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When it comes to films set in Ireland, even all these decades later, The Quiet Man<\/em> is still the most notable of the bunch. Also, arguably, the most successful. Director John Ford won Best Director for the 1952 film. It was his fourth win, which is the record (and nobody alive has more than two). The Quiet Man<\/em> was nominated for Best Picture as well, but did not win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n John Wayne plays Sean Thornton, a retired boxer who returned from America to Ireland, where he was born. His time in the United States helps the plausibility in terms of why John Wayne sounds like, you know, John Wayne. Sean falls for a redheaded lass named Mary Kate Danaher (Maureen O’Hara). However, it\u2019s Victor McLaglen, who plays Mary Kate\u2019s overbearing brother, who got an Oscar nomination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The village of Cong, one of the locations, still has a statue of John Wayne in character.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Set among working-class folks in Dublin, the movie is about a young music lover who gets some locals together to form a soul group, the titular Commitments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There\u2019s a feel-good, underdog story here, but The Commitments<\/em>‘ biggest impact in the United States was when it came to the music. The film\u2019s soundtrack hit number eight on the Billboard<\/em> charts and went triple platinum. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The film features Irish people singing the songs of Black artists, which may feel to some like cultural appropriation. But the film makes a case for music being a unifying force for all underdogs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Even animated films can be set in Ireland! The fantasy film is about the real Book of Kells, though the story itself is fictional. Fantasy movies rarely are factually accurate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Secret of Kells<\/em> is a period piece as well. It\u2019s set in ninth-century Ireland and features a lot of Viking elements as well. The animation is lush and distinct, vital for crafted a well-received animated fantasy film.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Indeed, The Secret of Kells<\/em> was nominated for Best Animated Feature at the Oscars, but lost to Up<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You might think Hunger<\/em> \u2013 the debut feature film of British director Steve McQueen, set in Northern Ireland \u2014 maybe shouldn’t count as one of the best films set in Ireland, since Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Well: Hunger<\/em>‘s heart is very much with Ireland. It’s the true story of Irish Republican Army member Bobby Sands (Irish-German actor Michael Fassbender) who led a hunger strike to protest the British government\u2019s refusal to recognize he fellow IRA inmates as political prisoners. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Criterion Collection notes that the film is at times “purely experiential, even abstract, a succession of images full of both beauty and horror.” It is ultimately about not just Ireland, but people held captive everywhere, and the ways they assert their humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n McQueen went on to win the Best Picture Oscar for Twelve Years a Slave<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When a director is iconic, in time basically all the \u201cother\u201d films in their filmography start to become considered \u201cunderappreciated\u201d and secret classics. Stanley Kubrick is no different. After film fans have said all there is to say about The Shining<\/em> or Full Metal Jacket<\/em>, what do you do? You start to turn to the other movies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nowadays, both Eyes Wide Shut<\/em> and Barry Lyndon <\/em>are lauded to no end by movie buffs. The former was the last of his career, but Barry Lyndon<\/em> arrived when his potential seemed limitless. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Ryan O\u2019Neal plays the titular Irish ne\u2019er-do-well, and even back in the day, Barry Lyndon<\/em> was considered magnificently well-crafted. It won Oscars for score, art direction, costume design, and cinematography. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The film is not fast-paced, but sneaks up on you, with a darkly sardonic message about class. Its dry wit and melancholy are typical of the best Irish storytelling tradition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The now-retired Daniel Day-Lewis was nominated for Best Actor at the Academy Awards six times, and won three times. His first win came for My Left Foot<\/em>, a biopic focused on Christy Brown, a real Irish artist with cerebral palsy who created art with his foot, which he had the motor skills to control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Obviously, there is an intense \u201cbusiness\u201d to the performance, but Day-Lewis excels. Knowing what we know about his dedication to his craft, one can only imagine how he was on set. Also, let\u2019s not overlook the rest of the cast. Brenda Fricker also won Best Supporting Actress for My Left Foot<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jim Sheridan, the film’s Irish director, also made many other excellent films, including In the Name of the Father<\/em> and In America<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Glen Hansard was part of the ensemble of The Commitments<\/em>. The musician by trade \u2014 he leads the band The Frames \u2014 he was a natural choice to star in Once<\/em> \u2014 especially given that former Frames bassist John Carney wrote and directed the film.