Song of Granite (2017), directed by Pat Collins
Review of Song of Granite (2017), directed by Pat Collins
I finally told myself that I was going to get through the entirety of my Kanopy watchlist by the time of die. Which’ll be tough, because I have over four hundred movies on there and only fifteen movie credits a month. And so I opened up my Kanopy and pressed play on the movie that was at the very top of list. Which was, indeed, Song of Granite.
I’ve never actually heard Irish language (aka Gaelic) being spoken before. I’ve never been around an Irish community in my life until stepping in New York City and suddenly there were a ton of Irish-ancestry people all around me. Which was a time, but still never heard any Irish spoken. The country of Ireland fascinates me though with its history, and this movie seemed right up my alley in the beginning, especially since it’s a biopic. The subject is the Irish singer Joe Heaney, who was very popular outside of his native country. The man was artist-in-residence at an American college (University of Washington), which shows how renowned his work was.
Anyways, since I’ve given enough context, let’s get into this review.
Content
This movie is absolutely STUNNING to watch on an HD television. I usually get distracted during movies because I’m picky about my visuals, but this movie was so, so beautiful. There’s very little actual dialogue; a good chunk of the movie is just singing. We hear Joe singing, people in pubs singing about Galway and broken hearts, and a lot of traditional Irish folk songs.
At one point we even see a young child doing traditional Irish dance outside of his home with music overlaid to it, which absolutely knocked my socks off. I personally found the best performance to be of the woman just sitting at a bar singing about how a guy’s heart was stolen after being wooed by a charming woman. It was all done completely live at some points (or that’s what I assume, this seemed very legit), which makes it absolutely a pleasure to watch and listen to.
Shots-wise, we also get a lot of foggy night shots with lamps and the sky. The movie is set in black and white, so we get the cinematographer playing with shadows and angles quite a bit. Some movies seem like they choose to be in black and white for no reason and it doesn’t fit, but in this movie it does it so well. It added to this feeling of nostalgia and melancholia that permeated throughout the story and narrative as we go through Joe’s life.
It’s a very unconventional film, which means it’s right up my alley. It’s extremely poetic, although told in a linear manner. I could imagine how someone not invested in this form of storytelling can get lost in the abyss though, because it lacks a structure in a way that a traditional film would. In a traditional film we’d get dialogue or voiceovers explaining to us about what’s going on, or can get some context clues, but here we largely getting singing. For me the little about of dialogue and voice-over work transitioning from scene to scene works, but if you’re just not used to it you’re not used to it. Some might also be thrown off by the traditional aspects of Irish culture depicted here because they’re also not used to that either.
Which leads me to my next point about this film: it represents a dying culture. The folk traditions of Ireland, like many cultures in the world, face the risk of disappearing forever. The younger generation is used to growing up with English, while many are unenthused about the culture they were born into. But this biopic shows one man’s devotion to it, even as he traveled to New York City and the United States, and how he showed the world a taste of his culture. It’s truly inspiring, even if it is set in the early to late 1900s. Hell, I’m not even Irish and I felt this nostalgia and intense love for a time that’s passed by, of a culture that’s not even mine.
Overall Thoughts
This movie definitely isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. If you’re not used to artsy, more experimental film, then you have been warned. If you want to try these kinds of films, though, I think this film honestly is a really good primer for that. It’s not too hard to digest and it leaves you with the biopic aspect, which allows some form of structure to guide it throughout. I absolutely loved this movie because it’s like a lyrical poem literally being sung throughout the narration. That’s my cup of tea y’all. It’s free to watch on Kanopy if you have a US library card with a participating library.
