Music To Be Feckin’ Remembered By: The Banshees of Inisherin Movie Review
A donkey, fiddle and severed fingers accompany pints of Guinness in 1923 Ireland.
The Banshees of Inisherin is one of best movie we have seen. The characters, cinematography, and dark humor are in perfect harmony.
At the end of the civil war in Ireland, two friends are no longer friends. One is very confused. The other quite focused.
Colm Doherty is intent on composing music for his fiddle. It is not due to a passion for music. It is because he feckin’ wants to be remembered for creating a piece of musical work instead of for being nice. The other (nice) guy, Pádraic Súilleabháin, is very confused because he does not recall doing or saying anything offensive to make his friend dislike him.
It turns out that being deemed as boring doesn't win many comrades. Wasting time drinking with a “friend” versus doing something creative can make the world of difference in creating works that are meaningful. Worth 5 fingers, actually. Pádraic’s relentless pleading to heal their friendship exasperates Colm to the point that the fiddler deems severing a friendship is worth severing his fingers.
The Science
It seems that Colm might be on to something. Folk music played with a fiddle affects music cognition as it pertains to involuntary movement. But, not as much as electronic music. Without thinking about it, people tend to bob their heads more to electronic music when compared to folk music. Their quantity of motion for fiddle and electronic music was 8.63 mm/s and 9.19 mm/s, respectively, in a research study. Maybe fiddlers should play rave tunes?
Bottom Line
When making the choice between living and not living, focusing on one’s life’s work takes precedence. The work is often shaped by the people and environment. Sometimes trying to burn down a house doesn't work out because what it is made from is resistant to flames. Colm’s and Pádraic’s friendship is not quite repairable, but it has not burned to the ground.