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Once is about an Irish busker (Hansard) and g Czech flower seller (Mark\u00e9ta Irglov\u00e1) who meet and fall in love over music. It is best known for \u201cFalling Slowly,\u201d the lilting, then driving power ballad that went on to win Best Original Song at the Oscars. <\/p>\n\n\n\n If you like a small-scale, personal story, and like watching charming musicians being charming, Once<\/em> is the movie for you. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Few made old-school epics as successfully as David Lean. He directed two Best Picture winners, Bridge on the River Kwai<\/em> and Lawrence of Arabia<\/em>, as well as Doctor Zhivago<\/em> and A Passage to India<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n With Ryan\u2019s Daughter<\/em>, he took his mastery to the Emerald Isle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Set during World War I, the film stars Sarah Miles as a married Irish woman who has an affair with a British soldier. This is a problem, not just because she\u2019s married, but because her village is mostly populated by Irish nationalists. While Robert Mitchum\u2019s casting as an Irishman was perhaps not ideal, Miles was nominated for Best Actress, and John Mills won Best Supporting Actor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sure, the film is called Brooklyn<\/em>, so you may be skeptical about it being an \u201cIrish\u201d movie. However, the action begins in Enniscorthy, Ireland. Saoirse Ronan \u2013 who screams \u201cIreland\u201d \u2013 plays a young woman who decides to emigrate from her small Irish town to the titular New York borough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Her experience as an Irish immigrant in America is key to the film, but the crux of Ronan\u2019s character\u2019s conflict is whether or not to stay in Brooklyn or return to her Irish hometown. Indeed, Ireland looms over all of the film. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Also, Ronan is a great actress. She earned her second of four Oscar nominations for Brooklyn<\/em>. She\u2019s just entering her thirties. What a star.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Overseas, it was released as Waking Ned<\/em>, but in North America, the title was Waking Ned Devine<\/em>. You may remember seeing ads for it, or hearing buzz about the quirky, low-budget Irish comedy film. Indeed, it became an unexpected hit in the United States, owing to its breezy charm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s high concept, to be sure, the kind of movie that probably would be treated with skepticism now. Somebody in a tiny Irish village has won the National Lottery. It turns out to be local recluse Ned Devine, who also died upon finding out he won. Thus begins a ploy by a few of the townsfolk to try and claim Ned\u2019s prize for themselves. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But, you know, in a charming way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For even more charm, we recommend the thrilling Sing Street<\/em>, a story of an Irish schoolboy Conor (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo) who dreams of starting a rock band an impressing the glamorous Raphina (Lucy Boynton). Luckily for us, it’s set in the 1980s, so all of the songs are inspired by the likes of Duran Duran and Hall & Oates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The songs get better and better as Conor and his bandmates figure out their sound, culminating in the pop perfection of “Drive It Like You Stole It,” one of the bounciest, catchiest songs in any movie ever. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This is the second film on our list by the great John Carney, and we could have added more \u2014 including the recent Flora and Son<\/em>, starring Eve Hewson as a single mom who bonds with her teenager through music. (Here’s our interview<\/a> with Carney and his songwriting partner Gary Clark.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBreezy\u201d is a word you would never use to describe The Banshees of Inisherin<\/em>, or any of Martin McDonagh\u2019s work. The playwright turned writer-director of film is about as misanthropic and cynical as they come. And yet, people love his work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Banshees of Inisherin<\/em> is a movie that involves self-mutilation that still managed to make more than double its budget at the box office and earned eight Oscar nominations, including for Best Picture. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It won zero of them, but maybe it was too dark for the 2022 Oscars, when people coming out of a pandemic were just looking for things to celebrate? McDonagh\u2019s bitter story of a friendship falling part is excellent, but in no way nice or fun.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe Commitments (1991)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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The Secret of Kells (2009)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Hunger (2008)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Barry Lyndon (1975)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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My Left Foot (1989)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Once (2007)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Ryan\u2019s Daughter (1970)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Brooklyn (2015)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Waking Ned Devine (1998)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Sing Street (2016)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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The Banshees of Inisherin (2022)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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