In the Land of Saints and Sinners

To be sure To be sure this is A -

In the Land of Saints and Sinners is set in Northern Ireland in 1974, at the peak of violence between Irish Catholic Nationalists and Protestant Unionists. However, the conflict in this film is not in the streets of Belfast or Londonderry, but in a small rural town in County Donegal. Liam Neeson stars as Finbar Murphy, a local man who is a professional hitman for hire under the guise of a book salesman. But when a small troupe of the IRA choose Finbar’s Glencolmcille to hide out in, Finbar must try to defend his village as well as his secret identity.

The main thing about In the Land of Saints and Sinners is that it is an Irish film and therefore composed of dark, and deep tones that rely on themes such as Irish mysticism, and folklore, friendship, and conflict. Many Irish films use the Troubles as the backdrop for their movies and In the Land of Saints and Sinners is no exception. The Troubles were a period when Irish people were torn apart along national, political, and religious lines. It easily serves as a metaphor for the characters we follow, just as the Irish Civil War was used in The Banshees of Inisherin. Irish films just hit differently (as the kids would say); they get under your skin and make you ponder so much of life: faith, honesty, morality and death. Set upon the backdrop of the dramatic yet beautiful Irish coast, it is hard not to fall under its mystical spell.

We are introduced to Finbar Murphy, a solitary widower who has decided to retire from his job as a professional hitman. His horrible actions finally dawn on him and he becomes weary from killing. In an early scene, we see Finbar choke up right before executing his last hit. This is a brilliant display of character development for the story. We know he is a killer, essentially a bad person but because he chokes up right before he shoots we see his inner conflict. While we may not share Finbar's exact struggles (at least I really hope not), we can all relate to some form of inner conflict and immediately attach ourselves to Finbar and what he is going through. Liam Neeson is perfect at this. Long known for his acme period of playing killers with a conscience, he is able to enact utterly cold killing scenes but also uses his facial expressions to show a man humbled, weakened and regretful. He can make almost anyone feel sorry for him. He has such a complex and wide range of emotions and expressions that it is so hard not to love him even when he is about to blow someone’s head off with a shotgun. Admittedly, I was apprehensive about watching Neeson playing the aged killer role, but In the Land of Saints and Sinners, he plays a much more nuanced character whose motivations are for the good of the community, not for vengeance. Neeson has aged, but in this film, he has aged like a fine wine.

Finbar’s retired life is seemingly simple, he courts his neighbour, goes to the pub and shoots cans with his best friend, the Garda chief Vincent O’Shea (Ciaran Hinds). But his simple life is threatened when a group of four IRA terrorists use Glencolmcille as a hiding place after they inadvertently killed several children via a timed bomb that went off just as the children were outside the planned target. The IRA troupe is led by Doireann McCann played by Kerry Condon, who is ruthless in her objective: unite Ireland at any cost and destroy anyone who stands in her way. Her conviction sees her talks awfully to her IRA goons and is excessively violent with everyone else. Condon plays this character beautifully. She is a fiery Irishwoman with so much passion it will burn everything she touches. She is scary to watch, the evil in her just oozes out so much that if I ever see Condon walking down the street, I’m leaving not the street, but the country. It is hard to feel much sympathy with the IRA, Condon makes it so much harder to do so. She understood that she was the villain and successfully completed her role.

As noted earlier, there are many many themes to In the Land of Saints and Sinners - so much so I can’t address them all, nor do I have the brain to do so. In the Land of Saints and Sinners feels like the ultimate Film Studies film. It is jam-packed with metaphors, clever script work and some bloody good acting. But the two that stood out were the role of plants throughout the film. Finbar deposits his victims in a remote area of Donegal County and after he has buried them, plants a sapling to represent the recently deceased person, marking his territory as a kind of grim trophy case of his career. His planting of saplings represents his dark nature along with an absurd notion that he is returning people back to the earth. However once he quits the killing business, he desires to create a beautiful flower garden around his home similar to his neighbour Rita. But when he starts on this goal, he has no idea what he is doing. He can’t tell a flower from a weed and buys an excessive amount of gardening equipment. This message highlights how unbeautiful Finbar is due to his extensive killing. He is desperate for peace but has no idea how to achieve it.  Another important theme is justice. Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment is referenced a few times in In the Land of Saints and Sinners and the idea of what is right and wrong is apparent throughout the film. Finbar kills people whom he reasons are bad people and deserve to die. He takes no pleasure in it but this line of thinking enables him to pull the trigger as the authorised executioner. His best friend is a Garda officer, representing the power and authority to enforce true justice. This theme also links in with the IRA group. Their murders and use of violence are, in their view, a twisted form of justice. They want to unite Ireland by any means and every attack or killing by their hand, brings them closer to their goal. 

Okay, one more theme…..There are three killers in this film all of whom represent a different type of murderer. Finbar, a seasoned hitman with a huge kill count surprisingly has a strong sense of justice. He notices a young girl who is being beaten by one of the IRA members and feels compelled to act. He despises killing and takes no joy in it. For him, killing is a serious business, one that he regrets. Doireann McCann represents a killer fueled by ideology. She is blinded by her belief in the ends justifying the means which includes destroying the town with everyone in it to find her missing brother. This is a killer that can’t be reasoned with, one that would kill anyone without a second thought or any reflection of it either. The final killer is Kevin Lynch, played by Jack Gleeson. Kevin is a young upstart hitman from Dublin. He appears to take pleasure in the killing process. He is jovial with Finbar about it, so much so that Finbar punches him in frustration. Kevin’s arc in this is minor but just as interesting. He initially appears to contain sadistic tendencies but there is much more to it as the film progresses.

What is so great about In the Land of Saints and Sinners is that it’s essentially a Western. From the plot, the tone, and the music it plays out exactly like a movie set in Texas in the 1800s. You have an antihero who has to front up against a group of outlaws who put a remote town’s safety at risk. Right down to the climactic scenes at the end, it heralds itself as a gunslinger film but cladded in an Irish setting, and because of that, it is a really really good film.

Rating: A -