Carter Burwell On Capturing the Magic of the Island for ‘The Banshees of Inisherin’

One of my personal favorite elements of Martin McDonagh’s The Banshees of Inisherin is Carter Burwell’s sensitive, lived-in score. The Oscar nominee has created music so essential to the inner turmoil of the men at the center of this film by tapping into the loneliness of the island itself.

Burwell didn’t want to write a frenetic score centered on the feud as much as the innocence of Colin Farrell’s character. He hits at the real hurt and pain of the fallout of this strange break up rather than scoring violence.  McDonagh never gives us an explanation behind Brendan Gleeson’s choices, but Burwell taps into something honest with his music.

“The music was never intended to focus on the feud, per se, and it was meant to take you on a journey to see the story more as an allegory rather than an actual, real-life situation,” he said. “It lets it all play it more like a fable. The music mostly plays the story from the point of view from Colin Farrell’s character, and he is the first one in the movie. He is innocent, and I wanted to play on that even though he is a totally different person by the end of the story. You are in his day-to-day routine. Life has been good to him and predictable right until the moment the movie begins. Ideally, there is an element of mystery, and I identified that the island has mystery to it. With all the shots of nature and animals, you get a sense that the island and its role in nature is mysterious. There is a darkness to it, and that was something that I wanted the music to bring out.”

When we do get to see Colm on his own and making dark decisions, Burwell uses the striking of heavy chimes and strings to unsettle us. In ‘Colm Takes the Reins,’ he uses spare instruments to to intensify the growing separation between Padraic and Colm, and he wants us to feel that distance. There is sadness tinged throughout that cue. For ‘Colm Throws the Balance,” the bells have a delicacy, but their repeated notes knocks us off kilter.

“‘Colm Takes the Reins’ is the scene where Colin’s character has been beaten by the policeman, and Brendan Gleeson’s character drives him home in his carriage,” he said. “At this point, they aren’t allowed to talk to each other. It’s so painful, because Padraic is in physical pain but also emotional pain. They are sitting right next to each other, and they can’t speak. I originally wrote that for harp and cellist, and those two are playing a repeating pattern–it’s fairly naked. My first go at it grew over the course of the scene since it is so emotional. Martin McDonagh thought that we could see it on Colin’s face, so when I took out the strings, the restraint in the music makes it so painful. The simpler and quieter it got.”

“For ‘Colm Throws the Balance,’ that’s when he’s cut off the rest of his fingers, and it’s a relatively long scene. You never see him cutting his fingers off, but you see him throwing them. You hear it. Things are already horrible for Padraic, because Siobhan told him that she’s leaving the island–something that is quite unheard of. He is dealing with that, and they pass Colm with his bloody hand. It’s a big cue with a lot of aerial shots as they negotiate where they are going. It’s the biggest musical moment in the film. It’s heated and emotional, but, even as I say that, those pieces of music don’t get that big. I wanted to capture the visuals, but I wanted to put us into Colm’s heart and mind. Siobhan is the worst thing that can happen to Padraic–or so he thinks. Even though what you are seeing is very physical, the writing and the acting is so good that it carries us through.”

An effective bond throughout McDonagh’s film comes between Padraic and his miniature donkey, Jenny. Burwell acknowledges the levity this relationship adds, but we briefly discuss how the love between a human and their pet is a sacred one.

“It is the first relationship you see in the movie,” Burwell said. “When I was reading the script, I thought that Padraic seemed like a Disney character with his miniature donkey. I almost expected birds to fly around his head as he was going to the pub. Remarkably, Colin can play that very believably. I tried to play it seriously. Jenny is there to take care of Padraic, and, of course, it can’t go well since nothing goes well for anyone in this story.”

When it comes down to it, Burwell wants to paint us a unique picture. He wants us to remember these characters or these beats through the music. You have never heard anything like Burwell’s aural creation of the island of Inisherin, and he wouldn’t have it any other way.

“I view any film as its own world,” he said. “No one ever comes or goes on this island, and you get the sense that everyone has known each other since they were in kindergarten. I want a film to be its own world, and I want to create a specific sound. It’s not about geography, but I want to create sounds that, if you heard them later, it would conjure of thoughts and feelings of that experience you had watching it. It’s visual and sonic. A big part of this movie is that it’s an island, and if your best friend breaks up with you…you don’t have that many people to connect with. The emotions are a pressure cooker, so my general approach was to find a specific sound for this island.”

The Banshees of Inisherin is in theaters now, and the film will debut on HBO Max on December 13.