows maybe an indication that he only knows comb from the outside they usually meet at the pub so the day comb doesn't show up poric have the chance to enter his house his internal world may be for the first time looking and touching the objects with curiosity so from what we can gather comb is already in despair before the Story begins as the final conversation between him and the priest reveals most likely he is dying hence his preoccupation with Legacy but besides music there are other things he seem interested in as we see by the objects in his house puppets and theater masks which are symbols for manipulation narrative characters and for acting deceiving Shadow Self using this information we can picture two scenarios one where comb was acting to be a nice person but in reality was using poric as a puppet friend all along just to entertain himself the idea of a coming death created an urgency in him to leave a musical Legacy with the following decisions to end his distraction play time with poric and to let go the mask of niceness so what unfolds is the sacrifice of his reputation and the unveiling of his true selfish and manipulative nature on a deeper and Noble second scenario his legacy would be to leave behind a free and mature human being in this case the real manipulation of poric by the Puppet Master comb started after he knew he was going to die and the selfishness and craziness performed was just the acting needed to complete his final play here comb sacrifices himself in order to provide the means freedom for his friend to reach his potential this sounds like too much of a philosophical stretch but the director Martin McDonough already have done this in his film in bridges with the same pair of actors in the first scenario Cole wants to get some peace before dying to create his musical Legacy and to get that needs to set his puppet friend poor go note that the strings of the Puppeteer makes him also tied to his puppet he is also not free so he need to end this codependent Dynamic fast and at all costs even by cutting his own fingers off giving away his manipulative power as a puppeteer a painful action which comb does without demonstrating it showing how sure he is of his intentions regarding setting himself free and in the process poric too pork is just a toy in the hands of a puppeteer and is not in control of his own narrative at least during the beginning he also does not know who he really is by setting poric free of the controlling strings comb gives pork his agency back and as a consequence allows him to discover other facets of his self that would reveal the Shadows behind the mask of being nice note the scene when he puts a mask while visiting comb's house and later when he breaks his image on the mirror he doesn't likes what he became comb even says that he likes poric better now that he is behaving more freely but poric like a son who doesn't understands why his father is abruptly cutting ties with him feels abandoned and angry and still tries to set things back to the old Dynamics when his puppeteer had all the power and his life as a puppet was simpler note the scene where poric says that comb can use whatever Powers he has to stop him from burning his house but when the donkey dies things get out of plan and poric burns comb's house a demonstration that now he also has the power to affect the fate of others even to decide who lives or dies there is a real Banshee in the story the old lady that announces the coming of death she is the one that uses the stick hook in Old Time stage plays the stick Hook was used to get characters out of the stage when their time was up and it is the same within this story but here there is another Puppet Master controlling the lives of all characters God he is the one really deciding who lives and dies even the most innocent ones like the donkey and Dominic note that Dominic is the one who find the Banshees hook and asks about its purpose they are all his characters and the island is God's stage during one evening in which poric encounters the old lady she reveals that maybe even two deaths might happen but she is still uncertain of who as she is only The Collector not the decider later on the story she appears in the background near poric when he is waving goodbye to Siobhan for the time she is just observing the unfolding of the conflict but not acting yet as she needs to be precise in her task at the end though the Banshee comes to comb reiterating that he was dying and signalizing that he was the one she was supposed to get sitting patiently in comb's chair besides his burned house Siobhan the sister is the one character that can see from a certain distance the ongoing repetitive drama of the play and decides to leave as she was not really participating in it different from comb who now sees poric as a problem and takes a dramatic selfish decision to abandon him I don't need you anymore go away she also cut ties with his brother but in a way that would be good for both to grow up I have to go but still love you leaving because there is a higher purpose as her character is now needed in a different play it is interesting to note how these two different characters Siobhan and comb are presented they seem opposites but they share the same fate of wanting slash having to leave poric the scene where Siobhan goes to comb's house and they talk is very interesting as it reveals that he knows that she is also leaving poric and since they share this common intention he expects that she could understand the hidden reason for his apparent crazy actions as he hints that he might be using poric as an entertainment while awaits for the inevitable possibly his death and when he asked Siobhan if she was doing the same she responds with a firmly no at the end of this scenario Cole might be just a desperate man selfish but not an unemphatic sociopath as he still shows care for poric Siobhan is caring but is not a saint just a down-to-earth smart woman who just wants better things for her comb was using poric as an entertainment we all use other people to diverge from our own misery but his planned decision to cut ties created an unplanned opportunity to Pork to growth individually and poric was up to the challenge and responded accordingly as he was dull but sharp sensitive but strong Dominic is the Curious naive