(Photo Credit Wikicommons – Ingo Mehling)
By Fr. Parker Love
Set on a small fictional island off the coast of Ireland where the Irish Civil War is literally only seen as a landscape, Martin McDonah’s newest film, The Banshees of Inisherin is a black comedy that stars Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson in the main roles. Ironically, much of the supporting roles are played by actors who played very similar roles in Martin’s brother’s film, Calvary. Calvary (directed by John McDonah) is my favourite film, but The Banshees of Inisherin is close because it deals with deep themes using a serious attitude while making scenes so tragic that you can only laugh and so silly you can only shake your head in pity.
The premise of the film is relatively simple; Farrell’s character, Pádraic, is surprised and saddened to learn that his best friend, Gleeson’s Colm, simply doesn’t want to be friends anymore because the latter finds the former too dull. When Pádraic fails to grasp how serious Colm is, Colm feels the only recourse possible is to threaten to cut a finger off every time Pádraic bothers him again. The best kind of comedy ensues, or at least, the best kind of comedy ensues if you have the same twisted sense of humour that I have. The black comedy genre is marked by making light of serious subject matter, and the McDonahs do it the best I’ve ever seen by incorporating in the comedy real challenges to virtue. These challenges for virtue face both the characters and viewers. Although viewers will hopefully not find themselves in the same or even similar situations, they are forced to consider if there are parts of their life that are just as arbitrarily serious or as conspicuously secret.
Gleeson’s Colm is such a fascinating character because we get no overt indication about what drives his sudden distaste for Pádraic, and both performances are so good because we have no problem believing it from either end. We are left as clueless as Pádraic, but while his simplicity refuses to grasp the seriousness of the situation, as an audience, we can only laugh at his sadness and revel at the lengths that Colm will go to drive the point home. Colm claims to be bored of Pádraic, but Pádraic insists that everybody, including Colm, enjoys “good normal chatting.” When Pádraic’s sister tries to comfort him by suggesting that perhaps Colm is depressed, Pádraic asks why she thinks Colm “can’t just push it down like the rest of us.”
The film, too, is filled with beautiful imagery and shots of beautiful Irish landscapes that further suggest the McDonagh brothers have more sympathy for Ireland than their birthplace of England. The Irish Civil War was fought over English influence in Ireland, and while it is beyond the scope of this work to consider the political and cultural influences of that war or even that war in the context of this film, it seems sufficient to say that the film’s suggestion is that conflict is inevitable. The inevitability of conflict, though, doesn’t seem to excuse it. Another striking image is how Colm’s home is filled with masks, evoking the emotional mask he wears throughout the film as he refuses to address what is really bothering him, whatever that is.
Without spoiling the best parts of the film, Colm eventually reveals that he is simply tired of giving the effort that it takes to be nice to Pádraic; he says, “niceness doesn’t last, but music and poetry last.” Colm tries to excuse his abrupt, rude, and selfish behaviour by suggesting that he will now be spending his life pursuing much higher goals like the creation of lasting art and the proclamation of truth through beauty. But as my Mom so simply and eloquently put it as we spoke about the film as we were returning home from it, “it’s hard to feel worthy when people are telling you that you’re worthless.”
The whole basis of the Christian message is that God is love, and that because we are all made in the image and likeness of God, we especially deserve love (of course, even that which is not made in the image and likeness of God also deserves a kind of love, the certain kind of love that it is due because of its lower station in the order of the world; we don’t, or at least shouldn’t, love plants or animals like we love people). Christ himself says that “whatever you do to the least of my brothers, you do to me,” and this message should assure the Christian faithful that we are called to love, serve, and even be willing to die for, the least on the kingdom of earth who will be the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven. Actually, Pádraic’s dullness is a relatively easy cross to bear, so if Colm were genuinely concerned with that which endures, as he claims to be by claiming to desire to produce the kind of music that lasts, he would be more concerned with his soul and Pádraic’s soul, which seems in grave danger solely because of the way that Colm treats him.
Pádraic isn’t perfect either, but part of Colm’s duty as a Catholic (the film actually shows the characters going to Mass and celebrating the Sacrament of Reconciliation!) is to make sure that all who meet him are affirmed of their value and the value of their experience. As Catholics we must affirm others in this way because when they feel worthless, they “don’t feel worthy,” worthy to love themselves, the love of others, or even the love of God. For us to share the love of God in the world, we must help others feel worthy of the love of God. Even if on a deeper theological level, we understand that we are not offered salvation from Christ because we are worthy since salvation is an entirely free gift from God that we can do nothing to earn; still, because in our world false images of love are so tied up with value and productivity, for someone who doesn’t know God to feel God’s love, they must think they are somewhat worth it. As the new convert’s heart begins to respond to God’s love, then we begin to reveal the full truth. This idea isn’t deceptive or gnostic because God’s love for us exists with our brokenness or not, and what might look like deception is actually just readjusting the natural trajectory of a heart that has been broken by the world and its unrealistic expectations as it moves more deeply towards God. As Catholics, we must share authentic love, and that, at the absolute bare minimum, means being nice.
See The Banshees of Inisherin soon before it’s out of the theatres and takes too long to be available on demand!
Fr Parker Love is a Priest for the Archdiocese of Regina. Ordained in the summer of 2019,
Fr Parker serves as Pastor at St Augustine Parish in Wilcox, Saskatchewan and as the Archdiocese’s Vocation Director. Somehow, in the midst of this, he still finds too much time to consume media in the form of books, tv shows, and movies. To justify that over indulgence, he also (occasionally) hosts a podcast called Cold Drinks, Questions, and Christ, which can be found here, or anywhere you get podcasts.
