Buy Borstal Boy on DVD

Borstal Boy (Shawn Hatosy)

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Synopsis

Bisexual Irish poet and writer Brendan Behan's autobiography is adapted into this marvelously evocative and at times sexy film about his intense teen relationship with another boy in reform school.

Review

Brendan Behan (Hatosy - who played the gay (?) teen in In & Out) was a teen firebrand active in the Irish Republican Army during WWII. When he was 17, he was sent on a bombing mission to Liverpool where he was apprehended by the police. The police beat him up pretty badly and threw him in a jail cell with a gay teen, Charlie Milwall (Dyer). Charlie goes to Brendan's bedside with a healing caress and kiss, which Brendan immediately rebuffs. Both boys were sent to a reform school in hostile England where they were befriended by a liberal warden played by a youthful looking Michael York. The school is packed with fresh faced Irish and English teenage boys and the expected sexual tension hovers over every scene. At first Brendan resists Charlie's charms insisting that he is "not quare" but gradually he warms to Charlie's charms and they tenderly kiss. Brendan is also being courted by the warden's daughter and he slowly comes to realize that it is OK for him to love both boys and girls. Brendan's realization that he is in love with a boy rocks his world and sets a course for his writing throughout his career.

This Irish/English film is splendid to look at, scored beautifully and packed with testosterone oozing teenage boys that should certainly get your juices going. The autobiographical film may even get you interested in reading Borstal Boy. A surprising treat of a film.

Scott Cranin

Product Format Information

DVD : $17.99

Availability: In stock and ready to ship
Region Code: 1
UPC: 712267211326

Studio : Strand Releasing

Aspect Ratio: 1.85
Features:
Original theatrical trailer, full motion menu

Keywords

Adolescence, Biographical/Autobiographical, Bisexual/Pansexual, Gay Male, Gay/Lesbian, Literary Adaptation, Prison/Jail, Schoolboy, Writer/Writing

Genres

Drama

Customer Reviews

tender and true

yawnmower (yawnmower1@juno.com) wrote on 02/24/2005:

This lovely little Irish film shines through the talent and beauty of its great ensemble of actors, bittersweet story, and intelligent script. Extraordinarily gifted Shawn Hatosy is perfect as youthful Irish author Brendan Behan (whose autobiographical book inspired this affecting movie). He was arrested for entering England as an IRA operative and sentenced to Borstal, a juvenile reformatory which is run by a most sympathetic Michael York. In fact, a hallmark of this film is its humanity (contrast this with the nastiness of ANY prison film made in the US).

Brendan meets Charlie, a young, openly gay sailor. The two take a shine to one another, but it is a while before Brendan can come to terms with loving another boy. When he finally does it is one of the tenderest moments on screen, and all too short-lived. He says later that he came to England because of hate, but he learned to love.

There are many wonderful moments with all the diverse boys (pink-cheeked Robin Laing is outstanding as a young Scot), and heartbreaking ones as well. The speech is sometimes problematic, as it is highly colloquial and heavily accented, but it is not really an obstacle. The film is logical and clear. I wanted to watch this beautiful story several times anyway, and was rewarded with a deeper understanding of much more than dialogue each time.

These boys rock

irish lover wrote on 11/09/2002:

I saw Borstal Boy at our gay film festival and it blew me away. The boys were beautiful in that special Irish way and the story made me cry...