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hert3157 t1_j23r3yt wrote

“Colm and Pádraic’s fighting is a metaphor for the Irish Civil War. Through their in-fighting, they destroyed themselves. Colm destroyed his fingers, rendering him unable to do the one thing he loved, playing music. Pádraic destroyed his chance at a better life by letting his grief and need for revenge get in the way of accepting his sister’s offer to come to the mainland. The two men are momentarily at a ceasefire, but, as Pádraic implies, will likely fight again soon.”

Basically this is about two factions of Irish politicians (and then armies) in the 20s who fought each other post early independence. They disagreed on how much influence London should have on Irish life. I took the fingers plot to suggest that at least one faction in the civil war was willing to hurt themselves to make a point (terrorism etc), illustrating the banality of the civil war. “I’d rather chop my own fingers off than compromise” etc.

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GERDY31290 t1_j23uksr wrote

It seemed even more so a n allegory for the Irish experience of the era which included and was centered around the war. There was abuse of a child by a an authority figure, emigration of the sister, moral debate about idealism/ambition vs being content with what you have, superstition

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it felt like a modern day, dark comedic poem, by yeats.

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hert3157 t1_j24339c wrote

The policeman is definitely “the Catholic Church” aka “the law”

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HODOR00 t1_j2461e0 wrote

Reposting my thoughts from a comment below, because I am curious to hear what others think:

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it seems like a lot is some kind of allegory for the civil war, but i honestly felt like the deepest thread in the film for me was just depression, existential crises, and how people handle them and how it affects the world around them.

Colm is depressed. His depression leads him to believe hes wasting his life and he needs to make drastic changes, but at the same time, hes somewhat overwhelmed by this feeling of needing to be something.

Hes depressed. And hes not handling it well. In fact, hes handling it terrible. So he alienates his best friend and essentially blames him for his issues (sort of, he does say its not you, but all the same, hes made colin farell the face of his issue). So he upends his life in an attempt to find what hes looking for but he doesnt find it. Because thats not his problem. His problem is he is fecking depressed.

Now the other interesting part of this is how this affects Pádraic. Pádraic is generally aloof and happy about it. He doesnt think deeply and in that, his life is happy. He wants for nothing, he is satisfied, for whatever that means. However the issues with Colm make him awaken a bit to his own self, but again, not in a healthy way. He doesnt wake up and say, oh god, I need more, instead, he fixates his ire on Colm, which is fair, since Colm is the catalyst.

The movie in my opinion is just this playing out with no one stepping in to really do anything.

In the end, I think Colm could actually be happier because him losing his hand has made his fever dream impossible, and therefore no longer a weight on his shoulders. But it cost something, Padraics innocent demeanor is gone and whats left is a hard and angry man who only wants to make colm miserable because thats what colm did to him. Its not rational, which is why they have that basically cordial conversation at the end. But it still is what it is.

Curious to hear other thoughts, but I cant see how depression doesnt play a huge factor in the narrative. I thought it was the whole point of the priest, no one went to therapy, but they told their priests how they felt and the priest knew he was depressed and kept asking him, are you gonna do anything about it to which colm says, nope.

Really great movie, a great set of actors top to bottom. Barry K nearly steals it in my opinion. To be such a vile, yet innocent character was interesting. His innocence when he says he loves the sister is just, brutal. So well done.

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hert3157 t1_j24aue1 wrote

Well written and would largely agree! Even deeper it made me think of rural Ireland generally, feelings of being left behind by the world, poor rural communities that are too comfortable/afraid to leave, and drink themselves away with small pubs and trad music.

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