The Butcher Boy Rated: R (for brutal violent themes) Review by Fox Davidson
Neil Jordan's The Butcher Boy is set in the early 1960s, Ireland. It tells the sad tale of a repressed young lad whose childhood was anything but sane. The lad is Francie Brady (played excellently by Eamonn Owens), and part of his sanity that goes down with him throughout the film must be given in large thanks to his alcoholic father, Da (the always electric, and Jordan regular, Stephen Rea).
The movie starts out with Francie narrating the movie. In the a small town in western Ireland, all of the world is feeling the affects of nuclear war, the Cuban missle crisis, and the scary thought that soon all of live will parish. But, these things don't stop Francie from becoming what he becomes.
His father bashes the television set with his prised trumphet, his mother is on the verge of suicide, and, eventually ends up in a mental hospital when she has a "breakdown." All this is soaked into Francie and he plays them out double. No wonder Mrs. Nugent (Fiona Shaw), his archenemy and mother of a young boy he detests, dislikes the lad so much. When her two brothers scare Francie to leave their nephew alone, Francie doesn't take to kind of it and breaks into the Nugent home and completely fouls it.
Eventually, Francie is sent to a bording school for boys, where he is befriended by the Virgin Mary (Sinaed O'Conner). Is he one of the three children picked by God as told to him by one of the priests (Milo O'Shea) who work at the school? The same priest who enjoys dressing Francie in girl's clothes and masturbating during his private sessions with the lad.
Francie is sent home after some time at the school, and gets a job at a butcher shop, where they slaughter pigs. Soon, at the climax, when all these events cluster inside Francie, a hidious murder is commiteed.
Butcher Boy is a masterpiece of filmmaking, and Neil Jordan's finest moment. I can't think of another movie that was so dark, depressing, sad, yet funny all at the same time. Yes, this black comedy is sometimes hilarious. 13-year-old Owens gives a wonderful performance as Francie, which got him a mention at the Berlin Film Festival, and, won Jordan a best director Silver Bear award.
I cared for a lot of the characters in Butcher Boy, even the mean Francie. I liked the way Mrs. Nugent refered to him as a pig, and, when Francie comes to do the evil deed at the end, uses tools involved with pig slaughtering. And I liked the dream Francie had about a nuclear bomb destroying his town, with only him and his best friend, Joe (Alan Boyle ) alive to see the aftermath.
Butcher Boy has been refered to Stanley Kubrick's nasty A Clockwork Orange, a film I could never get. Jordon's film is notheing of the type. Aside from its grisliness, it has meaning and depth, and one hell of a cast.
Film: ***** Disc: ***
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