but annoying child that no one has time to pay attention the donkey is nature the innocent collateral in any man's conflict and the Banshee a reminder that we are all just characters in God's Cosmic play and now if you want we can Surface back to the metaphoric surface layer of the Irish Civil War and the loss of a more innocent time in Irish history as sadder colder and darker times always come after any War as from now on the life in an isherin maybe Ireland in this context would be less happy with no more Combs music less caring and colorful with no more Siobhan's love less pure and naive with no more Dominic's eyes and less nice with less poric openness but in the long run more mature as poric himself wisely concludes at the final scene at the beach some things there are no moving on from and I think that's a good thing in the first scenario poric grows into a more mature man due to the unplanned consequences of selfish decisions made by a desperate Cole and even though this one appears to be more plausible one might argue that he does not appear selfish crazy or desperate enough to self-mutilate himself just to end a friendship that is why I propose the second one where pork goes to the same process of individual growth but this time by consequence of an altruistic and conscious decision idealized by his friend this proposal seems so braver and unselfish to the point of being insane that I doubted it for a minute but after watching In Bruges the next day by the same writer and director I got my hope back on this possibility in this light maybe comb's real intentions are really altruistic he shows he still cares about poric even after the breakup as we have seen in the scene when he helps poric after being beaten by the policeman so why comb does what he does meaning why is so important to end their friendship to the point of cutting his fingers off the answer might be sacrificial love knowing he is about to die comb wants to teach porica last lesson something that would break the Dynamics that are set and possibly push poric to grow up and stand for himself as he knows that poric has this inner potential maybe like a good father would do to his son if he knew he was about to die and wanted to prepare him for the real world beforehand remember the things that comb Likes music puppeteering and acting and he has lots of time to create his final play note that they live in an island away from the war protected from conflicts but conflicts and suffering are what help us grow within fixed and stable Dynamics there are no room for Change and Cole knows that and so using elements of a puppet master a composer and an actor he initiates a well-crafted conflict with poric the abrupt termination of their friendship which would then create the needed situations that would push his poric to face his shadow sides such as dependence fear angriness jealously hate and loneliness for this to work comb would have to become a selfish rude and egotistical man only preoccupied by his creative musical Legacy or at least would have to act as such the hard-line boundaries and the finger cutting threats made by comb puts poric in a new challenging position of choices with new and real bodily caused consequences Dynamics like in a real war comb would rather sacrifice his fingers just to liberate his friend by a means of a lesson of hard consequences as porrick's growth and his realization of his Free Will and judgment was more important than any other thing that he could have used for his hand in this context the music Legacy being just a planned excuse as he knew he could not play anymore without fingers Cole's commitment was full and he was willing to amputate himself remember the film The Prestige or even losing his house another to complete his master play remember how comb was too cool about the whole thing just as if he had planned it all along and was Serene about the consequences as long as they were on his side but things escalate and the donkey's Death Becomes a collateral to his plan this is another hint that he might be just acting selfish as he was sorry for it to have happened also note that comb didn't let himself die in The Burning house he as well could have as he knew he was about to die anyways but he didn't want his death and poor Consciousness that would make him a somberman and that was not his intention his real Legacy would be a stronger more independent and more mature poric and the plan works at the end although loneliness lost and sadness become part of poric's life he still keeps his good heart as he would still takes care of the dog of his enemy anytime there is also a religious mythological theme in this Irish story if you like to go even deeper just like poric Adam and Eve got expelled from Paradise a protected place for eating the forbidden fruit of knowledge god Set an explicit boundary with hard consequences but man crossed it and lost his place in heaven and now they will have to growth by their own means the loss of Innocence man gains knowledge and Free Will and with it the power to influence his own life and the life of others but at the cost of his Divine connection so maybe this is a metaphor about God and Mankind a puppet master who for the love for his creation was willing to cut his connection with them in order to give free will to his puppets even though they might use it to hate him in the end the fall from the paradise Tale something has to be said about the outstanding directing writing acting music and photography the acting is superb from all the casts all the words that comes out of pooric mouth are brilliant and with perfect grade of intonation comb says more with his General semblance with his postures gestures faces and looks the photography is beautiful on the internal as well on the external shots note that the sunsets the mountains the silence and the music matches all the nuances the attention to detail in the scenes are fantastic with the placements of objects colors and even sounds note that two o'clock reminder of their friendship Pub time is the same as the ending of it when the house burns marking the end of a cycle thank you for watching

Channel: The Deep

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Id: RADx2N2hHoY

Length: 14min 46sec (886 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 19 2023