Borstal Boy (2001)

it took me so long to watch this movie. It is one of the many that stayed on the shelf for months, that I started watching but "didn't feel"...Today was the day I did.Someone wrote "schockingly beautiful", and I can only agree.There was some real chemistry between the main actors (and 1 actress!), and I got sympathy for almost all of them (although the villain played his role very well, too). Not being a native English speaker, I had some problems withe the accents, at times, but sometimes words are not that important, it's the eyes, it's the acts, it's... a lot more than words.Is this a "gay themed movie"? I really don't know. Assuming Brendan Behan was bisexual, you could call it a "coming of age" movie, as USA-ers like to do. I don't know, this was just a very beautiful movie.I didn't know Brendan Behan before, but I shall do some research and try to read him (if I can find his works here in Brussels...).Based on the emotions I felt, this is a magnificent 10/10!

I admit to not having yet read the book on which this film is based and I'm willing to concede that the book may well be far better than the film; as alluded to in other reviews. That being said, I found this film touching, funny, controversial, unique, all those adjectives and more.The casting of Danny Dyer as a homosexual sailor in the 1940s really shows his versatility as an actor and I believe this must have been a challenging and rewarding part. The film deals with issues that are taboo even by today's standards and although the narrative can be at times overly sentimental, these scenes are strangely refreshing and poignant.Danny Dyer has some great lines and one hilarious scene involving a football. "Borstal Boy" is unprecedented in its approach to controversial issues and makes for a film well worth watching.

Brendan Behan is a young Irish that understands the consequences of his actions when it's too late. Carrying explosives for the IRA, Brendan is apprehended during the first sequences of Peter Sheridan's film.Here there is clearly a disruption between the boy's wishes and his actions. For undisclosed reasons he has perpetrated a most dire action against the integrity of the United Kingdom. Or he has had such a purpose, anyway. How far can one go when insurgence seems to be the only way out? In a troubled time, in a troubled Ireland, Brendan Behan risks everything and he fails.He is arrested and sent to Borstal, to become yet another Borstal boy in a most peculiar penitentiary facility. Deprived of his liberty, he treats Charlie Milwall with hostility, although later he will develop an intense friendship with this young inmate.Behan is blinded by ideology. After all ideology is nothing more than a social construction which pertains many ambits of society. One could talk about the heterosexual normative as an ideology so strongly rooted that seems impossible to vanquish. In this case, the most obvious ideological weight comes from the ties Brendan has with the Irish Republic Army.Authors as diverse as Daniel Bell and Albert Camus have written about the end of ideologies. Ideology can blind people and will always be influential in the way they see the world, regardless of the positive or negative outcome of this process, ideology is a perception of the world that leaves as strong a mark as one's own body or personal history. It's then logical that Brendan struggles to be faithful to the IRA's ideology failing over and over again.Ideology also blinds Brendan when it comes to his true feelings. He tries to convince himself that he loves the warden's daughter. That is why at first he angrily repels Charlie's harmless advances. But then, very slowly, he starts to give in. They share one precious intimate moment before some prisoners attempt to abuse the warden's daughter. As a result Brendan has mere seconds to decide who he should protect. Must he embrace the norm, id est, heterosexuality or could he accept the forbidden, id est, homosexuality? Once again he denies his true self, and in doing so, he forever condemns Charlie to oblivion. Just as in the beginning of the film, Brendan will fully understand the consequence of his decision only when it's too late to change it. When he realizes there is nothing left to do, he truly opens his eyes. Ideology has fallen apart: his allegiance to the IRA is over, as well as his relationship with the warden's daughter. Brendan is at last, literally and metaphorically, free.

I got worried when the film opened with "inspired by" Borstal Boy rather than based on. This is the sort of movie that makes me wish I had a bunch of money so I could run out and start filming "Borstal Boy 2004" and actually film the story and characters that were in the book. The characters were awful and betrayed the rich characterization of the book.Part of the problem was that the filmmaker looked back to 1942 with a 21st century perspective. For example he wanted to make Brendan sympathetic so Brendan befriended an out homosexual (in 1942) and a jew. Dale, the evil character hated both and was a self-proclaimed rapist. Darth Vader had more dimensions than Dale. I don't know if an IRA soldier from 1942 would look at Hitler, the enemy of his enemy, as being a worthy reason to suspend his fight for independence. Worst of all, Brendan acts like a 14 year old from the American suburbs with his revulsion of homosexuality. The tired message in the movie is that if you are against homosexuality then you, yourself, must be gay. For example, initially revulsed, Brendan ends up falling in love with Charlie. Dale mocks Charlies and later tries to rape Charlie. In the original story, despite being published in the 1950s, Brendan had no such trouble with homosexuals. When he found out Oscar Wilde was gay, he responded non-chalantly that everyone has their own way of doing things. he came across Charlie having sex with another boy and it was no big deal. The play of the same name (1971) did manage to hold true to the original story. This movie should have done the same.