Borstal Boy Movie Review Message Board and Comments

Borstal Boy is a great movie. I've watched it 5 times now, and could watch it again today. Shawn Hatosy does a good job as Brendan Behan, and Danny Dyer was magnificent. Eva Birthistle is remarkable as Liz Joyce. Brendan Behan was only 16 when he was put into that boy's prison (called Borstals), and Charlie Millwall was 17. We often forget that Romeo and Juliet were 17 and 14 respectively. Great loves often happen at that age, and I believe Brendan and Charlie's did. I'd be willing to bet that Brendan Behan loved Charlie as long as he lived, even though he lost him to the war so early in his life. He went on to marry and had children, but a man's first love is with him to the end. There were some coincidences in the movie that tended to kick you in the teeth, but all in all, it was a great movie. It always amuses me when screenwriters stick a female love interest into a movie when nothing like that existed in the book. Still and all, I have no doubt that Brendan Behan was bisexual, and Eva Birthistle plays Liz Joyce so well that I didn't mind the change there. In any case, this is a great movie and I'd recommend it to anyone. It has a poignancy and validity that you seldom see in movies about young people, even ones who have lived such a nitty gritty existence, and especially in that time of war when England was standing, back to the wall, fighting desperately to stave off the Nazi menace. Charlie's ship was actually sunk in the staits of Gibralter, and I wondered why the change, but that's a minor thing. In some ways this movie reminded me of "A Home At The End Of The World", although it was even more poignant. See this movie. You won't be sorry.