The Banshees of Inisherin | Rotten Tomatoes (2024)

FAQs

What is the message behind The Banshees of Inisherin? ›

The message of the film is the downfall of culture and the way loss can destroy someone. With the two leads serving as metaphors for the Irish as a nation, the message of the film can be read as a cautionary tale.

Barry Keoghan, who plays a youth possibly on the autism spectrum, is terrific as Dominic. It is he who is sharper (and kinder) about life's fallacies, accepting the bad hand he has been dealt by gods of fate.

It's a strong contender for Best Picture too. This story about the friendship between two men coming to an abrupt end may seem small in scale, but it pulls off something huge: making a larger-than-life existential crisis absolutely f*cking hilarious. The humor is darker than a pint of Guinness and it haunts.

Why Doesn't Colm Want to be Friends with Pádraic Anymore? Colm, an aging fiddle player, feels that his time spent chatting at the pub with Pádraic has been a meaningless distraction from creating art that will outlast him.

The argument was made as part of a general critique of the film's hammed up Irishness: its seeming delivery of a barrage of stock tropes, stereotypes, and visual motifs that, from its opening scenes, screams: “Hold on to your flat caps… Here comes Ireland”.

McDonagh isn't just cutting off fingers here, he is using the idea as a metaphor. He is talking about how the Irish Civil War was an act of self-mutilation that cost both sides the legacy they were fighting so hard to leave. McDonagh is pointing the finger at both sides.

Depression amongst men is discussed, and the film has some dark, disturbing scenes. This includes a man cutting off his fingers.

After the massacre at Ballyseedy 100 years ago, The Banshees is a lesson to us all on the value of male friendships and what happens when reason and common sense are replaced by outright vindictiveness and revenge.

The island town featured in The Banshees of Inisherin may be fictional, but the locations around Ireland where it was filmed are beautifully real — and very visitable.

Keoghan also infuses the character with new layers, his eyes betraying an ever-present sadness and his mannerisms indicating that Dominic's so-called dimness might also be related to a neurological or psychiatric disorder.

What is Banshees of Inisherin a metaphor for? ›

The Banshees of Inisherin poignantly depicts a tale of despair and friendship in which despair overpowers friendship mostly throughout the film and this despair stands as a metaphor for the collective angst of Irish people during the Irish War of Independence.

Instead of meeting Pádraic at the pub, Colm cuts off all four of his remaining left fingers and throws them at Padraic's door. Fed up by the feud and long bored with life on the island, Siobhán moves to the mainland for a job in a library.

It's a deeply cynical story with an achingly human message, a meditation on the way we define ourselves through others. One cannot pin their failures on a friend, nor can they use a peer as proof of virtue. We are our own individuals and must recognize ourselves as such.

The old lady which Padraic avoids like the plague, serves as the bridge between the surface and deep levels of the film, the bridge of the allegory. She represents the literal banshee. In Irish folklore, a banshee is a female spirit who heralds the death of a family member, usually by screaming, wailing, or shrieking.

Martin McDonagh's 'The Banshees of Inisherin' explores themes of friendship, betrayal and redemption during the Irish Civil War.