How Being Too Nice Can Ruin Us — The Banshees Of Inisherin Analysis
The Banshees of Inisherin is a super deep movie, and it has a lot to say about religion, the “masks” we wear in public, and staying true to ourselves, even when it might not be nice.
I’m dedicating this article to breaking down this movie’s biggest themes and meanings.
I’ll also get into what I believe the ending means, and some of the visual motifs of this movie.
If you want to watch the video version of this article, I’ve linked it right here:
The Main Conflict Of The Movie
Pádraic is our main character, and when his best friend Colm tells him he doesn’t want to see him anymore, his entire world starts unraveling.
Colm is unlike anybody on the island. It’s an island of church-goers, nice people, and gossipers. The kinds of folks who will show one face to you in public and talk behind your back in private.
The masks in Colm’s house are a reference to that. The masks we wear out and about to please other people and avoid confrontation.
What Do The Windows Mean?
Windows are a huge visual motif in this movie, and many times Pádraic is framed through a window or with a window in the background. For me, windows represent a multitude of things in this film.
At a basic level, they’re used to spy on other people walking down the road towards our house to know if we should answer the door or not.
They’re also a way for folks to peer inside and see if we’re there. We are most ourselves from the comfort of our own homes. The windows could represent the idea that we really only show small pieces of our real selves to other people.
I think windows serve another purpose, and that’s to obviously allow light into our homes so we can see.
Sunlight As A Visual Motif
Light. In so many parts of the movie, the light of the sun is referenced. Whether it’s the endless shots of sunrise and sunset, or the rainbow that appears in one of the first shots of the movie. Why? What are the filmmakers trying to say here?
I interpreted the light of the sun in this way..
Light illuminates. It shows us our world. In the same way, we only illuminate certain parts of ourselves for other people to see. And sometimes, no matter what we do, we can’t hide who we are from the piercing gaze of other people.
Like light piercing our own homes — where we are our true selves.
At confessional, the place where we are our most honest, a small sliver of light creeps in through a cross-like window.
Perhaps no matter what we do, we can’t escape the fact that who we are will bubble to the surface eventually for all, and God, to see.
Division | Sides
Our first shot of the movie is an aerial of the entire island where we can see vast stone walls stretching as far as the eye can see.
Walls separating us, putting us on opposite sides, another common thread in this movie reinforced in conversation and by the Civil War happening nearby.
Many times crosses are framed against the sky and at the movie’s famous fork in the road, the virgin Mary looks down on the islanders, a subtle reminder that someone, or in this case God, is always watching.
God And The Church
This movie is intimately tied to God and the church and there’s two things I believe this great film is trying to say:
Religion divides us.
Believing in God forces us to put on a face and hide who we really are even more.
Let’s start with the church dividing us.
Siobhán says that “there’s enough judgy people on this island.” I wonder why! It’s because they all live by a set of rules outlined by the church.
The policeman reports that a guy recently stabbed his wife 6 times. He says with a scowl that he was a Protestant. Inside of one over-arching religion there’s subsections of different denominations that divide populations even more.
It’s easy for religious folks to divide themselves from non-believers and judge, and it’s easy for them to divide who they really are from their public persona to avoid being judged, too.
Colm, at confession, gets asked by the priest if he has impure thoughts about men. Then Colm, confused, insinuates the priest has impure thoughts about men. It’s obvious when the priest gets mad that he 100% has impure thoughts about men himself.
And all this happens inside the walls of the confessional, in a private space, where the light of God barely pierces through a cross-shaped window.
This message is at the center of the movie’s core.
We hide who we really are to avoid being an outcast in society.
And what do we get for it? A society of chronic liars, boring people, and folks so out of touch with who they are they think that being nice counts as having a personality.
And this is where we hit the core conflict of the movie.
Being Honest vs. Being Nice.
The Film’s War On Niceness
Colm says he doesn’t want to be friends with Pádraic anymore because he’s dull. Brutal honesty that a guy like Pádraic doesn’t quite understand. He then starts asking friends and family whether he’s dull and, because they’re nice, they don’t tell him the truth.
In perhaps the funniest line of the movie, his sister says “You’re not dull, you’re nice.”
I don’t see dullness and niceness at opposite ends of the spectrum here. And I don’t think she meant them to be opposites either. It was more of an explanation. “You’re not dull because you’re dull, you’re just being nice, which is dull.”
Which implies that Pádraic is someone else behind the facade of niceness.
And in my opinion he is.
