Set in the west of Ireland and starring Christopher Abbott, Barry Keoghan, and Colm Meaney, Bring Them Down is an unflinching examination of toxic masculinity and the scourge of violence it leaves in its wake.
If you’re looking for a peaceful, Friday night watch, this is not it. If you’re looking for something with incredible tension, that will make you squirm in your seat and possibly even plug your ears at points, then bingo, you’re in luck. Bring Them Down is not an easy watch by any means – I had to mute one scene and continue on with subtitles because I found the audio too distressing – but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t watch it. In fact, it’s probably exactly why you should.
Starring Oscar-nominee Barry Keoghan and Christopher Abbott, the story centres on two warring families in the rural west of Ireland. Life isn’t easy—for either family—and a grey-tinged colour palette portrays just how harsh conditions truly are. Characters are rough around the edges, each shaped by personal tragedies, heartbreak and worries. Abbott plays Michael, the last son of a farming family, who lives an isolated existence tending to their flock of sheep. He’s possibly the only American actor to convincly do an Irish accent, even more impressive that he also learned Irish for the role. Haunted by old wounds he’s never quite healed, it’s clear from the beginning that Michael is under his ailing father Ray’s thumb. Colm Meaney embodies the surly gruffness of the role perfectly and you can’t help but feel for Michael despite it all.
Up the road, lives Caroline (Nora-Jane Noone), her husband Gary (Paul Ready) and their unpredictable son Jack (Barry Keoghan). Though inextricably linked to Michael through their shared trauma (a car crash which killed his mother and permanently scarred then-girlfriend Caroline), Caroline has lost touch with Michael over the years and is surprised when he turns up at her door not once, but several times in the space of a few days. Haunted by a terrible accident in his past, Michael has isolated himself from the world. He leads a solitary existence with only his critical father, prized flock and loyal collie to keep him company. Michael and Ray converse mainly in Irish and Ray does little to hide his disgust at the fact that neither Gary nor Jack understand him. Gary is a blow-in; he’s had to work hard to eke out a living here and prove himself but he will always be an outsider. When the two families’ ongoing conflict stirs old tensions and grievances, it triggers a chain of events that take increasingly violent—at times outlandish—turns, leaving everyone permanently altered.
Told largely from the perspectives of Michael and Jack, the timelines flipflop to allow the audience to see things from each character’s perspective. After many stints in similar roles (Saltburn, The Killing of a Sacred Deer) , Keoghan is adept at embodying the psychological villain and brings a childlike naivety to the role that almost endears him to us. He’s both sensitive and ruthless, unable to kill one ram yet easily driven to depravity under his cousin’s tutelage. Abbott and Meaney are both exceptional too while Noone draws attention to the plight of women in such an environment.
Directed and co-written by first-time filmmaker Christopher Andrews, Bring Them Down was a longtime passion project of the Englishman, 10 years in the making. As is often the case for creatives, the story comes from quite a personal place. “Some of the context of the family feuds in the film reflects my own experience of growing up between Catholic and Protestant families, as well as the long shadow cast by family patriarchs,” he explains. “But despite it being an area of conflict, the church was also the space in which I felt most secure – there was a comfort there. One of the stories I learned in church led to a central question of this film: ‘What If the good shepherd, after leaving the ninety-nine saved souls to rescue the lost sheep, returned to find that someone rustled or murdered his flock?’” We see that very dilemma play out here and be warned, it’s not pretty.
Beneath the subtle religious undertones, Andrews explores a range of different themes, from patriarchy to anger, toxic masculinity and how miscommunication often breeds contempt. As producer Ivana MacKinnon points out, “Wars start easily but are very difficult to end.” Set in a very male-dominated world – one where talking about your feelings is not the norm – the characters show what it means to be pushed beyond your limits, both physically and mentally. “You have a job to do. You can’t speak to anyone about your feelings. That is dangerous. That is what leads to dangerous things,” Andrews notes, highlighting how both Michael and Jack have been moulded into the men they are by the men who went before them. “Michael’s father, Ray, is a belligerent, uncompromising and generally unpleasant human being, and Gary, Jack’s father, is vain, bullying and aggressive,” he continues. Though undeniably heavy, there are moments of softness too; when Michael grieves his flock, when he cries for his injured dog, when Jack finds comfort in his mother’s hug. Andrews’ portrayal of farm life is far from the romanticised version we sometimes see on film – the reality is much more gruelling.
Arguably one of the most interesting aspects of all of this though is how readily we accept violence… that is, until it’s directed at animals. Guns are wielded with abandon and we witness more bloodshed than one might expect in a film about sheep farming—some of it so far-fetched it verges on ridiculous—but the most distressing moments for me were the ones where pain was inflicted upon the animals – defenceless creatures caught in the crossfire of a man-made vendetta. Ultimately Andrews wants us to question why that is. “People readily accepted the violence between human beings, but it was the violence against animals that made people really uneasy. People found it abhorrent, and it is, but why is it so different? We’re all animals sharing this planet together.” Perhaps, as the song goes, all God’s creatures have a place in the choir… some just suffer more than others.
3 ½ stars.
Bring Them Down opens in Irish cinemas on February 7. Watch the trailer below.
Imagery courtesy of Mubi UK.
