I think it really showcased the stupidity of their own little “Irish civil war”….much like the stupidity that was the actual civil war which was raging on the Irish mainland

I've disagreed with others about this, but I've always felt as though Colm was somewhat relieved by the end. The pressure of greatness was gone now that he'd cut off all his fingers, and in his mind he could both blame it on Padraic and now count himself among the "ordinary" and try and mend fences with the man. The tragedy in my mind was that it was too late; Padraic would forever be his enemy for what he had done.

Have you heard of 'cutting off your nose to spite your own face'?

It's a story about stubbornness and how badly that affects people, at least to me. People do much worse in the real world. To me it was an understated example of the lengths people will go to when they feel "righteous" about anything.

Without the finger cutting there is no movie, so you're friends the dumb one, and you can pass that along to them.

But seriously, the fingers are not only the stakes and conflict of the film, but touch at the deeper question; is it worth it to strive for immortality or to enjoy the time you have? And as Gleeson's character grapples with this question we have to wonder if the threat isnt actually a means of self-sabatage. Because without his fingers he cannot play the fiddle, therefore giving him an excuse of 'why he never did write that epic folk song' to his future self. Its easier to blame podrick for his failure than himself and likely why he set up the trap in the first place.

Their relationship is a microcosm of the Irish Civil War.

There’s a metaphoric sense to the film but it also has a sense of humor within the concept. Rather than taking the viewer on a journey through the actual Irish Civil War, an event that will be remembered in history books, this story takes place mere miles away in a secluded, mundane, little village where the lives lived will never be remembered. Kind of a meta approach to storytelling.

I liked it. The fingers bit was drastic but gave a heaviness to the absurdity of the small island characters.

Here's a brief take on what I think the themes represent, please let me know if you agree

The cutting of the fingers I thought was the most obvious analogy once you're aware of the irish civil war theme.

During the Irish civil war, many people who had fought on the same side for years ended up fighting against each other. (If you want to watch a good movie on this theme alone, I recommend "the wind that shakes the barley", directed by Ken loach starring Cillian Murphy")

In banshees' ,Gleeson's character represents Ireland and it's traditional culture, not only does he play music, he creates original Irish scores and teaches the next generation of students.

Farrell's character represents those wanting to break away and stay within the British empire. Gleeson cuts his fingers off, a cryptic, horrific, but powerful message that he can't be friends with Farrell anymore, because it will result in him losing his cultural identity.

If there's any doubt that Farrell represents Britain, or at least the people who wanted to stay loyal to Britain, he confirms it towards the end of the movie by firstly invading, and later burning down Gleeson's home.

In the last few scenes Farrell and Gleeson stand side by side on the beach, separated by the Atlantic ocean, gleeson on the left and Farrell on the right, respresing Ireland and Englands positions as if looking on a map.

Other than the civil war theme I felt the movie had a lot of other underlying themes that stand out throughout the movie.

Mcdonangh had recently been through a bad breakup while writing the movie and this IS, essentially a break up, Farrell falling victim to gleesons sudden 'ick' but progressively turning from victim to villain as he refuses his ex partners wishes to be left alone.

Other themes that really stood out were parenthood and death. In what I thought was one of the most beautiful scenes, Gleeson picks Farrell up after being punched by the cop. He starts to bring him home on the cart and is sympathetic when Farrell starts to cry like a father to a son. He pats him on the hand but then hands him the reigns and departs, him ascending up the hill and leaving Farrell to go out opposite direction at the crossroads.

In another scene, Siobhan is beckoned by the banshee on the opposite side of a lake. She refuses to cross over but Barry keoghan enters the frame and we can see that maybe it wasn't her she was signalling.

Siobhan eventually leaves the island, the banshee watching down on her from a cliff as she sails away. She is standing to the right of Farrell, the two separated by the Atlantic ocean, her a symbol of death, death of Irish culture and Farrells character too blinded with sadness and rage to notice her.

The cutting of the fingers feels like the perfect twist to the dark fairy tale nature of the film.