He was just never given the opportunity to really become his own person because the world told him to be nice, not sincere.
As we’ve seen with Dominic, this society chastises and casts out people who are too honest. Therefore there’s a ridiculous amount of social pressure to be nice instead of be ourselves.
When Pádraic tells the truth about the police chief right in front of his face, he promptly receives a beating right after. Then, in one of the most telling parts of the movie, Colm picks Pádraic up and helps him get home.
Now why would he do that?
He does it because Colm, as we’ve established, values honesty over niceness. He doesn’t have time for niceness anymore in his life, and when he sees someone on the island being honest, even if it’s someone he doesn’t want to talk to anymore, he appreciates that.
It’s the same reason he says he likes Pádraic again right after he scolds him in the bar. Pádraic, with the assistance of alcohol, is being his complete honest self. Dominic says earlier in the movie that Pádraic isn’t nice when he’s drunk, signaling that it’s not in Pádraic’s nature to be that nice to other people.
This is echoed right after Pádraic confesses to Dominic that he lied to one of the musicians visiting the island about his Father dying. Dominic says “I thought you were the nicest of them, but it turns out you’re just like the same as them.”
One of the film’s thesis statements, for me, comes when Pádraic’s giving Colm a lashing in the bar. He says “Maybe you were never nice.”
Which means maybe it was all a facade all along, and if I could wager a guess, everyone on that island fakes niceness not just because it’s what God would want, but so they don’t have to face the terror of loneliness.
Loneliness
If we’re nice, people will like us, and we’ll never be lonely again.
In the beginning of the movie, Siobhán asks Pádraic if he ever gets lonely. He shrugs off the question and asks what’s the matter with everybody. He’s too afraid or maybe even ignorant to face the truth that he’s terrified of it.
That’s why he’s so empathetic with his donkey Jenny. He says she just wants some company whenever she peeks her head into the house.
Later, when she dies after choking on one of Colm’s fingers, he goes completely off the rails and burns Colm’s house down while he’s still inside of it.
Weirdly enough, he spares Colm’s dog and even takes care of it.
Animals As A Reflection Of Our Mundane Lives And Need For Community
Animals are a huge part of this movie. Their day-to-day lives are filled with eating, staring at stuff, and more eating. They’re like a mirror for the dull humans of the movie who fill up their days with empty conversations, gossip, and meaninglessness. In Colm’s words, “I do worry I’m just entertaining myself while I stave off the inevitable.”
And they also show, many times in the movie, animals trying to get close to other animals or humans to feel less lonely.
The most interesting quote of the film comes from Colm in confession.
Priest: Do you think God gives a damn about miniature donkeys?
Colm: I fear he doesn’t, and I fear that’s where it’s all gone wrong.
That’s why, at the end of the movie, Colm is appreciative towards Pádraic for looking after his dog and not letting him die in the fire.
He knows that despite Pádraic’s actions, he’s always had a heart to care for animals, and maybe that shows that he has a nice heart after all.
The Ending Explained (As I Interpreted It)
At the end they discuss the civil war happening on the mainland. Colm thinks they’re going to call it quits soon. Pádraic shoots back that they’ll be fighting about something else soon enough before saying “Some things shouldn’t be moved on from.”
Wow. For a movie dedicated to the pointlessness of our differences “You’re all fecking boring!” and the pointlessness of our lives “I do worry I’m just entertaining myself while I stave off the inevitable,” for it to all of a sudden take this stance that some differences shouldn’t be forgotten is a U-turn I didn’t expect.
But maybe it’s not a U-turn. Maybe it was following this path all along. The path that says being nice causes a lot of problems in this world. The path that says the church and people in general do a lot of messed up stuff, and we just forget about it, be nice, and continue putting up with it.
No. How about we stand up against injustice? Like Pádraic did to the police chief. How about we get pissed off at priests abusing their power? How about we choose our own happiness instead of looking out for everybody else all the time?
How about we choose honesty over being nice?
In the final moment of the film, Pádraic leaves Colm on the beach. Colm thanks him for looking after his dog. To which Pádraic replies “Anytime!”
He’s being sincere, since it’s a dog we’re talking about here, despite the fact that him and Colm are forever at odds now. And you can tell it pains him to say it, but he means it.
It completes Pádraic’s arc. He’s finally his own man. He is himself. This whole experience showed him who he really is, and he’s going to choose his authenticity over niceness.
It just so happens, when it comes to Colm’s dog, that it’s authentic for him to be nice to an animal.
What did you think?
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