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BORSTAL BOY Send This Review to a Friend
The relatively upbeat part of writer Brendan Behan's life is recalled in "Borstal Boy," based upon Behan's autobiographical account of his formative experience in a British prison-school. Peter Sheridan's film, graced with a sympathetic performance by Shawn Hatosy as the teen-aged Behan, is sensitive, intelligent and compelling. It begins with the author-to-be arriving in England as an IRA operative carrying dynamite on a mission that is interrupted when he is arrested. True to his principles, he will neither become an informer nor renounce his commitment to a free Ireland. His youth saves him from hanging and off he goes to the borstal.
Young Behan has the good fortune for the prison to be under the rule of a sympathetic governor named Joyce, played by Michael York, and the experience becomes a positive one in which he begins to show his talent for writing. The story is embellished with a fictional character, Eva Birthistle as Liz, Joyce's daughter, who takes a liking to Brendan and tries to help and encourage him.
But the far more interesting relationship is between Brendan and Danny Dyer as Charlie Millwall, a borstal buddy. The two become fast friends and share a sexual attraction as well, which gives the film a note of tenderness and sets the stage for the pain Brendan feels at Charlie's death in wartime.
The Behan we get to know here is a long way from his sad later days as an alcoholic after he had achieved fame as an author and playwright. (Behan died at the age of 41 in 1964.) The film has a built-in sadness, given the course of the future. In "Borstal Boy" we see him as a bright young lad with the world before him, and this gives the film a soft glow that invites us to treasure this portion of his life. From Strand Releasing.
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