Director : Peter Sheridan
Producer : Pat Moylan, Arthur Lappin, Nye Heron
Screenwriter : Nye Heron, Peter Sheridan
Starring : Shawn Hatosy, Danny Dyer, Michael York, Eva Birthistle, Robin Laing
Irish filmmaking has always resonated with an urgent sense of political
forethought. Filmmaker Jim Sheridan diligently championed the determined
spirit of tortured protagonists in gutsy pictures such as My Left Foot, The
Boxer, and In the Name of the Father. In the uplifting Emerald Isle melodrama
Borstal Boy, Jim’s brother Peter Sheridan effectively explores the trials and
tribulations of a 16-year old boy’s exploits behind the unbearable confines of
a British World War II borstal, a reformatory center for boys, based on
charismatic Irish writer Brendan Behan’s memoir. Provocative and resoundingly
crafty, Borstal Boy is a solid and refined piece of moviemaking imbued with
passion and attitude.
Thanks to his heavy involvement in IRA-related activities, the film opens with
Brendan (Shawn Hatosy, Anywhere But Here, John Q) in jail in East Anglia,
England. Among the prison-camp personalities that the overwhelmed Brendan
encounters are a thieving gay sailor named Millwall (Danny Dyer), whom he
eventually. He also finds a love interest in the lovely and supportive Liz
(Eva Birthistle), who happens to be the daughter of the facility’s presiding
Governor (Michael York). Consequently, Brendan begins to shape his outlook on
life, challenging what was once a rigid belief system entrenched in his
conservative shell.
Borstal Boy, gallantly written by Nye Heron and director Sheridan, is
masterfully shot courtesy of Ciaran Tanham’s active camera, capturing the taut
and stylish feel of the film. Hatosy adds a touch of mischievousness and
scruffy bewilderment as the soul-searching, stuttering rogue. And especially
memorable is Dyer’s gay sailor with whom Brendan finds an attraction: gently
funny, complex, and ambiguously disturbing.
The recurring theme, appropriately so, suggests that Brendan Behan may be the
contemporary of another tortured creative homosexual Irish icon—the legendary
Oscar Wilde. Refreshingly stark in its cavorting homoeroticism, Borstal Boy is
a stimulating tale that recalls the adventurous antics of an Irish literary
figurehead who engaged in a colorful and carousing existence during tremendous,
trying times.
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" Excellent "
Rating: NR, 2000
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