Colm Doherty was clearly in a dark, dark place (end of life existential crisis + deep depression). The part that seemed off to me was that he was still as functional as he was, in terms of being able to interact with others at the pub (and even play music). In real life, he probably would have invented reasons NOT to go to the pub anymore and would have become even more isolated than he already was.

The part that I didn’t like about the movie was that Colm seemed to think that change would come for him if he could just slip loose from his friendship with “dull” Padraic. The reality is that he saw his whole life as dull and pointless, and thought that if he could maybe just change this one thing, other dominoes might fall in his favor as well, which is obviously not how life works. But if you think of it from the perspective of a “junkie” refusing to speak to his old drug dealer, with the drug being “dullness”, you can kind of see the method to his madness.

Personally, I think Colm wanted to kill himself long before the story began, but didn’t for religious reasons and/or wanted to remain alive to care for his dog. The fingers were that big “cry for help” prior to suicide.

In the end, it probably doesn’t matter, because I believe that the characters in the movie were all metaphors for the state of infighting in Ireland, so you could think of each character as representing a group of people within Ireland who couldn’t see eye-to-eye. Arguably, cutting off fingers and burning of houses might represent the loss of life and property in pursuit of (meaningless?) political and religious philosophies during a time of war in Ireland.

It’s about loneliness, and the drastic measures people can take when they are lonely.

To me the movie was about living in the moment versus creating something that lasts. Colm wants to play music that lasts after he dies. His time spent with Padric directly conflicts with that goal.

When Padric and Colm spend time together, he loses a finger. This makes playing music much more difficult. It’s a very dark ironic bit, when he goes back to spending time in the moment, it negatively effects his ability to creat lasting music. In this case, it a very physical manifestation of the theme of the film.

I thought the initial "I'll cut my finger off" scene was so absurd it was hilarious. Then I realised he was serious and it got very dark very quickly.

I thought it was great, nothing stupid about it.

Banshees of Inisherin plays with the beliefs that others have of the Irish--especially the small island people. Everyone know what others think or say; they anger more than they're happy--and will take wild action to prove a point.

I had a mean Irish grandmother and her clan to put up with and they were the worst. My Irish aunt told me about the Banshees and other myths when we were young and it scared me.

I loved the movie! They captured the older Irish in a funny way.

I saw someone describe this movie as a “parable”, and I think that summarizes the tone pretty well. It’s not really a movie that’s trying to feel completely realistic, so it has the characters go to exaggerated places while acting out grounded conflicts.

I saw it as Colm trying to express the pain Padraic was causing him, and Padraic not listening.

It speaks to the cruelty that can come from niceness, and self destructive nature of selflessness.

I can understand if it doesn't appeal, it's hard to believe anyone being willing to really do that especially these days when you can't properly operate a phone or a laptop with one hand - at least it's going to be much harder.

Metaphorically "cutting off your nose to spite your own face". The parallels to waging a civil war in a tiny impoverished country are self evident.

The fingers cutting thing is something that clearly drags the film into absurdist territory - I can see how people who wanted a more straightforward historical drama would find it jarring.

Rather than a allegory for a civil war, I interpreted it as a struggle of someone having an existential crisis about not wanting to just accept the familiar and mundane in life. But, rather than finding a new balance that allows you to explore new things, you fixate on burning the bridges to your old life. And ultimately all that does is harm yourself and the people around you. You see multiple examples of that theme in the film: With the sister taking the 'healthy' option of pursuing the new, rather than pushing away the old, whilst the 'idiot' kid loses all hope after his first half-hearted attempt at pursuing his 'dreams' fails. Farrell's character (can you tell that I don't remember any names) has no dreams at all, no capacity to deal with change - and unable to handle things when they inevitably do.

Its meant to be stupid, the movie is critical of the civil wars stupidity.

McDonagh's writing very much veers into the dark and absurd. It's a testament to how well written his characters are that they can be doing these insane things and still be relatable and understandable.

I think the movie is somewhat a Irish folk story/ fable. 2 examples of the top of my head is the old woman is literally a banshee and her presence means death and then the prominent roles of animals in the movie give it a real fairytale feeling. This makes the cutting off of the fingers much more "believable"

Felt like a study in mental illness. I didn’t like it bc that’s not my jam.